All good things will come to an end. Falling asleep in nine o’clock lectures, cheap beer, exam stress, being unable to afford a new pair of socks.

Eventually, all being well, you’ll get kitted out like an extra in Harry Potter - with a black square on your head, a cheesy grin and a scroll in hand.

After that, you might be thinking that all the hard slog is out of the way, but the problem now is that you’ll have to earn a living and start to pay back what you owe.

Some debts such as your overdraft you won’t be able to delay long before you start making repayments. Most banks won’t let you swan along indefinitely. They want to see their investment in you start to ripen.

As for others, mainly the student loan, the longer you put off being in a position to start making good, the more interest you’ll end up paying.

Besides, after three years of it or more, most people have had quite enough of poverty.

So try to get earning pretty sharpish. If the thought of going straight for a long-term career fills you with dread, try temping or make enquiries about jobs abroad (see Filling the Gap and Jobs Abroad). Lots of graduates take a year between finishing university and landing a permanent job, especially if they didn’t take the opportunity straight out of school or college.

If you do intend to up sticks and leave, or even wait a while before stepping up to the start line of the rat race, check first on what your bank and the Student Loans Company want you to do about your debts. You should be able to defer repayments on your student loan, but your bank may want you to come to some arrangement.

In the case of overdrafts, it’s probably best to pay off at least part of the negative numbers before you go anywhere. The overdraft facility won’t disappear just because you’ve pulled your account into credit and a nice soft financial cushion can be as much of a lifesaver when you’re miles from home as when you were struggling to make ends meet until the end of term.

In the red: handling debt

• A balanced budget
• Employment
  
  
  

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