Need Advice on Tracking Debt Reduction
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| Tue, 12-16-2008 - 3:08am |
The situation as it stands is that I have been tracking the individual totals on my debts as well as my total debt figure. This has generally been a downward trend, but there have been some hiccups.
The problem is that I may be returning to study in early March 2009. If I do this I will be incurring more on my student loan. I do not want to be judged on the decision to borrow to study - it is my choice and I know that once I finish my qualification this will be money well spent. I will be aiming to limit my borrowing as much as possible and will be working part-time while studying should I choose to return to study.
I'm concerned that if I track my debt totals the way that I have been, I will become frustrated by the increase in the total debt figure and the increase in the student loan figure. I know that if I get frustrated I am likely to spend money that I could be using toward my debt reduction.
I guess what I'm asking is what others would do faced with my situation.

Hi there. First of all, you are going to get NO judgements from me about borrowing to study!!! I had to take out student loans all through university and grad school. Despite a pretty big debt load (full disclosure: my dad is paying most of it off for me) it allowed me to earn at least $20,000 a year more then I would have otherwise. It is SO worth it!!!
What about just taking the student loans out of the picture for now. Set them aside as something
Bex -
ITA with Bex.
By all means take advantage of education.
I agree with others - drop the student loans from your debt tracking sheet.
All my best,
Danni
That's absolutely right. Suze Orman says student loans are "good debt". NEVER feel guilty about incurring debt for education!
I wish I had some advice for you but I don't. I'm sure others will have some great advice! Good luck & stick around.
~Dana
I thought that it might just be a case of removing the student loans from the tracking sheet for now.
I will have to consider updating the student loan information every few months though. The way the student loan system works here in New Zealand is that if we earn over the income threshold for requiring repayment we are required to pay back 10 cents in the dollar for every dollar over the threshold. While I can't remember the annual figure, I know that on a weekly basis if I earn over $340 gross, then I start paying towards the student loans. My employer does the deduction on each weeks pay since there is no guarantee that I will not go over the threshold for the year. While I don't intend to be working enough to go over that threshold every week, I know that there will be weeks that I do. You aren't exempt from being required to make these repayments if you are studying unfortunately.
On the positive side though, so long I'm in the country for more than half each year then I don't pay interest on the student loans.
Thanks for everyone's advice.