‘I’ll give you this new plan, sir. You pay one lakh rupees a year for ten years.’
You wonder where this is going, but he’s calling you ‘sir’, so he might have something.
‘Then we pay you back eighty-four thousand rupees a year for another ten years.’
Mentally, you’re thinking: Okay I’ve just got about Rs 16,000 a year invested, so I should now have about 1,60,000 still invested in there.
‘After that, we will give you a lump sum amount of ten lakh rupees.’
In your head, you can hear the ‘eureka’ happen: 1.7 lakh invested. I get back Rs 10 lakh. That’s awesome, you think. ‘Where should I sign?’ you ask.
‘Oh, we also give you insurance of twenty-five lakh rupees so that if you die your wife gets the amount you paid, plus twenty- five lakh rupees back, sir!’ says the agent, emphasizing the ‘sir’ even more. You’re almost convinced, and you call your wife.
‘Ritu, this is like super awesome!’ and you repeat the information on the phone.
‘Ajit, have you done the calculations?’ says Ritu, and you sense a little bit of cynicism in her voice. The agent is trying to fill in your PAN number, so you murmur it to him and tell her confidently, ‘Look, after the first ten years they start giving us back the money so technically at the end of twenty years, we only have 1.6 lakh rupees invested, and they’ll give us ten lakh rupees. That’s like at least 15% or something.’
‘But wait, what if I put this in a spreadsheet and calculate what it…
