Hello! A fellow indebted Dutchie here :)
We are in a pretty similar situation, it seems. I own DUO a chunk as well, and... I have no intention in paying it off early, or following the proposed rate. Because my stufi started before 2009, I was offered the choice: pay back via the current rules or previous rules. I chose the previous ones, because:
- You can choose five years in which you don't have to pay back a penny. Even in high income years, but also if you are laid off or whatever. Consequent years, or intermittent. Up to you to choose them wisely ;) I call them my "joker years" (think Rummikub etc.)
- "Draagkracht" is not calculated on family income, but individual income. My income is a whole lot lower than our joint income, and I am responsible for paying my own study loans so it seems only fair this way.
- Based on my current income, my monthly amount is ... 0 euros. Works for me!
Is the payback amount you mentioned (83 euros/month I believe?) the absolute minimum you'd have to pay? If not, I would set it at minimum. Just consider this; inflation is higher than the loan's interest. Yes, even taken into account the interest-on-interest (stacked interest) effect of the loan - because the interest is so low! This means that the longer you wait, the less you have to pay back (in buying power = koopkracht). Which goes completely against any (US centered) common wisdom. No "geld lenen kost geld" in this case. Your loan is slowly disappearing by itself over time. Weird, but true. With "safe" savingsaccounts giving you another 1% back, you are actually letting the loans pay for themselves (partly, at least).
Just like you, I started out saving my student loans on a normal savings account at 1% interest. Just to have it at the ready as a "buffer" to weather out bad times. I have needed it in the past during a period of after-school unemployment (2013 graduation, no bijstand, no ww). Because I'm in steadier waters now, I'm saving up for an eventual downpayment. Because this is approximately three years down the road, I've also invested some of the chunk in low-cost indexfunds and will increase that portion this year, but to an amount that feels okay in a worst case scenario. My strategy is that if everything fails and I lose it all (worst-worst case scenario, this has never happened in history), I could still "make up" for the lost sum in a reasonable timeframe by saving the part of my income that is left over after my expenses.
From your previous comments in this thread, I deduct that I'm probably more risk tolerant than you. So, I would advise you against index investing because you need to sleep soundly at night no matter what happens. However you should definitely consider a 1-2-3 year "deposito" just like MrFrugalNL mentioned. That's as safe as it gets, with a slightly better interest than a normal savings account.
I think buying a reasonable house with the student loan as a downpayment is a good call. Better a loan at DUO than at the bank, in my opinion. A mortgage doesn't scale down if you lose your job; the student loans will. But, you have to consider that since 2008 banks take DUO loans into consideration if you apply for a mortgage. So, this means that the loans amount (and more!) is substracted for the amount you get to loan for the mortgage. So let's say you are eligible for a 200K mortgage based purely on income. With, say, 10K of loan saved up, you are eligible for 160K mortgage. Weird stuff, right?
Banks only consider the size of the loan at time of your graduation, they don't take repayments into account (yes, this is unfair and inaccurate!).
It is not technically illegal to keep your DUO loan info to yourself (it is not BKR registered, after all), but that way you are in big trouble if you decide to take on a NHG mortgage. The NHG insurance may not pay out if they find out you kept info like that to yourself when taking on the mortgage. So... conundrum.
More info in
this linkBtw, if you are into finding more dutchies on the forum: there's a thread in the Meet-up section of the forum ;)