Patti’s Story: Moving countries & paying off $150k in student loans
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What motivated Patti to move to Australia as an international student?
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Patti, welcome to the Australian Finance Podcast.
Thanks, Kate. I'm excited to be here this morning or today.
It's been a while since we've done a listener story episode. So I'm really excited to chat to you a little bit more, to share some of your journey, because I think you've got a lot of things to share and you've learned many lessons, money and life related along the way that hopefully like some people in our audience will either get something from or learn a few bits, tips and tricks from you, from the things you've experienced. So maybe just to kick things off, are you able to tell us a little bit about you?
Yeah, for sure. I'm Paddy. I am 35. I currently live in Brisbane, Vegas. I came to Australia as an international student about 15 years ago. I'm a mom and I work in tech.
Well, very exciting. And I'm looking forward to sharing a little bit more about your journey. And I think maybe just to kick things off, like how was that journey coming to Australia as an international student? Because I know we've spoken to an international student for our listener story before, and it seemed like it was a very challenging transition.
Yeah, it was. I came here probably early 2000s and I came over to do a Bachelor of Commerce in Finance. Coming from Papua New Guinea, it was a bit of a struggle, if I'm honest, because of, you know, not having family in Australia, having to kind of stand on my own two feet, and then also the weight of the loan that my parents decided to get to support me in Australia. But yeah, the whole experience was... And I guess it's kind of led me into that frugal lifestyle, which goes hand in hand with this whole fire journey that I'm on.
Yeah, and I know when you mentioned the size of the loan, it was quite significant. And, I mean, most of us have not had to experience paying off that kind of debt or we've had the opportunity to use HECS in Australia. And so how did you go about sort of even coming to terms with the loan and, like, what steps did you go into sort of paying it back?
Yeah, so it was about $150,000. And the steps, I guess, well, like, to be honest, I was – 18 and I was so scared.
Yeah, it's a lot of dead at 18.
And I just kind of went into this dark hole for a little bit and thought, oh my gosh, how am I going to get out of this?
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What motivated Patti to move to Australia as an international student?
0:00–12:19
2
How did Patti manage her $150,000 student debt?
12:19–21:28
3
What strategies did Patti use to increase her income while studying?
21:28–35:10
4
How did Patti balance her social life with debt repayment?
35:10–35:52
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from Australian Finance Podcast
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