How did you plan for your university loan?

Some possible options:

• If your parents have the spare cash, borrow it from them to pay off the bank loan before interset kicks in. And pay them back sytematically.

• If that isnt an option, you should just save more and pay it back as soon as you can. In addition, when you get your 3rd paycheck you could apply for credit loans, some loans offer lower interest rates compared to the study loan so you could consider that depending on the rates offered to you.

Not sure if it's a generational thing - (born 1980, more like a boomer than millennial?) - but most of us just worked and paid off the tuition loans (primarily cpf education loan).

I don't see an issue for trying to pay the tuition loan yourself - it is in fact encouraging and shows that you are mature and able to take charge of your own money matters.

Frankly, paying off the tuition loan will also provide very good training background in managing your own money before you embark on something much larger like a HDB loan.

On the 2nd question, not incurring interest and paying it off as soon as it becomes payable is a nice to have (not a must have). Interest is an unnecessary expense, but most people simply cannot avoid paying any, especially on mortgage loans - I think the focus should be learning to manage and live with it - it's a little bit like learning to cope with falling down / failure and rejection - expecting not to fail or be rejected is probably impossible your whole life - one must learn how to deal with it, instead of trying to avoid it.

In terms of paying for it, personally I always did holiday jobs after exams, and saved bulk of the salary to pay for textbooks and living expenses. I dealt with the loan when I started my first real full-time job, and it was paid off in less than four years. Just a few hundred bucks per month + my annual bonus, rein in your spending that's all its pretty manageable...