How to Travel the World When You Have Student Debt

Student loans are crippling and scary – I get it. After five years of college on my own dime, I’ve amassed more than the average amount of student loan debt. A lot of people are surprised to hear that because if you scroll through my feed, you’ll see endless travel photos. For some reason people have this idea in their head that student loans mean you can’t travel.

Today I wanted to have a bit more of a “real talk” session and show you guys how I juggle my adventures with the ball and chain known as student debt. Grab a coffee or glass of rosé and get comfy – this is a longer post but so worth it! Read on to see how I make it work!

First off, let’s talk priorities.

What you make a priority in your life is what you will manifest. Making things a priority means giving it your time, energy, resources, and attention. When you make a goal a priority, you’re taking steps day in and day out to make it happen. Have you ever said “I want to travel more”? I bet you have.

But have you ever taken steps to research traveling to a destination? Did you book plane tickets? What about setting aside money each month to save up for your trip? Did you take the time off work? Did you do ANYTHING?

A lot of people say they can’t travel but haven’t put any time, energy, resources, or attention into making it happen before coming to that conclusion. If you haven’t taken any action towards making a trip happen, then you aren’t making travel a priority. If it isn’t a priority to you, it’s not gonna happen. You can't kinda-sorta chase your dreams and expect them to happen. That math just doesn't add up, ya know?

So – check yourself before you read on. Don’t come into this article assuming traveling is out of reach for you because of whatever excuse you're harboring. You can make it happen – make just about anything happen, really – if YOU MAKE IT A PRIORITY.

At this point in my life, I have made traveling a priority. Seeing the world fuels me. Experiencing new cultures and sights makes my soul feel alive. Traveling leaves me feeling richer. Because it is a priority for me, I take steps to research trips to make them fit my budget. I save my money for traveling. I’m happy to give up other things in my life to make my journeys happen. Because it is a priority, I do what I can to make it happen – regardless of my student loan situation.

If you WANT to travel, but you aren’t willing to make it a priority, then you will find it so difficult to make your dreams happen, especially when you’re juggling student loans.

Alright, TED talk over.

A lot of people will call me foolish for choosing to invest my money in travels rather than put it all towards my loans. I get the logic – I’m a CPA, I literally went into this student debt to become an expert with finances – because in theory, the sooner the loans are paid off the more money I’ll free up to travel. I question if the people saying that stuff have ever actually traveled themselves….

I have made the conscious decision to NOT to put all my cash towards my debt for the following reasons:

• I want to travel NOW. The longer you wait to do something the more comfortable you become in NOT doing it. The average student loan repayment term is ten years. What makes you think that at age 35 you’ll suddenly feel the urge to see the world after a decade of not expanding your horizons? I’m in a great place to travel – I have so much flexibility at this point in my life – so I’m taking advantage of it now. Who knows where I’ll be when my loans are paid off and if I’ll be in a position to travel.

• I believe we were born to do more than pay bills and die. My dream is to see the world and my dreams shouldn’t sit on the shelf until the “right time” – there’s never a right time. I think there’s a balance between being responsible and living your life to the fullest.

• I have managed my loans and my finances to a point where I can make more than my minimum payments while still maintaining my lifestyle. You can do it too, I promise.

Still with me? Awesome. Enough with all the fluff – let’s get into why you’re here. How do I pull this all off?

The first step is to make sure you really understand your loans. It sucks, I get it, but this is called adulting and we need to do it sometimes. Know if your loans are public or private. Know if your interest rates are fixed or variable. Make sure you’re aware of how long your loan term is and when your payments are due. Most importantly, know what your repayment plan is – are you on a sliding scale, is it tied to your income, or is it fixed for the entire term? It’s also a good idea to check your detailed payment history and see how much is going towards principle (the actual money you loaned) and interest (the amount the bank is charging for the loan). Knowledge is power.

Government loans will usually give you options for repayment. I’ve elected to be on the most aggressive repayment plan so that way my payments are as impactful as possible. I feel better about putting money towards my travels as a result. I’ve also budgeted a small amount each month that I can afford to make as an extra payment. This is setup automatically to go towards my lowest balance loan to help pay it off faster without draining my “fun” money.

