Do your parents pay your fees? (1 Viewer)

[Queenroot]

how hard is it to set aside 30 grand over 20 years. it's called planning for your kids' future.

Depends on income, debt, mortgage, how many kids and a lot of other factors

 

[Queenroot]

Unless you are super lucky and nothing interferes with your budget

E.g. Medical/health related things

 

[D94]

how hard is it to set aside 30 grand over 20 years. it's called planning for your kids' future.

That's not the only cost in raising a child or children....

Your suggestion is laughable for a low income family.

 

[nerdasdasd]

how hard is it to set aside 30 grand over 20 years. it's called planning for your kids' future.

That's laughable , esp when not everyone earns 60k or 80k per annum

There's also the factoring of other costs of living and events that come up which require large amounts of money to be coughed up

 

[pHyRe]

It struck me today that almost everyone I could think of have/had their parents paying/paid their fees up front for them so they don't have any HECS debt. For me I have to pay my own way and have to work for everything I get. Curious as to how many people on here don't have a HECs debt?

really? most people i know all chuck it on HECS. and their parents could easily pay it if they wanted.

its to do with finance though, HECS is only 2.5% interest so youd be better off putting the money youd pay the fees with in term deposit at say 5% (in the long run) and youd end up better off in say 10-20 years when youve paid off your debt.

 

[Amundies]

really? most people i know all chuck it on HECS. and their parents could easily pay it if they wanted.

its to do with finance though, HECS is only 2.5% interest so youd be better off putting the money youd pay the fees with in term deposit at say 5% (in the long run) and youd end up better off in say 10-20 years when youve paid off your debt.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure HECS doesn't have interest (at the moment, at least). AFAIK there's indexing, but no interest.

 

[pHyRe]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure HECS doesn't have interest (at the moment, at least). AFAIK there's indexing, but no interest.

its indexed to inflation which averages 2.5%.

 

[nerdasdasd]

Yeah, that money would all be gone now if it wasn't put into a special company / program that takes the money. They don't let you take it out unless you've finished year 12, and intend to go to uni. If you don't finish year 12, or go to uni, they keep your money.

^^

Better not waste their money and study hard

 

[isildurrrr1]

That's not the only cost in raising a child or children....

Your suggestion is laughable for a low income family.

I'm talking about the average family for a tertiary attending student (hint: it's mostly middle class kids) not disadvantaged students. What I'm saying you don't have to be "rich" to save money for your kids uni. If you're on a below avg income of even 50k a year you can still put money aside. If you don't drink a coffee for every working day, you'd save around 720 dollars a year. There are methods to budget money no matter your income.

Shit I know american families on 40-50k a year household income and they were able to save 60k for their kids college fund.

I know for disadvantaged students it's a completely separate situation and it's not the topic at hand, it's mostly about the notion that you need "rich" parents to pay off uni fees which is top kek.

 

[isildurrrr1]

really? most people i know all chuck it on HECS. and their parents could easily pay it if they wanted.

its to do with finance though, HECS is only 2.5% interest so youd be better off putting the money youd pay the fees with in term deposit at say 5% (in the long run) and youd end up better off in say 10-20 years when youve paid off your debt.

You get 10% discount when paying upfront (or is that gone now?) I got 20% discounts in 2011 when paying upfront so you save waaaaay more money. have fun finding a term deposit more than 3.5% these days though

 

[Amundies]

That's gone.

It's a bit confusing, some people told me there's no discount whatsoever, but others have told me there is a 5% discount.

"Commencing undergraduate domestic students at the University of Sydney are offered Commonwealth supported places (CSPs). A CSP is subsidised by the Commonwealth Government. Some students are required to pay their student contribution upfront while others can choose to pay upfront with a 10% HECS-HELP discount or take out a HECS-HELP loan." -From: http://sydney.edu.au/current_students/student_administration/hecs_fees.shtml

So no, it's not gone, 10% discount is still there.

 

[D94]

I'm talking about the average family for a tertiary attending student (hint: it's mostly middle class kids) not disadvantaged students. What I'm saying you don't have to be "rich" to save money for your kids uni. If you're on a below avg income of even 50k a year you can still put money aside. If you don't drink a coffee for every working day, you'd save around 720 dollars a year. There are methods to budget money no matter your income.

