RVE 93: How We Paid off $25K in Debt While Traveling Full-Time

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Back in February of 2014, Alyssa and I had a choice to make. Whether we would sit around for the next couple years and heavily pay down student debt, or we could buy an RV and go travel the country. One decision seemed a bit irrational and the other one seemed like the typical route.

Obviously we chose the latter.

Money was tight our first year on the road. However, we were able to keep financing our travels and eventually make enough to begin paying down my student loan debt.

As of a couple weeks ago, we were able to make the last payment on that student loan debt. So as it turns out, we didn’t have to choose between “being responsible” or going to travel, we could and HAVE done both.

On today’s episode, I interviewed Alyssa about the process of paying down our student loan debt and how we were able to knock that out while traveling full-time.

Side note: thanks to Alyssa for marrying me even though I had 27k in student loan debt and you had zero. 

 

A few things we talk about on this episode:

• What our finances looked like during our first year of traveling in an RV
• How much we stressed about money during that first year
• Why we chose to buy a new RV despite our debt
• Three things that were most influential in us paying off debt
• What we did each month to keep us on track for paying down debt
• What sacrifices we’ve made over the past few years to reach this point
• How Alyssa kept my spending in check as we paid off debt

Nuggets of wisdom:

“During our first year, we spent way more than we were making — which is #1 personal finance no no.” – Alyssa

“We were paying almost $6 a day in interest on these loans. That’s a pound of ground beef and a bag of cheese! How many cheeseburgers are we throwing away every single day?!” – Alyssa

“Continue investing in profitable skills.” – Heath

“Contribute consistently. Even if you only contribute a little each month, you can still look back and say ‘I’m moving forward’.” – Alyssa

Check out our spreadsheet and other financial advice in the course:

Thanks for listening!

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