Tuesday, July 11, 2006

ethical query

I still have three student loans to pay off, and each year I defer them because I still don't earn enough to have to pay them back. On the one hand, I will probably never earn enough to have to pay them back, so I could keep deferring them until after 25 years they are written off. Or, I could actually set a bit aside and start paying them off. I am unsure which is wiser stewardship. What should I do?

5 comments:

Unknown said...

I guess if you can afford to save the amount then if you never have to pay them off you'll have a little fund you use for some other purpose in 25 years... which probably can't hurt.

Similarly if your salary increases enough so you have to pay them you'll be able to set aside all of that pay rise for Godly use (whatever that means) instead of drifting into upgrading your lifestyle, and use your fund to pay off the loans.

Kath said...

hmm, I was planning on defering until they wrote the loans off... If they are willing to put that in the loan agreement it can't be a bad thing... Probably not terribly Godly, but as you found out at the weekend, i'm not!

Anonymous said...

Good grief. If they'll let you defer them, defer them. When your pay rises above their threshold, start paying them off. If it doesn't, then that's fine but if you haven't had a pay rise in 25 years you should start looking for a new job! education used to be free so don't panic about getting a handout from the government for once! that's what it's designed for! it's below interest inflation as I understand anyway, so you don't loose out my waiting at all. howabout a proper ethical quiery? lets talk about whaling. No-one wants to talk about the whales any more ...

KiwiChronicles said...

Kenny - I think the Bible teaches that, where the Bible is silent in a specific instance of choice that has moral implications but is not about disobeying Scripture's clear instruction, we should seek counsel, think prayerfully and pray thoughtfully, make our minds up and live joyfully, generously and seek to be good citizens.

Bish - you always make me smile

Kath - with Jesus in your life, can you be anything but Godly? hmmm.

Ian - I say, lets leave the Whales alone - not in our conversation but in our culinary efforts. If you want REAL moral discussion lets talk about how we live in a world where our luxury ignores the desperate poverty of others, or of Christians living as though Jesus coming back is only a story to scare non-Christians with rather than life changing truth...

Anonymous said...

Hi Kenny
This is a totally random way of looking for something, but I stumbled on your blog through others and was just wondering if you had Alice's new address as I have a little pressie for the baby (do you know its name yet!!?)
Congrats on being an uncle btw.
Do you think you could email it to me? Its norries@onetel.net
Thanks very much, I hope you're doing well, I'll look in on your blog to find out!
Love
Anne (Graham) Norrie, Al's pal!