Pay off HECS now or better accommodation? (1 Viewer)

[Lordsion]

What would you do - Pay of HECS fees (around $7000 per semester) ($14 000 roughly all up ) or stay at an on-campus fully catered nice accommodation college at Sydney University (also around $7000 per semester) (roughly $14 000 all up) ?

The alternatives are:

• Go to cheaper University (like UNE in Armidale or CSU in Wagga Wagga) where on-campus is around $8000 for TWO semesters - allowing you to invest the other rough $7 000 you saved from NOT going to Sydney Uni and pay off one semesters HECS.
  
• Stay cheaper in Sydney (off-campus) (where you would only save $2000 or so a year) and invest that cash into HECS? (take note that food and travel will eat that $2000 up most likely)
  
• Forget it all and just go and stay on-campus, be happy, and pay off horrible HECS fee for the next 20 years (which is automatically deducted from pay).
  
• Do a degree via distance education and stay at home, whilst working and paying off student course fees ($7000 per semester). Take note that in my circumstance the chosen degree is Pharmacy (now offered via correspondence at a particular University). You would miss out of 'branching into the world' and travel costs would be a pain.
  
• Any other alternative you can suggest.
  

?????????

 

[Studentleader]

invest it

 

[justanotherposter]

• Stay cheaper in Sydney (off-campus) (where you would only save $2000 or so a year) and invest that cash into HECS? (take note that food and travel will eat that $2000 up most likely)
• Forget it all and just go and stay on-campus, be happy, and pay off horrible HECS fee for the next 20 years (which is automatically deducted from pay).

IMO:
I'd go with one of those ideas. If you go for the first option don't worry about paying off hecs, go out and enjoy student life a little, you only live it once.

 

[izzy88]

I'm just confused as to where the money is coming from?...it appears to me that you have some definitive source of income lined up that will give you 14,000 a year (no more or no less), no matter what you do with it, where you are or what you are doing.

I wish i had that!

Unless your parents offered you a 'here's 14,000' you can pay hecs, go to college or invest it, we don't care. That might also be nice

 

[Lordsion]

Well I took a deferral year so now I can get youth allowance and rent assistance ($200 a week) and my grandparents are going to give me $200 a week for four years (inheritance early - Trust me they will deliver - they have done it to all other 4 grandchildren), I have a job at Woolworth's where I can transfer down to sydney, they will keep me casual at my current location as well so I can work there on my breaks and I will still have a discount card. So yeah, I will have some money luckily (I know others are less fortunate (like many of my friends who jumped straight into UNI with no YA). My parents are both students - one at Uni the other at TAFE. So I will get little money from them, but still I will have $500 per week with grandparents + government + working .... hopefully. I will also have $10 000 in my bank due to working all year. I plan to never go below $6 or 7 000 hopefully with my money, in case of emergencies.

I am just worried, because on campus at sydney is $400 per week (38 week) (everything included), but my Pharmacy degree is $7400 per semester as well. So it will have to go on HECS and I will have to pay off later. If I go to a less reputable Uni (in terms of Pharmacy), like UNE, then I will have heaps more money spare, however it will be less exciting and since it is UNE's first Pharmacy degree ever next year, I doubt it would be very organised. Yet staying close to home would be nice.

And then I have to worry about people always stating the 'over saturation' of pharmacists and 'hard to find a job' 'average income' 'hard maths' etc etc etc ...

Sorry for my overuse in commas etc...

But this is just my stuff, the question is still open to everybody, just to let them think about HECS a little more because everybody I know doesn't care or know about their HECS - It is a $20 - 30 000 loan which you will have to pay back, so it is important to try to pay off now (and get a 20% discount off semester if you pay up during study).

 

[Studentleader]

Apparently living in uni is ~6k cheaper than sharing with 4 people (in perth anyway)

 

[izzy88]

But this is just my stuff, the question is still open to everybody, just to let them think about HECS a little more because everybody I know doesn't care or know about their HECS - It is a $20 - 30 000 loan which you will have to pay back, so it is important to try to pay off now (and get a 20% discount off semester if you pay up during study).

oh ok cool!

As much as a I dislike the Hecs system, there is a benefit in that you can go to whatever uni/course you want and not worry about the fees at that time. Yes, it is good to look ahead, but I say enjoy uni while you're there, and try not to think too much about the huge debt accumulating (trust me- I've been at uni for 3yrs and i have another 3yrs to go- my debt is going to be HUGE! especially if I decide I want to be an academic rather than a lawyer yet still have to pay off my law degree on a much lower salary!).

In any case, I had a similar-ish option to you at one point, either stay at home and got to sydney uni and pay off some of my hecs debt upfront with money i'd earnt- or go to college and put the money into paying college fees. I decided to go to college, and I love it. Its a great experience, you meet lots of people and its extremely convenient (also since now my parents don't live in sydney, it was nice not having to try to find somewhere else to live).

