Why two people with the same salary can have very different debt capacity

Two colleagues, same designation, same salary to the rupee. One of them takes on a new EMI comfortably. The other takes on the exact same EMI and starts feeling squeezed within two months. Same income, same new debt, genuinely different outcomes — and the income figure alone never explains why.

What the income number leaves out

Existing obligations. One of them may already be supporting a dependent, paying rent in a more expensive area, or carrying a loan the other doesn’t have. Income is identical; disposable income is not.

A safety buffer, or the absence of one. Someone with three months of expenses saved can absorb a bad month without the new EMI becoming a crisis. Someone with nothing set aside is one unplanned expense away from real trouble, at the exact same salary.

How stable the income actually is. A fixed monthly salary and a variable, commission-heavy income of the same average amount carry very different risk, even though both average out to the same number on paper.

Why this matters for anyone comparing themselves to a “rule”

Generic affordability guidance — 40% of income, a fixed EMI-to-salary ratio — is calibrated for an average person, and nobody actually is the average person. It’s a reasonable starting point precisely because it ignores the things that make your situation yours: your buffer, your existing commitments, your income stability. Those factors can move the real safe number meaningfully in either direction from the generic guideline.

What to check instead of a generic percentage

Not “what’s the standard ratio,” but “given everything I already owe, everything I’ve set aside, and how stable my income actually is, what does this specific EMI do to my specific month.”

Dette’s Debt Score and Pre-Purchase Check are both built around that question instead of a one-size-fits-all rule — because two people at the same salary genuinely aren’t in the same position.