Paying for an education

I received my superannuation statement in the mail this week. Yawn. It’s my yearly reminder I have a savings account I can’t touch for another forty years. Don’t get me wrong, it’s lovely to see my balance growing, and it seems like my superannuation peeps are investing my money wisely. It’s also nice that as I recently spent some time consolidating super funds, I only have one provider to keep up with. 

I’m sure I should care more about my superannuation - perhaps even monitor it more closely. I probably have access to an online portal where I can watch it grow in “real time”. It probably has a password; I’ve probably forgotten it. They’ve probably even developed an App so I can check my balance in the palm of my hand, because every 30 year old needs to check their super balance. 

I care much more about the account balances I see regularly: my mortgage and my “everyday” accounts, which money seems to so briefly hover in to and out of. 

I also have a HECS-HELP debt and I have no idea what its balance is, since the Government no longer sends once-per-year statements. Again, I probably have access to an online portal; it probably has a password and I’ve probably forgotten it.

I learnt this week I have retirement savings of $84,000. It sits there, growing from contributions and from interest, while my HECS debt also sits there, growing interest of the detrimental kind.

Thanks to my enthusiastic pursuit of making the world a better place, (that is, studying Law/Arts), I kick-started my career with a nasty HECS debt. My subsequent flirtation with a Masters degree didn’t help the situation. 

I would tell you the exact amount of my remaining debt, but I honestly don’t know. My HECS debt is also bouncing up and down due to moving in and out of payment brackets while taking Maternity Leave. (Someone should call Christopher Pyne and let him know that there are women both studying law and making babies (read his comments here)). Babies for the nation of course.

If you do get a hold of Christopher Pyne can you ask him if he can consider allowing us to pay off our student loans before accruing savings for our retirement! Hasn’t he heard his (our?) boss talking about living within our means? 

We should be able to authorise our superannuation providers to redirect our superannuation contributions to pay off HECS-HELP debts. Business doesn’t need the added administrative burden; it would be perfectly reasonable to pay a fee to superannuation providers to manage the process.

This would also increase discretionary spending capacity for young professionals – something our economy could really use at the moment. Perhaps it would allow first home buyers into the markets sooner, or with less reliance on our parents, who incidentally received their tertiary educations for free. I’m so grateful for our HECS-HELP system, but why not make it even better?

There are many competing financial pressures in this season of life: paying off student debts; buying a first house; travelling; starting a family. Why not take a bit of the pressure off and allow us to pay for our education before saving for our retirement?