Thread: Uni Fees...HEC's/HELP

Thanks all......The offer from grandparents is for course/subject fees only. The boys will have to sort text books

Originally Posted by garrycol

Don't forget to factor in the text book rip-off - can be very expensive.

One guy i went to uni with would just borrow the textbook from the library and renew it all year until someone else wanted it, then keep it until after the semester and return it. The late fee was about $25, 1/4 of the cost of most of our textbooks at the time.

I went to 4 different universities and the libraries in all were not permitted to carry the listed text books to stop exactly what talked about. Carried old editions but as we know new editions come out each year to stop students using older editions, so forcing them to buy new stuff.

Really needs to be looked at as part of the next review into the tertiary education system.

I lost count of how many textbooks I had to buy which were authored or co-authored by the lecturer.
The most dodgy of the lot was a really B-grade program for neurology which was a simulated lab exercise- with a character called 'professor neuron'. It was a graded assessment.

The program was that poorly done, that all the sound files were in .wav format on the $25 CD ROM (which all 800 students were required to buy). So I extracted them all, cut down the files and rearranged it into a diatribe of sexual innuendo for teh lulz, using the lecturer's voice.


Can and will PM if you want a good laugh!

Been there and done that. Recommend against paying upfront as you are better off to pay later when earning income.
Try to explain to the grandparents that the best way they can help is to help the student to graduate and become self-supporting.
There are better ways they can help.
For example, the student will need a laptop, which will need replacing every couple of years. Textbooks will be needed. There will be workshops, tutorials and various other study costs and associated expenses, including clothing and meals.
I recommend a special bank account be established for study costs. The grandparents could give the student a debit card to use to draw on the account when needed for study costs. That way the grandparents can monitor the spending and object to anything they don't like.

Tell the grandparents to save it for post grad study.. that'll ensure the lads grind through undergrad to get it.. And I don't think there's interest payable on a post grad HELP debt... but check.

And yep courses appear to be going away from fixed texts. The last one I read talked about Lance Armstrong as the high water mark of resilience and character . Doing my 8 course of post grad now and that's the only text we've been forced to buy, now it's been scratched too

Thanks for the suggestions......my parents are old school from the county, when they offer something it doesn't change, we will honor there generous offer....they don't mind when it is spent. They will transfer the $$'s as soon as he had a spot.

It appears investing the money and paying off the debt after study gets best bang for the $.

Cheers

HECS/HELP debt is not a bad debt per se. It's CPI indexed and paid before tax. It's on a sliding scale, where the repayment threshold beigns at an income over $55k p.a. I've been stung for a few years now, as the yearly percentage of the HECS/HELP debt you need to repay increases with income. Info here: Loan Repayment - Study Assist
IIRC the voluntary repayment bonus was dropped - It used to be rather generous, and I made a few contributions over my years, but leave it to its own devices now.

As for your options, if the cash can't be used for education related expenses, then any investment which is greater than the CPI rate at which the loan is increasing by, is a good investment.
A quick google shows a 3 year term deposit on 10K, interest calculated monthly is 2.35% p.a. CPI is around 2%.
You could probably work some magic with a Net Present value calculation, but see point 1- HECS is a cheap debt to have!