Читать книгу Sort Your Money Out - Glen James - Страница 34

The amazing thing about personal finance is that it is exactly that — personal. There is never a one-size-fits-all approach, although that would make it easier to write this book or host a personal finance podcast.

In my somewhat ‘professional’ opinion from my past life as a financial adviser, I believe you could consider paying off your HECS/HELP debt early with voluntary payments under the following circumstances.

 You have a small amount of HECS/HELP debt left relative to your overall situation, and the repayments are affecting your borrowing capacity for a mortgage.Banks and lenders don't assess the ‘amount of debt’ left to be paid. Rather, they assess the amount of your income that is compulsorily withheld by your employer and given to the ATO to service the debt based on your income. For example, if you had $5000 of HECS/HELP debt remaining, paying the HECS/HELP debt down could free up that extra bit of servicing income (once you report to your employer that you no longer have any HECS/HELP debt so that they stop withholding that extra repayment amount). A quality mortgage broker would help you assess the impact on your borrowing capacity and whether early payment of a HECS/HELP debt is beneficial in your circumstances.

 You have an employment relationship that allows pre-tax salary sacrifice of HECS/HELP voluntary repayments. This effectively means you can pay this debt down with ‘pre-tax’ dollars. The wash up of this is akin to being able to claim post-tax voluntary repayments on your tax return. But I would consider ensuring that your other short- and medium-term financial goals are taken care of before doing this.

 You have met all your other short- and medium-term financial and lifestyle goals and you just want to swing back around and clear the debt for ‘housekeeping’ sake and to free up withheld amounts being taken from your pay.But remember: the payments are not tax-deductible and additional payments would be ‘wasted’ (see explanation above) if you die prematurely.

For the last two points, I certainly would not be considering paying HECS/HELP debt back voluntarily if you have other consumer debt. Run your debt snowball first.