New Delhi, Sept. 11 -- Got a pay raise? Have extra Rs.20,000 every month? But how to decide what to do with the money: repay your personal loan faster or start investing it through a mutual fund SIP?

Let's crunch some numbers first to check which saves you more money

Let's assume you have a Rs.5 lakh personal loan at 14% interest for three years. The monthly EMI works out to roughly Rs.17,100. If you continue paying only the EMI, you would pay about Rs.1.15 lakh in interest over the full tenure.

Now, after you get a raise, you suddenly have an additional Rs.20,000 every month, and with that you can:

That way, instead of paying Rs.17,100, you pay around Rs.37,100 a month towards the loan. That way, the Rs.5 lakh loan could be cleared i...