What if every hike raised SIP 10% the same week?
Appraisals in Nagercoil come with a PDF and a dinner. The dinner always wins unless SIP has a standing order at 10%.
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A hike is two envelopes. SIP must get one
The letter said +₹6,400. By Deepavali the SIP was still ₹7,000 and Zomato had a new badge. Nagercoil does not need that sequel.
Two levers: auto 10% SIP step each year, and/or half the increment. ₹7,000 + 10% = ₹7,700. Half of ₹6,400 = ₹3,200 extra → ₹10,200. That is an actual strategy.
If you skip this step, the rest is theatre.
I keep seeing people in Nagercoil argue this on family WhatsApp like it is a moral issue.
Numbers first. Feelings after the numbers get a chair.
EPFO also ticks up with basic. Do not count that as your heroic SIP step. It is the law doing a small sit-up.
If those two numbers already make you uncomfortable, believe them.
Nobody hands out a medal for pretending your Excel is braver than your salary.
10% of SIP vs 50% of the increment
Put “SIP step” as a calendar the day HR usually releases letters.
Use the step-up SIP calculator: ₹7,000, 10%, 12%, 15 years. Then try ₹10,200 start if half-the-hike landed.
Open a calculator and type the ugly version first—Five years of unused 10% steps on a ₹7,000 SIP is a missing staircase. You stayed on floor one and blamed “returns.”.
Type the version that would still stand after a bad bonus year.
Same fund. New “hike SIP” every year is how you forget why you started.
AMFI will still mutter about markets. SEBI investor education will still mutter about product-horizon match. Neither of them will spend your hike on fairy lights.
If you cannot explain the result to a slightly impatient parent, you do not understand it yet.
Waiting for a round ₹10,000 like it’s an exam
Stepping a small-cap because “this year’s extra is aggressive.” Extra salary is usually still the same goal.
Stepping SIP and adding a car EMI in the same fortnight.
Variable-heavy CTC: stepping on a bonus you did not receive yet.
If a caption fits in eight words, it skipped the messy month.
Your cousin’s 2017 small-cap luck is not a policy.
Change the input when life changes. Loyalty to old Excel is how people drift.
Miss two annual check-ins in Nagercoil and you will still blame rates. Rates were the smaller leak.
Same week as the CTC letter, or it evaporates
Fixed hike, FOIR sane: 10% auto plus a chunk of the increment.
Hike but FOIR 40%+: maybe only 10% SIP step, rest to the 16% loan.
No hike: skip the shame. A frozen SIP still beats a cancelled one.
Order of operations still applies: high-cost debt, then a cash buffer, then this debate.
Investing while revolving a 36% card is theatre.
Small and dated beats heroic and cancelled.
A smaller SIP or a shorter loan goal beats a heroic screenshot you cancel in six weeks.
₹7,000 stepping 10% looks boring and lethal
₹7,000 stepping 10% for 15 years at 12% is a different city from a frozen ₹7,000.
₹3,200 extra from one letter, kept, is ₹38,400 extra principal in year one.
Three ignored letters is a silent ₹10,000+ you never met.
Those are planning numbers, not a promise from a mutual fund or a bank RM.
If the plan only works at 18% returns or a 6% home loan forever, it is not a plan.
Good years are a bonus. Plans that need good years are costumes.
Keep a 10% haircut for tax, fees, or the extra month the builder delays.
Lifestyle can have the other envelope. Not both
Appraisals are SIP machinery if you let them be.
If the mandate did not move when CTC moved, the hike went to someone else’s P&L.
The unsexy month-on-month debit still beats a new “system” in April.
Calendar reminder beats a quote about discipline.
If a friend in Nagercoil asks the same thing next month, send them the calculator link, not a lecture.
And please date your spreadsheet. Future you will not remember which fantasy version this was.
Use this to think. Use a human with a licence before you transfer.
Quick answers
Is a 10% SIP step-up enough when salary jumps more?
10% on a small SIP is a floor. Half of a real increment is often the bigger lever. Do both if EMIs allow.
Should I rebalance at appraisal too?
Maybe. Do not confuse a step-up with a new fund shop. SEBI’s basic “know the product” still applies.
What if my hike is mostly bonus?
Step on the fixed. Use bonus as lumpsum/STP once it clears, not as a promise in April.
Change the numbers in the calculator above and see the result on this page.
Estimates only—not personalised financial, tax, or investment advice. Markets, loan rates, and tax rules change. Confirm numbers with your lender, CA, or advisor before acting.