How Traveling Helped Me Overcome Debt Fatigue
When I first got serious about paying off the $68,000 in student loans I had after graduate school, I was excited about hunkering down and slaying my debt. In the beginning of 2013, I started blogging about my debt journey. I cut my budget to the bone and only spent money on essentials. After a while, I realized that I wasn’t making enough money to make the progress I really wanted. I had already cut everything out that I could so I had to earn more. I began side hustling like crazy.
I found gigs on Craigslist and TaskRabbit. Through friends of friends I did everything from being a pet sitter to a brand ambassador, to freelance writer and event assistant at a Jewish congregation (Pro tip: Find work outside of your faith. They hired me because I’m not Jewish and it wouldn’t conflict working on their holidays).
Side hustling became my life and I was a machine. I was working seven days a week and most days sleeping from midnight to 6 a.m. I’d wake up early to get writing done and after work had evening events or gigs. Weekends were always busy. Though it was tough to manage, I was working so much that I wasn’t focused on how depressed my student loans made me feel.
I also was able to start paying more toward my student loans. My student loan plan required that I pay $1,200 per month, which was $300 more than the already high minimum payment.
For a couple of years, I kept going at this pace. But at the two -and-a-half year mark, debt fatigue hit me hard. I was tired of paying off debt. I was resentful of working all the time when all of my friends would regale me with their stories of fun weekends and nights out.
Many of the debt success stories I read had people pay off debt in less than a year. But in my situation, I had to pay four-figure payments for at least four years. It felt like an eternity and so very far away.
I knew I needed a break. I had a friend teaching abroad in Spain and I decided to visit her and make a stop in Portugal along the way.
Many people think traveling while paying off debt is a huge no-no. And in most cases it is. But I used credit card points from a rewards card to pay $63 for a round-trip flight to Spain off-season. I had only had student loan debt and never had a problem with credit cards so was able to take advantage of this.
I stayed in hostels and while in Nerja, Spain, I stayed with my friend. In total, the two-week trip cost a little more than $1,000, thanks to the rewards flight, hostels, and three euro jamón sandwiches and beer.
Technically that was a one month student loan payment. I could have been debt-free one month sooner. But I’m so grateful I decided to go against unconventional wisdom and travel. Here’s why: