How I paid my HECS and bought a home in the same day

I put down the deposit for my first home just 12 hours after I managed to pay off my enormous HECS debt.

Yes, I'm that millennial. The one who becomes the subject of cliched, over-dramatic clickbait headlines like 'here's how I made it onto the property ladder by working eight jobs, never eating, and refusing to even mention the word 'avocado'.'

Yes, that millennial that becomes the target of a generation's hatred when inevitably it's revealed that there was a sizeable amount of financial assistance to go along with that sizeable deposit I've just paid.

Here's the part where I tell you that my hefty bank account came about by shunning take-away meals, staying away from coffee, and avoiding alcohol.

And while that's true, in part, I never eat out, I don't drink coffee, and I've been a life-long teetotaler, I'm not sure any of those things actually helped me achieve homeownership.

I wasn't really helped by family handouts or living in share houses either. I've lived alone for more than five years, paying all my own rent and bills.

No, what helped me reach this stage of my life so soon was a decision I made 16 years ago. That's when I started my first job, at the age of just 14 and I began saving for a house deposit. I know, I'm fun at parties, hey.

What certainly did not help me was my HECS debt.

More specifically, it was the inflation indexation on my debt that really, really didn't help me.

That debt meant that I had to sacrifice nearly $30,000 from my deposit savings just so I could convince the banks to even consider me for a loan!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me wind back and explain (like I wish someone would have done 10 years ago!)

In 2015, I graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications.

On the day of my graduation, my HECS debt sat around $29,500, which is a little higher than the average, I'll grant. These days, the average university graduate has a $24,000 debt to carry around.

I've not stopped working since I was 14 (and my list of jobs is nothing short of entertaining! Clothes stores, restaurants, wildlife parks, a cosplay elf... I've done a lot to make a buck).

So as soon as I finished university, I went into full-time employment and began paying down my HECS debt. I put $1000-$2000 into the debt every year.

Two years after I'd finished university, in 2017, I expected to see my debt had reduced to less than $27,000, given the amount I had paid into it.

But in 2017, my debt had actually grown. I now owed $30,000! So I continued my efforts to bring down my debt and after six years, I'd paid over $6000 into the debt. But, in 2022, my debt remained at $27,000.

This looming figure was a huge problem when I fronted up to the bank and asked for a half-million dollar loan to buy a two-bedroom duplex more than two hours outside of a major city (and can we talk about how ridiculous that price is?!)

The banks took one look at my HECS debt and began to panic. I was making a good wage, I'm in a relatively secure position. I make about double what most of my friends in my age group make, but that growing HECS debt made me a financial leper.

So, to appeal to the bank, I forfeited nearly $30,000 from my deposit savings to pay my HECS in one lump sum. Seeing that money evaporate from my bank account stung more than stepping on Lego with bare feet.

And here's the thing. I don't recall anyone explaining what indexation would do to my debt back when I ticked an innocuous looking box declaring that I would defer my fees on my university enrolment form.

I don't expect many people know about indexation or how it will hurt you when you unfortunately attempt to buy a house after the largest indexation increase in 32 years.

HECS debt indexation seems to be one of those points in fine print glossed over in the terms and conditions when you're signing up for the degree you're told you need for success in life.

It's the sticky toilet paper on the shoe of your graduate goals, hanging around and trailing you without your knowledge while all your friends who went into trades stand around and laugh behind your back. But when you finally turn around to see it there, you just can't seem to remove it. (The metaphor is a long bow...)

I get it, I'm one of the lucky ones. I'm privileged enough to have been able to pay off my HECS debt AND buy a house. I'm one of the few who can claim to have stamped my name on a small patch of God's green earth.

So what am I complaining about? I'm complaining that generations before me did not have to go through this HECS debt-related trauma.

Before 1989 university education was largely free and it wasn't until 2003 that the whole pesky inflation indexation thing really became a problem.

Many of the Howard government ministers who brought in HECS indexation 20 years ago did in fact benefit from the years of free university education. They didn't have to pay, but we do.

And that's the thing about being a millennial in Australia. House prices are soaring, HECS debts are indexing, cost of living is increasing, and we're just stuck here with our overpriced everything, whinging about it.

What else can you do, right?

ACM will be running a live blog on Tuesday for the Reserve Bank of Australia's March rates decision, keep an eye on the homepage of your local masthead for the news as it happens.