Clearing Student Debt Or How Not To Get In To It In The First Place
Student debt is probably the main factor that discourages people to not got to University as now, the cost is just simply too high. But Student debt is not something that should be looked upon with great fear if you have it, but ideally you want to get rid of it as soon as possible or not have to get it in the first place. Here are some ideas to help you-
How to clear student debt
Firstly, you pay student loan debt on top of a minimum amount of earnings. Once you are above a certain threshold you start to pay 9% of your income towards the cost of your student loan, however this is soon to rise to 12.3%.
The benefits of student loans is that they have no real cost of borrowing, this means that despite there being interest on a loan, the value of it stays the same as money is worth more over time. The rate of interest will be equal to the inflation rate, which is how much money increases in value over time. You can start paying it off early, but the real value of the loan will never actually increase. Since 2012, the debt will be wiped after 30 years, or if you die, which means if you’re not past the threshold by this time, then there was probably no point in you going to University.
Always focus on paying off all of your other higher interest debts before worrying about the student loan, as I have previously mentioned, in real terms, its value doesn’t increase.
How to not get student debt in the first place
Unless your parents are very well off, or willing to make plenty of sacrifices to make sure you don’t come out of University with debt then many people think the only other option is the student loan, however they couldn’t be more wrong. If you come from a low income family then there are a plethora of under-subscribed Bursaries and Scholarships that will help pay for your studies at University.
The best way to secure funding however is simply to write to potential benefactors detailing your costs and they may pay for your books for a year or your transport etc. The only other way is to sign up to schemes that will pay for your University in return for you to work for their company for a period of time, the army also do this.
As you can see, now there is no excuse to not go to University if you’re worried about money.