Should You Include HECS-HELP in Your Net Worth?
Yes. It's money you owe, so it's a liability, and liabilities count.
But HECS is unlike any other debt you'll ever have. Include it in the maths, then stop worrying about it.
Why people leave it out
HECS doesn't feel like a loan:
- Repayments only start once your income passes the threshold
- They come out of your pay automatically, like tax
- There's no interest, only indexation
- Nobody can repossess your degree
- If you die, the remaining balance is cancelled
No bank statement arrives. No one chases you. It's easy to treat it as a background fact of life rather than a debt.
The case for counting it
Net worth is what you own minus what you owe, and you owe this. Leaving it out inflates your position by tens of thousands of dollars.
It also has real effects. Lenders count HECS repayments when they assess how much you can borrow for a home. And every dollar going to HECS is a dollar not going to savings or investments.
There's an upside to counting it too: you get to watch it shrink. A debt that quietly falls every year is one of the easier wins on a net worth chart.
How to track it
Your current balance is in MyGov, under the ATO section.
One quirk to know: the balance moves in lumps, not monthly. Indexation is applied on 1 June, and the amounts withheld from your pay don't come off the balance until your tax return is processed. So don't be surprised if the number sits still for months and then drops all at once.
If you haven't checked in a while, look again. The 20% debt reduction legislated in 2025 means your balance is probably lower than you remember.
Should you rush to pay it off?
For most people, no. Indexation is now capped at the lower of CPI and wage growth, which makes HECS the cheapest debt most Australians will ever hold. Money usually works harder in an offset account or investments than as a voluntary HECS repayment.
That's a general observation, not personal advice. The point is: include the debt, but don't let it dictate your decisions.
HECS is the most patient debt you'll ever have. Count it, watch it shrink, and don't lose sleep over it.
A HECS balance is one line in your net worth, and tracking it monthly is how you notice it gradually disappearing.