WWYD? study Sorry this is so long

**missmanny** · 06-04-2008, 10:16 PM

I have just been accepted into university to start August. I will be studying Communications. It is a dream of mine to go to university but it will be a long journey so I am busy weighing up all of my options. I will continue to work full time and will study part time, my course will take about 6 years to complete like this. In the future depending on our circumstances My partner and I have thought that towards the end if we start planning now there will be an option to start working part time so that I can study full time.

My thoughts now have turned to how is the best way to pay for this. I have been accepted to a CSP course which means that the Government pays for most of my education, what will be left over for me to pay will be about $2400 per year in tuition fees (this is when I am part time, it will double if I decide to go full time later), as I will be working full time, we will continue to pay for all our bills and living expenses as we are now and there will be a need to buy text books etc but I will try to get those second hand.

In Australia there is a system where by the can get a HELP loan which is funded to by the Australian government, That would mean that the Government would pay for my portion of the tuition and I only start to pay it back once I have a job that earns a certain amount of money (at the moment the figure is $40K) so if I never earn more then that then I never have to pay it back. This loan is not subject to interest but it does increase by the rate of CPI (so from about 1-3 percent per year would be added onto the balance). Your employer takes the money out of your pay with your taxes and you only pay it back at around about 4% of your income until you pay it off. You can also make voluntary contributions as you go and get a 10% discount, ie you pay $100 and they add $110 to your loan. So this is a very user friendly system and is basically like a low interest loan that you never have to pay back if your education doesn’t pay off in the way of good money.

The thing to also think about though is that if I pay my portion up from to the university then I get a 20% discount of the fees, the total amount of my tuition will end up being about $16K if I were to pay it up front each semester then I would save myself about $3200 for the cost of my course this is a substantial amount of savings.

It will be a stretch for us to find the money to pay for this upfront but not impossible. However it will impact on our savings schedule, but I just think that if we can afford to do it when we can that it would substantially reduce the burden to pay this money back later on, and also I can choose which way I want to go with each subject, pay up front of add it to my loan. So I don’t need to decide to do it one way or the other and then have to live with it.

I’m sorry that this is such a long post but I would really appreciate knowing what people here would do, I am in awe of some of your abilities to strategically plan with your money for the future so I’m interested to know what you all would do? Pay all, pay some or pay nothing and see if you earn enough in the future to ever have to pay it back?

**Michelle68** · 06-04-2008, 10:52 PM

Why don't you start out with assessing how much you can pay as you go along? If you get into a spot and/or if your financial situation changes, can you then apply for the loan? You're right, that is quite a bit of savings when paying up front. If you can afford it, then I think this would be the way to go. Good luck and congrats on being accepted.

--Michelle

**pecunierrant** · 06-05-2008, 01:51 PM

20% is a great discount, I would opt for paying ahead to get it if at all possible. So much better to not get into debt too. Good luck on your learning journey

**missmanny** · 06-06-2008, 12:19 AM

Thanks for your thoughts, I think that I have decided that when I can I will pay up front and when it is too much I will defer my tuition till my loan.

I am already over the $40K threshold at the moment so I would have to start paying back the money to the Govt straight away, I figure at least this way I can try to pay for it myself with a discount rather then having to pay it pack out of my pay as I go each week. looking at it this way hopefully it will be easier to find the lump sum each semester then have to pay it back every week instead.