Ten billion dollar student loans. Pay ya bills you lazy Gen Yers.

[Hinny]

This guy was getting money from Tainui?

No, it was way before Tainui became endowed with $Millions.
This was a special allowance on top of his student allowance for extraordinary expenses incurred. Another got an extra allowance because she had an expensive hobby - Photography.

The we got a National govt. Hello student loans and goodbye graduates.

[Hinny]

a third world quality of life?

What country has a better quality of life?

[HondaRacingCorp]

Coz of inflation interest free student loans actually mean you end up paying back less actual dollars worth of value at the end of the day, pretty much like getting free money if you take as long as possible to pay it off.

E.g someone owes 50k as at today, but doesn't work and pay any off till 10 years from now, where that 50k will be worth a lot less, maybe equivalent of 40k in todays value, so end up the equivalent of 10k better off in todays dollar value. And if they are sly enough to invest the borrowed interest free money that 10k better off will look more like 15-20k depending how much they can afford to invest. (you can still get $150 a week if your working part time and earning another few hundy to live off).

Debt is so big now that more interest isn't going to do much, just make the figure of unpaid debt even bigger and grow faster, what I recon will happen is they will increase the percentage of wage taken to pay back the loan (think its min 10% now, so that'l prob go up). With banks paying 8% on savings, you would only ever want to pay off more than the absolute minimum if the student loan interest rate was above 8%

[Finn]

What country has a better quality of life?

You're getting standard confused with quality.

[Magua]

I shudder as my debt grows. Third year now, maybe another year for an honours degree to go before I can start making money. I'm avoiding living costs and course related costs now, pitty I didn't in my first year :@

[Oscar]

I don't understand.

You would if you spent less time chasing 18 year skirt and more time in class.

[Coyote]

You would if you spent less time chasing 18 year skirt and more time in class.

Haven't missed a day at Weltec and I've had the same girlfriend for a while so don't need to go chasing.

I'm surprised you haven't run out of generalisations yet. Wonder when you're going to mention cannabis and how I must get blazed all the time despite never having touched the stuff.

[mstriumph]

Because they're right. Each generation screws the next one up, except maybe after a world war.


It's sad that it's an 'us versus them' argument right now. Are we really to blame for how we have to deal with what has been given to us? You accuse us of shifting the blame?

i have difficulty in recognising who is 'us' and who is 'them' ......... unless, of course, we are talking about the French

[McDuck]

Well i guess we will see what else will happen form governments to get us to vote for them. Bribes and all. Hopefully it will not affect me owning a kiwifruit orchard.

[Mully]

Hopefully it will not affect me owning a kiwifruit orchard.

You want to grow Kiwifruits?? Is one not enough??

[McDuck]

You want to grow Kiwifruits?? Is one not enough??

Well they are worth bugger all when by themselfs, you need a few thousand before you get any sor tof cash.

[Oscar]

Haven't missed a day at Weltec and I've had the same girlfriend for a while so don't need to go chasing.

I'm surprised you haven't run out of generalisations yet. Wonder when you're going to mention cannabis and how I must get blazed all the time despite never having touched the stuff.

Nah, someone who smoked ganja would have a sense humour.

[Hinny]

You're getting standard confused with quality.

Arrgh sorry, that one missed me.

Maybe I should ask what is wrong with our quality of life? Why do you describe it as 'Third World quality'?
That is of course making the assumption that third world life quality is inferior to first world.

I'm thinking, Pacific Island paradise v German Black Forest - killed by Acid rain.

I'm thinking free, fresh fruit off the trees; free, fresh fish from the ocean v Mega Malls.

I'm thinking........Joni Mitchell
'Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot'
I'm thinking....Mainland Cheese ad.

That's enough thinking from me....
What do you think?

[k14]

Coz of inflation interest free student loans actually mean you end up paying back less actual dollars worth of value at the end of the day, pretty much like getting free money if you take as long as possible to pay it off.

E.g someone owes 50k as at today, but doesn't work and pay any off till 10 years from now, where that 50k will be worth a lot less, maybe equivalent of 40k in todays value, so end up the equivalent of 10k better off in todays dollar value. And if they are sly enough to invest the borrowed interest free money that 10k better off will look more like 15-20k depending how much they can afford to invest. (you can still get $150 a week if your working part time and earning another few hundy to live off).

Debt is so big now that more interest isn't going to do much, just make the figure of unpaid debt even bigger and grow faster, what I recon will happen is they will increase the percentage of wage taken to pay back the loan (think its min 10% now, so that'l prob go up). With banks paying 8% on savings, you would only ever want to pay off more than the absolute minimum if the student loan interest rate was above 8%

You obviously don't have a grasp on how the loan system works. You enroll with studylink and tell them you're going to x uni next year. Then when you enrol at said uni you say that studylink are paying your fees. Then studylink pay the uni direct without you ever seeing the money.

Then there are 2 other portions of the student loan. One is living expenses, which is a max of $150 a week. If anyone can live on that they are doing damn well. I just managed to scrape by with that and $50 a fortnight from the olds. No money to save there. Rent, bills and food sometimes leave enough for a jug at the pub on friday night.

Then there is the only aspect of the whole scheme that can be abused. This is classed as course related costs. You can get up to $1000 lump sum for books etc. All I did was get a quote from noel leeming or someone like that for a laptop and hey presto, my bank balance went up by $1000. Not that it did much use, yeah maybe $200 drunken away but the rest on important stuff like bike wof etc

So if inbetween there you are able to stash away enough money to try and make a profit from the loan scheme then good on ya.

I finished uni with a loan of about $32k. Worked out at approx $10k a year. Now two years into my working life and I've paid off about $10k all from the compulsory contributions. No way I'm gonna pay off more than I have to seeing there is no penalty. Should be all gone within another 3 years.

IMO, the loan scheme is semi fair now. The whole structure of funding for students is screwed up. It only favors the poor and the very rich. The middle class students with parents who earn between 60-100k a year and have 2 or 3 siblings get screwed royally. Thats the catergory I fit into. I got asset tested against my parents income to see if I was eligible for the student allowance (the dole for people that go to uni). But since they earned over the stupid minimum (something like $45k) I wasn't allowed. They couldn't afford the $10k bill a year. So I had to borrow to live. Some no hoper looser on the dole doing nothing was better off that I was. Now I'm a contributing member of society and I'm still being penalised.

I don't have any qualms with having to pay course fees, thats fair game. I'd even be happy to pay interest on a loan to pay for that. What I have an issue with is that I had to borrow money just to live whilst I was gaining qualifications to give back to society in future years. Whilst rangi the bum sits on his arse watching tv all day and taking his free money from helen. The interest free scheme was a dirty bribe but its the only reason I'm still in this country. It would be a backward step to see it get reverted. National did make some mutterings about giving writeoffs for people that paid more than their compulsary amount back. That could have some merit.

[xwhatsit]

Mine is manageable, I hope. Still probably more profit in becoming some kind of tradesman or builder or summat; fuck I'd be bored, though.