Grim... wrote:
pupil wrote:
Pod wrote:
Yes, but 20k in London is like 10k in Preston, isn't it?
Precisely, and you have to work twice as many hours (including commuting) to earn it. Why bother?
Depends where you live, and what you do with your time.
A good chum lived in Bedford and paid £400 a month rent for a two-bed house. He earned £30k in London (as opposed to doing the same job in nearby St. Neots for £19k), and his commute was an hour, each way.
Although obviously you need to add the cost of that train ticket (presumably it was train) to his rent.
I pay £500 in a shared 4 bedroom in near central london, if you're prepared to compromise a little it doesn't have to cost the earth.
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they are right. get rid of it
They are wrong. It is awesome.
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Ten years ago, when this thread started, Pod asked why we don't just pay off the student loan in big lump sums. The reason why is because the interest rate is at the base rate, meaning it's the cheapest loan you'll ever have in your life. Similarly, with that being the case, if you owed £10,000 and happened to have £10,000 in the bank, you'd be better off putting the money in a high interest savings account, because you'd make more on the savings interest than you'd lose on the loan interest, y'see?
Also the loan doesn't count towards your credit rating, so apart from the drag of having to pay it back every month, it barely exists.
Indeed, I just consider it a "having an education" tax. Bonus is, it'll go away in about 5 years or so and I'll suddenly get a near 9% payrise for free.