TL;DR: Donate student loans now, or wait with donating till you’ve started working?
I’ve heard that donating today can have a greater counterfactual impact than donating a larger sum in for example five years time. So I wonder, would it be better for me as a Swedish student to donate my student loans to effective charities rather than wait till I begin working? If I donate all I can now, I’ll have accrued a debt of 60,000 dollars by time I graduate, which will cost me a total of about 80,000 dollars at time of having it paid back (after a 25 year time period post graduation). Assuming I take this path, I’ll have donated about 10,000 dollars per year until graduation (assuming I’ll study six years). What do you think would be the best option? Thank you for taking the time to read this and I really appreciate any input! :)
Just to clarify, would you take on an additional 60000 dollars worth of debt in order to donate it?
If so, I find this admirable, though I would also advise caution, since you can also have impact with your direct work, which might be more difficult if you have a lot of debt. For example, you might want to start a charity or take an unpaid internship to get started in an altruistic career. This might be harder if you have to pay off a lot of debt.
Can you also give an estimate how much more valuable you think donations right now are?
I love the spirit of altruism, and thank you for sharing your thoughts here!