If you aren’t actively saving for travels and don't know what you can comfortable save, coming up with the funds to travel can be tricky. Look through your finances and figure out an amount that you can put aside from each paycheck JUST FOR TRAVELING. Set up a new savings account with automatic transfers to build up your travel fund. When it becomes a routine that you can do easily, you can stick with it and let the cash build up over time. Even $50 a paycheck can land you with $1,300 in a year – more than enough to take a trip abroad!

Anytime I get a bonus or a monetary gift, I put half towards my debt. It does help me make progress and it’s the responsible thing to do. But by still allowing myself to enjoy the other half – which I put towards travels – I’m finding a great balance that’s easy to keep up with. I work hard for my bonuses and I want to enjoy that reward now at least a little bit. Coming up with a similar rule for extra cash you come across is a good way to easily balance extra payments without sacrificing too much.

Outside of traveling and normal expenses like rent and insurance, I don’t spend a lot of money. I couldn’t tell you the last time I went to the mall. I’ve unsubscribed from marketing emails and don’t just “browse” at stores. I’ve cut back drastically on my mindless spending so I can juggle student loan payments and my travels. My husband and I have our weekly date night but other than that, we don’t hang out at bars or hit up concerts. Look at your bank statements and see where your money is going – and then cut back. A trip to Thailand is WAY more worth it than another pair of jeans.

Being a new grad in a new job is scary. Often, we take what we are offered because, well, we don’t know what else to do. Let me tell you this in case no one else ever has – ALWAYS NEGOTIATE. Don’t leave cash and benefits you deserve on the table. I do my research (how much does someone like me working in a similar company in my city make and how does that compare to my salary - this tool is SUPER helpful with that) and use that when it comes time for my compensation reviews. When I have a stellar performance review or do great on a project, I work up the confidence to leverage that into a wage reflective of my work. Get the income you deserve.

When I graduated, I had a bunch of different loans – all with different due dates, interest rates, and balances. I was able to combine and even refinance some loans. This simplified my payment structure and even lowered my interest rates on some loans. Because I took the steps to bundle and rewrite my debt, I’m saving more money in the long run. You can check with a typical bank, but don't discount peer-to-peer services like SoFi.

I want to hop on a first-class flight to an overwater bungalow in Bora Bora as much as the next person. But when I do travel, I’m sensible about it. I opt for trips and itineraries that are doable for my budget. Walking everywhere or taking public transport, staying in smaller hotels outside the city center, booking economy flights on budget airlines, eating from street vendors, and picking destinations that are cheaper are all ways to make traveling less expensive. Also – be aware that those all-inclusive island getaways are usually REALLY expensive. You can swing a cultural trip to Prague or Amsterdam for less than a week in Cabo with endless drinks.

Once you start getting regular paychecks it’s tempting to want to #upgrade. I see a lot of recent grads living the high life – nails done, fancy car, downtown apartments – just stop. Check yourself and ask what your priorities are. I still drive the same car I drove throughout college but adding on a $300/month car payment is $300 less I have for traveling. Just because cash is coming in doesn’t mean you can live large in all aspects. Traveling > newest iPhone.

If you want to know the specifics on how my debt payments and travel savings work, here you go. I get paid biweekly. My big monthly expenses – rent, insurance, gym membership, phone, etc. – are all usually due in the first two weeks of the month. My loan payments are due on the 5th, 8th, and 25th of the month.

• First paycheck of the month – dedicated to rent, insurance, gym, and phone expenses. $200 is put aside in my travel savings. $150 extra payment goes to a loan payment.

• Second paycheck of the month – $200 goes into my travel savings. The full amount of my loan payments due in the NEXT month are auto-transferred to a separate savings account. This keeps those funds safely set aside to meet my loan payments coming up.

• Auto-transfers pull my loan payment from that special savings to my checking account the day before my due dates (4th, 7th, and 24th).

• Biweekly pay means you get two months a year with an extra paycheck. I usually follow my 50% towards debt rule and use the other 50% for fun – usually traveling.

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Alright guys, there you go. All my ways to keep up with loan payments while still saving up to see the world. It really does come down to that preachy stuff at the start of this post – priorities. If you are choosing to spend money on new shoes, new clothes, nights out, mortgage down payment, etc., you won’t have the money to travel. It’s all about what you decide to make happen in your life. Traveling with debt is doable, it just takes some work.

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