If my parents offered to write off my education loan (70k), should I still pay them back? And if so, how long should I target to return them fully? Assuming take home $2.8k. Liabilities $1.4k.?

I think you should. If you can't handle 70k study loan, how to handle bigger loans for hdb and condo?

If your parents don't need the money, ask them help you keep for your wedding present.

Suggest you do at least 350 each to pay down the study loan and liabilities first. When the 1.4k is cleared off, then aim the full 700 at the study loan. Keep your bonuses to pay down the loan as quickly as possible because at these sums, you will need possibly 8-12 years to pay off at this rate.

If you can do more than 350-700, aim to do so.

I think I paid off my loans in 5 years of work, but mine was only about 60k (but I did earn close to 5k during the 4-5 th year).

Learn from this period the good practice of saving and paying down the loan. If you didn't learn it well, you will probably be paying a lot of interest for the rest of your life.

Hey there!

I guess it depends on how this was discussed between you and your parents? :)

Personally I would pay my parents back, I think it is pretty respectable to be able to fund your own education, though I do believe that some parents wouldn't want this sum back, it's something I would do out of gratitude.

If this sum of money does incur interest, I would clear this debt ASAP. Based on the 50-30-20 salary allocation, I would channel my wealth accumulation (30%) to clearing my debt first before starting on my investments.

If it's something that is flexible with your parents and you wish to start investing earlier, perhaps I would then stretch out the repayment period and return a smaller amount every month, so that I would be able to accumulate some money for investments as well. :-)