Never Forget Where You Came From: Home » Blog» General » The Number that Hangs Over My Head
That large number there is my HECS debt, (FEE-HELP) debt, as I write this. The majority of this amount is from my Master of Marketing degree that I completed part time between 2016 and 2019. It is an absurd amount of money considering it wasn’t something I did directly because of a job or in order to get a job in marketing. I have mixed opinions about higher education and its value relative to its opportunity cost and financial cost. But, I’m determined to extract as much value from this ridiculous sum of money and eventually start paying it back before the unstoppable reality of inflation bends me over the proverbial table.
So, why am I being so transparent about it? Well, I’d like to pay it back with income I create directly from the skills I gained from the course. That means, anything I earn from creating content, writing, speaking, or making this website and others like it, will all contribute to hopefully achieving a measurable ROI. Besides, I love data and froth over sexy graphs.
That right there is a live (as long as I remember to update it) running balance of my debt to the Australian Government. Below is a graph of that debt over time.
Let’s be realistic here, it’s going to take a REALLY long time for me to pay this down. And, being a debt with no “real” increase in value, and which does not accrue interest, there’s actually no incentive for me to pay it down faster than is mandatory. But, then again, it would be pleasing to see this graph start to go the other way.
So, join me for the ride! This is a really unnecessary amount of accountability but hey, I make the rules around here so deal with it.
Love,
Dan Lawson x