Huzzah!

[andrewducker]

In 1990 I went to university - part of the first year to have student loans rather than full grants.

I just got the letter from the student loan company telling me the last of them has been paid off.

Slowly I rid myself of all my debts...

Comments

[missedith01.livejournal.com]

I went in 1986, on a full grant. But I marched. Sorry. :-(

[tigrrgrr.livejournal.com]

::applause::

[derumi.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

[rainstorm.livejournal.com]

*sigh*


My brother was the last year that got any grant at all, and that wasn't a huge amount but it helped him a lot.


I currently have three full year loans over my head and the prospect of another three. That's going to take me the rest of my life to pay off, I imagine.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

Nah, no way. You just have to make it a priority. Which makes life what some folks would see as extremely dull, but the longer you can scrooge it the better. Make up a list of what you spend, cut everything but food, rent/bills, academic supplies and transport - and economise as much as possible on those. Keep to it until out of debt and don't go there again.

Of course, if you are already doing this then my advice doesn't help.

In them days you got your tuition fees paid - I couldn't have afforded it nowadays, nor could my parents (We were right on the edge for getting a grant, got £800 one year nothing the rest, lived on my summer job money).

[rainstorm.livejournal.com]

I'm going to leave uni with approximately 20 grand of debt from student loans.

I'm going to be doing an art course, so when I come out I'm going to be skint for several years afterwards because I want to have my own studio if I possibly can, which will probably involve renting a fairly large place to make my own stuff. The materials for my chosen profession won't be cheap, and I probably won't break even for a long time. After that I won't be rich by any means and so I'll be paying off at a low rate (if at all) for a long, long time.

I really don't expect to pay off that much debt until I'm pretty old, possibly not until retirement age. I'm not being unrealistic, I just know that being an artist means being skint for most of the time, even if I do go into teaching or something part time.

[fire-sermon.livejournal.com]

I spent my 1990 student loan on an Amiga - complete with an external hard drive and a memory upgrade no less.

It's now worth about a tenner, but I still owe the students loan people more than enough money to buy a really nice laptop....

I have to admit I'm working on the basis that unless my earnings substantially increase I won't have to pay it off, as at the present rate of increase of the gross amount you can earn I've still got quite a way to go before they'll catch up with me.

I also believe the life time of the loan is 25 years, or age 50 - whichever comes first. That should mean I've only 14 years left to go...

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

Got rid of my stinking student loans a few months back. (One of the few benefits of my current living arrangements).

If full funding/ grants was brought back by whomever gets in after May 5th, I'd probably go back to university...

[tisme.livejournal.com]

Well done hon, I know that that was bothering you for a while.
xx

[azalemeth.livejournal.com]

15 years to pay it off?


I wanted to do an MA....

[andrewducker]

Well, it did take me until about 2001 to start... Before that I earned less than the minimum necessary.

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

Well, congratulations. But the miser in me says "what took you so long?" Heh, well that'll maybe be your middle-class type upbringing or something - I recall being utterly shocked to discover that there were whole rafts of people who didn't even *think* about paying a bill before it came in red - whilst earning twice what my family did.

[andrewducker]

But why should people pay off debts faster than they have to? Paying off debts isn't an intrinsic good - if you can get more out of life by not paying them until later, then there's definitely some impetus to do that.

[code-delphi.livejournal.com]

I started Uni in 1990, too... and that was the first or second year in which "HECS" (Higher Education Contribution Scheme) had been introduced. For the first time in decades, a Uni education was no longer free, with the idea being that we would have to pay off a portion of the expense once we started working. It was all integrated into the tax system, rather than being a separate loan setup.

Curious about the timing: Britain and Australia both abandoned free higher education at about the same time. Presumably coincidental?

Congratulations on clearing the debt, BTW; it is a wonderful feeling to be free of yet another obligation to a financial institution... and the interest repayments.

[neriedes.livejournal.com]

*envy* it feels good doesn't it.
How are you anyway not spoken to you on msn for aaages

[andrewducker]

I have been on MSN - just haven't seen you about.

Am ok - just been a bit hectic recently!