I have worked full-time since graduating and as I have taken no maternity leave or lived overseas, my repayments have been automatically removed from my pay each month with no interest incurred.
If I had needed to pay interest, I would still have another $18,000 to go.
As it was, I owed more than $37,000 to the IRD for less than three years of study.
About half of that was actually spent on my course. The rest was living expenses.
I had a part-time job and lived on a typical student diet of instant noodles. I certainly didn't live an extravagant life and yet, had I fully grasped the fact I would need to pay all that money back and it would take me many years to do so, I may have opted for Budget noodles instead of splurging on Maggi.
Martin, on the other hand, never had to worry about whether his choice of noodles was a little highbrow for his budget. Back when he went to broadcasting school the powers that be didn't require evidence of where the money you borrowed was going.
So even though Martin had saved enough to pay for his studies himself, when he discovered he could claim money for whatever he wanted, he made a call and the next day had more than $5000 in his bank account, which he immediately spent on a car.
Thank goodness that changed before I started studying, or I would no doubt still be paying off my loan at 90.
