Fresh grad feels she’s ‘working for nothing’ as nearly half her take-home pay goes to student loans

SINGAPORE: Paydays are usually something to look forward to. One fresh graduate, however, feels like her salary simply slips through her fingers, as nearly half her take-home pay goes towards student loan repayments each month.

On r/singaporefi, the 23-year-old said she feels like she’s “working for nothing”. She earns S$4,750 a month before deductions, takes home about S$3,800, and pays S$1,800 towards her student loans, leaving her with roughly S$2,000 for other expenses.

Further explaining her situation, she said this was only her second month making repayments, and she still owed S$22,000 at an annual interest rate of 4.75%.

“I know what has to be done needs to be done, but I feel so depressed whenever I see my pay getting cut by S$1.8k every month to pay off my school fees,” she wrote.

Looking back, she said her past spending habits also left her with no savings. She explained that she had previously splurged on travel, expensive clothes and makeup, and spent about S$20,000 on a semester-long exchange programme in the UK.

To cut back on daily expenses, she said she has stopped buying drinks, opted for cheaper food options in the Central Business District (CBD), where she works, and taken the North East Line (NEL) during off-peak hours to enjoy an 80% discount on fares. 

Regretful of her financial decisions, she turned to others for suggestions.

Some commenters encouraged her, saying she was already “on the path to recovery”, while others reminded her that “it will be a temporary pain” and that it was best to accept that things would be difficult for a while.

For some Singaporeans, taking out student loans may be necessary to finance their university education. The challenge, however, is repaying the debt afterwards.

In August, The Independent Singapore reported on another Singaporean fresh graduate facing the same student-loan dilemma, this time with S$30,000 in debt. The Singaporean fresh grad also turned to netizens for advice because she was experiencing “loan anxiety” over how she could ever repay her debt.

For north-east commuters like the post author looking to cut their daily expenses, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) introduced a one-year pilot of free off-peak train rides on December 27, 2025. The scheme covers any of the six NEL stations between Punggol Coast and Kovan and any Sengkang-Punggol Light Rapid Transit (LRT) stations. Commuters can travel for free on weekdays if they tap in before 7:30 a.m. or between 9 a.m. and 9:45 a.m.

LTA also enhanced its existing fare-discount scheme for eligible North-East Line commuters under the Travel Smart Journeys programme, which provides an 80% fare discount for commuters who tap in before 7:15 a.m. or between 8:45 a.m. and 9:45 a.m. The changes, LTA said, included a simpler enrolment process and more rewards. /TISG

Read also: Jobless diploma holder racks up more than S$20K debt after gambling on friends’ advice