Shit I know american families on 40-50k a year household income and they were able to save 60k for their kids college fund.

I know for disadvantaged students it's a completely separate situation and it's not the topic at hand, it's mostly about the notion that you need "rich" parents to pay off uni fees which is top kek.

The average equivalised middle class household disposable income is around $800, and there are 1.6 employed persons so that's $1280 per week (household, not person). The median expenditure per household is around $1236. With at least one child aged 5-14, that increases up to $1670.

This is now. You suggestion would have needed to begun 20 years ago. Tertiary education 20 years ago is vastly different to tertiary education now - university was for the elite and free tertiary education had just ended because the government couldn't keep up with the number of students wanting higher education and their own budget. Living arrangements, income, cost of living would have also been vastly different. Mind you that the middle class 20 years ago would have been very different to the middle class today. Tertiary education would have been mainly for the higher class, so most of the middle class would not even have considered that.

Sure you don't need to be rich and sure budgeting for $30k might be possible if you don't drink coffee each day, but it's extremely narrow minded to suggest all middle class families can simply save that much money.

Go tell your child they can't go to any events that all their peers are going to, just because you are saving for something 20 years later (which is likely to only increase in cost).

 

[isildurrrr1]

Dude free education was abolished a very long time ago, I'm pretty sure people 20 years ago knew that uni wouldn't be free forever and could start making plans.

My aunt did exactly as what you suggested last. It doesn't mean you can't go to ALL events, it's that you need to select which ones you go and which ones are more important. They had coworkers who are still living paycheck to paycheck because they decided to throw a bbq every weekend for their mates. I know poor as fuck people in Taiwan on a quarter of our salary and are able to send their kids overseas for uni (and pay full fee) because of BUDGET skills.

You're talking about middle income families, not middle class. Middle class is what I call having "fuck you money" meaning you can be unemployed for a year and not even break a sweat.

 

[isildurrrr1]

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/aus...ivate-percent-of-total-secondary-wb-data.html

A good 38% of parents can send their kids to private schools which fees are higher than university, I'm pretty sure most of them can afford to send their kids to uni.

 

[seremify007]

What I struggle to understand with the logic in this thread is if there's a free loan which only attracts indexation then why not use it if you can? Some people value liquidity and being able to keep the money in their bank account rather than paying down a debt which doesn't charge interest per se.

I used mine throughout uni until I realised that my gross income meant I'd have to repay it all within a year or so of graduating so that's when I made a voluntary payment to close it out (and get the discount).

 

[Amundies]

When changes to fees are made, they only affect people who enrol AFTER the change in fees. E.g. had uni fees gone up this year, I would not have been affected since I enrolled last year.

 

[seremify007]

Are you saying keep the money in your bank account until your out of uni and until you actually have to start paying it off?


What happens if fees go up second or third semester of university? Do I pay the fees set at the time I enrolled in uni? Or the new ones?

Or what if the fees go up AFTER you've left uni? Your amount you have to pay wouldn't change would it? If you have it on HECS in both these situations.


With no discount from 2016, I was wondering why anyone would pay it off straight away honestly. Why not let it sit in your bank and gain a bit of interest. However, I wasn't sure about if the fees go up like I said above.


But then if you leave it in your bank account then that could effect things like youth allowance.

Changes in fees won't affect your HECS balance as it is essentially a loan to cover your fees as and when they are due. i.e. you have a bill of $4,000 for a semester, and immediately you borrow $4,000 using a HECS loan facility to pay it.

That being said, just like a mortgage, there are multiple levers. ie. Depending on how much indexation is applied or the minimum income requirements before you need to make contributions to pay down the balance, your repayment amount could change in the future.

Keeping it in the bank account will earn some interest (which is taxable income) but for many people, there's a value to liquidity in having funds to meet day to day living.

 

[ShadowLighte]

My parents do have the money for me to pay for my uni fees but I've still taken up a HECS loan. I didn't realise the 10% discount was still available so I'll probably pay this first year off and then continue on HECS.