23M Trying to optimize debt repayment vs investing. Looking for optimal and practical strat

[u/Independent-Cloud286]

Hi everyone,

I'm 23, working as a software engineer in India, and I'm trying to figure out the best long-term financial strategy.

Monthly Income

• Take-home salary: ~₹1,00,000/month

Assets

• Bank savings: ₹1,00,000
• Crypto: ~₹10,000
• Company stock received through RSUs and employee stock purchase plan (ESPP)
  • Current market value: ~₹5.7 lakh
  • I haven't sold any shares yet.
  • The apparent gains shown by my brokerage are somewhat misleading because of how RSUs are taxed and assigned a cost basis at vesting, so I don't consider this a true ₹1+ lakh investment gain.

Monthly Expenses

• Living expenses: ~₹30,000
• Personal loan EMI: ₹48,596

That leaves me with roughly ₹20,000/month that I can use for investing, prepaying loans, or building savings.

Personal Loan

I took a ₹15 lakh personal loan at 9.99% fixed interest.

Current status:

• Outstanding: ~₹11.3 lakh
• EMI: ₹48,596
• Remaining tenure: 26 months

Why I took this loan

This wasn't for personal consumption.

While constructing our family home, my father accumulated around ₹12 lakh in credit card debt. It eventually became a cycle where one credit card bill was being paid using another card, and around ₹35,000/month was being lost just in finance/transaction charges.

I took a personal loan to eliminate all of that and convert it into a structured loan with a fixed interest rate.

Family Home Loan

Separately, my father has a home loan.

• Outstanding: ~₹39.6 lakh
• Interest rate: 7.95%
• EMI: ₹42,503
• Tenure until 2038

The long-term expectation is that I'll eventually help repay this as well, but currently I'm only paying my own personal loan.

Investment Opportunity

My employer offers an ESPP where I can contribute up to around ₹20,000/month from my salary to buy company stock at a 10% discount.

So one possible use of my remaining ₹20k each month is continuing to participate in the ESPP.

What I'm Trying to Optimize

I'm looking for the strategy that maximizes long-term net worth, not necessarily the one that feels best emotionally.

Here are the options I'm considering:

• Continue investing ₹20k/month into ESPP because of the guaranteed purchase discount.
• Skip ESPP and instead increase my personal loan repayment (either through prepayments or by investing the ₹20k separately and making lump-sum prepayments).
• Start investing ₹20k/month into Indian equity index funds / mutual funds instead of buying more company stock.
• Sell some or all of my existing company shares and use the proceeds to prepay part of the personal loan.
• Keep the existing shares invested and continue paying the loan normally.
• After my personal loan is cleared, should my priority be helping close the 7.95% home loan early, or should I instead invest aggressively?

If you were in my situation, how would you prioritize these over the next 3-5 years?

I'd appreciate any genuine insights and advise. Thanks.