Uni students battling to make ends meet
UNIVERSITY student Juliet Gobran juggles full-time study with three casual jobs to ensure she can make ends meet.
The creative arts and computer science student said she earned anywhere between $300 and $600 per week after tax.
“My biggest expenses are rent, food and power, and also being able to having a social life,” Ms Gobran, 19, said.
“I also put a certain amount of money away each week as savings, but luckily the scholarships mean I’m not stressed about money.”
Ms Gobran has a Westpac scholarship giving her $5000 per year and a University of Wollongong scholarship worth $10,000 annually, which help ease financial worries.
Westpac’s new University Students and Personal Finance report, released today, found one in five students juggles full-time work and full-time study.
More than half of all students manage part-time or casual employment while studying, and about 30 per cent of students survive on an income of between $200 and $400 per week, it found.
Ms Gobran already has $16,000 in study loan debts and, like 98 per cent of students, she does not make voluntary repayments to get rid of this debt.
Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) debts are one of the cheapest forms of debt and are indexed on June 1 each year at the rate of inflation. This year’s increase was just 1.8 per cent.
Lifespan Financial Planning’s chief executive officer, Eugene Ardino, said students should not be concerned about paying back their study debt sooner.
“If they have other debts like credit cards they should be focusing on paying back those,” he said.
“Or look at starting an investment portfolio or to start saving for a first home.”
Mr Ardino warned students not to “waste money buying depreciating assets like a car or boat because they can get into debt doing that”.
Australians do not have to start paying back their HELP debt until they begin earning more than $45,881 annually, starting at 1 per cent of their income.
Westpac head of savings Kathryn Carpenter said despite uni students often having lower earnings before they entered the workforce full-time, having a “savings goal is really important”.
“It’s about being conscious of what you are saving for even if it’s for a rainy day,” she said.
The report also found students are optimistic about eventually owning their own home. About 59 per cent think they will one day.