Should we delay our retirement to help pay our daughter’s uni fees?

July 19, 2026 — 3:01am

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I’m trying to work out if we can afford to pay our daughter’s uni fees, so she doesn’t graduate with a huge debt. I think the solution is that I would need to work longer, but I’m struggling to figure out how much longer. Is there an easy way to figure this out?

Thanks for your interesting question. Of the various levers we can pull to impact long-term financial security, working longer typically has the largest impact.

For a simple maths method, I would start with an estimate of how much in university fees you will pay. Next, I would work out your current annual surplus, i.e. after tax income less normal living costs.

Divide the university costs by the annual surplus and that will give you the number of years savings required to cover those expenses, which you could interpret to be the extra years of work required. For example, $100,000 of........

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