I would do the course/university you want to do- don't go to UNE etc just because the living might be cheaper (although UNE is a good uni!)- if you have the money to go to sydney (if that's your first preference/what you want to do) then do that. Don't worry about the hecs debt. As for going into college or living out- that is up to you. College is more expensive than living out but it is very convenient.

 

[Andi0390]

You do know if Centrelink finds out about your grandparents giving you money you'll have to pay Centrelink back. Just letting you know that. I also thought you had to take 18 months of, instead of year, before you could claim, I could be wrong about that though, because I became independent through other means.

I'd stay in shared accommodation around the university, although saying that most of the extra $2000 will be on food is very conservative.

I'd consider looking at another university also, even Macquarie, UQ - rents around there are probably going to be cheaper than near Syd Uni for a decent house. You can live somewhere cheaply, I used to live around the Sydney Uni area (Glebe, Redfern, Surry Hills) and the houses are shit. I don't just mean run down or a little dirty, I'm talking cockroach infestations (impossible to get rid of if the whole street is infested), holes in walls and floors, dodgy, dodgy landlords and scarily freaky flatmates. You can find a good place but there are a lot of really not good places, and to find somewhere with people you want to live with for a year, and who pay bills and rent, don't steal your stuff etc. for a good price you have to be lucky. The more you pay the more likely your house is livable.

Places out of the city may not be much cheaper but they will be better for what you get. Sydney is an expensive place to live. Not to mention if you work at Woolies the closest one is in the city (I think) or Marrickville, you are going to rack up travel after a while.

HECS is annoying, i don't like having it, but I barely get by on what I have, so I don't really have a choice. If I were you I would either work your ass of in the breaks to try and earn enough to pay HECS, and just live of what you get in the middle bits, or just pay it of after university, and when you are working hard and earning money pay a little extra and it will go away quicker.

I mean, HECS is really just the same cost as a car, and people buy heaps of cars, its not actually that big of a deal.

 

[izzy88]

Well I took a deferral year so now I can get youth allowance and rent assistance ($200 a week) and my grandparents are going to give me $200 a week for four years (inheritance early - Trust me they will deliver - they have done it to all other 4 grandchildren)

sorry just realised something- you know youth allowance is changing? ...

Whilst you might have earnt the 18grand or whatever it is to qualify as independant this year, you can't actually claim youth allowance until 18months after you have left school. This affects you, because as it appears from your HSC status, you only graduated last year, which means you can't qualify for youth allowance until june 2010.

The problem, is that the government is removing the 18grand in 18months requirement for independence, and that will probably take effect from january 2010 [unless you fulfill certain requirements announced last week- basically these are; if you are a rural student, completed HSC in 2008, took a gap year in 2009 intending to qualify for youth allowance, and live a certain distance from your university i've hear about 90 minutes but not sure on the specifics, if this is you, then you will get an extension till june 2010 to claim under the old rules].

I think you should probably look into this to see if it affects you (its been in the news for ages).

[although maybe you can qualify for youth allowance as a dependent if your parents incomes are low- however your grandparents money will probably affect this as well]

As someone said earlier as well, even if you do qualify, you will have to declare the money getting from grandparents, and this will reduce your weekly youth allowance (probably quite significantly).

 

[Studentleader]

I love being poor - $200 a fortnight!

Think vac work will kill my centrelink though.

 

[Absolutezero]

I'm on $180/fornight

I'm basically losing $50 bucks a week in rent.

Staying off campus generally is cheaper though. Especially if you can get water, electricity, gas etc. built into your rent agreement.

 

[spence]

HECS is annoying.

It's annoying that the government pays for most of your degree?

 

[kazoospasm]

I will also have $10 000 in my bank due to working all year. I plan to never go below $6 or 7 000 hopefully with my money, in case of emergencies.

Liquid assets and Centrelink don't mix.

 

[vennmuch]

Hey. Can offer no help (obviously) but here with a question.

I was under the impression uni fees are around $10k per year for most courses, give or take? I'm reading here it is nearly that much per semester... which is confusing me a little.

 

[cottoneye]

Hey. Can offer no help (obviously) but here with a question.

I was under the impression uni fees are around $10k per year for most courses, give or take? I'm reading here it is nearly that much per semester... which is confusing me a little.

Student contributions per semester vary from $2000-8000 per semester depending on what course you are doing. The government foots the bill for your education and you pay back a small portion of that in the student contribution. The payments are deferred until you graduate and are earning in excess of around 40k I think.

To the OP: Pay off your HECS afterwards. It will not take much time to pay off if you are earning a decent wage (for a pharmacist) and it will give you much more freedom while at uni. The debt figure is intimidating, but given you are most likely going to be a professional, your salary will rise faster than the debt and proportionately decrease in value over time.