Interview: Bethani King

This is the second interview in a series I’ll be posting from time to time with various other travelers and budget savvy individuals. If you’re interested in sharing your story with me, or know of someone who would be great for me to talk to, let me know!

I met Bethani while living in Honduras as a missionary, which she had done the year prior. She was traveling around central America at the time and we had a lot of fun getting to know each other in the few days we spent together. We’ve kept in touch on and off since then through Facebook, mostly as I drool over all her travels! Read about her story here below:

About Bethani:

I grew up in Portland, Oregon, with ten brothers and sisters who all play basketball and two-three instruments. I love HIKING! Give me a couple mountains and I’ll be happy forever. I’ll also be happy forever if you give me a couple instruments and a couple friends to make music with. I have perhaps an unbalanced fascination with languages, and am always working on a new one… or four. I’m currently teaching high school music and Spanish in Sacramento, California.

What’s your top piece of advice for college graduates coming out of school with a lot of student loans and still wanting to travel?

This is “irresponsible” advice, but I did it and will never regret it. I always tell people that once you start working, you’ll be working forever. Or at least for a long time. You invest in houses and cars and things that tie you down, you have work commitments and obligations, etc… I deferred my loans for one year after college and spent the year in Germany working as an au pair, learning German, and traveling all over Europe. That one year of deferred loans cost me maybe 100-200 dollars in extra interest over the life of my loans. For that couple hundred dollars, I saw some pretty fantastic things, gained incredibly rich experiences with new people and cultures, developed a self-confidence that only comes from being completely on your own in the world, made close friends whom I dearly love… and I can now speak German! Worth it.

How did you determine your plan/time line for paying off your loans?

I resolved to continue living on the same budget I had lived on as a student, even though I was suddenly making much more. Everything extra just went to my loans; I didn’t treat it as my money. After making 5x times the minimum payments for two years, I paid off my last student loan, and saved several thousand dollars in interest along the way.

What have you found to be most effective in paying off your loans?

Don’t consolidate your loans. I know, I know, that goes against everything you’ve ever been told. Consolidation is the conventional wisdom, as it’s easier to track just one payment every month, less chance of forgetting and getting charged a finance fee… but side with human psychology on this one. One huge loan can seem insurmountable, and even large payments feel like a discouraging drop in the bucket. Smaller, attainable goals make it easier to maintain motivation. I had five smaller loans, and paid them off in order of the highest interest. Each time I’d get close to paying one loan off I’d get giddily excited and try to figure out a way to get that last bit in a month early. Then with each completion I’d live on cloud nine for a day or two. Gratification here and now is a thing, and it’s powerful. Use it to your advantage.

What’s one thing you wish you had known or done differently in handling the loans?

I’m very glad that when first starting out I asked for advice and help from a wide variety of people. A college friend working as an accountant, my uncle, who is a CPA and business professor at University of Oregon, my father, who ran a small business most of his life, and other friends who were a couple years ahead of me on the debt road. I had no experience, and wanted to start the process as informed as possible. All these people had unique advice and life experience tips for me. My accountant friend even set up my loans in one spreadsheet with amortization for me, which I referred to constantly for the duration of my pay-off period. Don’t get all funny and private and shy about money – everyone deals with it. Ask others what’s worked for them.

What was the first thing you did when you were debt free?

As soon as my last debt was paid, I sat down and re-evaluated my financial situation. After two years, I knew that I don’t need nearly as much as I earn, and I wanted to keep my lifestyle simple. So I cut my monthly income in thirds. I live on a third, I save a third, and I’m blessed to be able to give away a third. This is absolutely the most joyful part for me about being debt-free. I can support my church, mission projects around the world, deserving students struggling to get through school… or whatever else God throws in my path. It’s all His money, after all.

Where did your love of travel come from?

I love people! I love stepping in to how other people do life. I love the idiosyncrasies of language, the history of customs and traditions.

I blame my wanderlust on my parents. At age 7 I spent two weeks in Singapore visiting my uncle and aunt who were missionaries there. It was in the middle of the Chinese New Year celebrations, and as the only blonde ringlet-ed thing around, everywhere we went the huge dragons would dance right up to me. I was so terrified the first time that it actually made me cry. But I quickly developed a fascination with their culture and the stories behind these traditions.

At age 11 I spent three weeks in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia with my grandparents, visiting the places where they served as missionaries, and where my mother grew up. I got altitude sickness at Macchu Picchu, and spent a couple hours chewing coca leaves that a local gave me. I ate purple bananas and corn ice cream. My whole world was opened up.

What has been your top travel adventure so far?

Shoot, tough question. Maybe because it’s so recent, my hitchhiking experience comes to mind. Two weeks ago I administered my last final in Sacramento, where I teach high school music and Spanish, and then took off on a four-day hitchhiking trip up Highway 101. I had friends to stay with on the way, but depended on the kindness of strangers to travel over one thousand miles to my parents’ home in Walla Walla, Washington. I couldn’t have invented the life stories of the people I met. People are incredibly open and honest when they know they have an hour or two to talk and will never see you again. I was privileged to enter into some very deep struggles with some of my drivers, and am still thinking about them, hoping they’re making it through okay. I encountered unprecedented kindness. I already had great faith in the goodness of strangers, but I hope that by sharing my experience, others might be a bit more ready to engage with the world outside their umbrella. We’re all so afraid of each other. The truth is, people are good! Most people will actually go out of their way to help you. We don’t tell the good stories often enough.

What is your craziest travel story?

Oh boy. There are a lot, and they’re all long. Ask me to tell them to you sometime. In short…

I lived in Honduras for a year, and one Friday a gas truck hit a cow on the main road out of my town. Traffic was piled up five-wide (on a two-lane road) for the rest of the day. I had weekend travel plans that I really didn’t want to give up, so ended up walking, hitchhiking, jumping in the back of a pick-up truck, and sleeping on a stranger’s couch before finally making it to my destination – a 4-hour trip that took me almost 24. Again, the kindness of strangers. Then there was that one time that I got food poisoning on day two of a three-day trek up Mount Cameroon, the tallest peak in West Africa… I told my sister to dig deep when she buried me, because even after death by bad beans I didn’t want to be eaten by wild Cameroonian animals. But hey, I made it to the summit and have a picture to prove it! Someday I’d like to take on that mountain again in a full state of health.

What are your top tips for saving money while traveling?

Couchsurf. Check out your options at http://www.couchsurfing.org (and check out my review of it here). So many awesome people waiting for you to be friends with. Not only is it economical, if you want to meet real people and experience the culture of the place you’re going, there’s nothing better. I would couchsurf even if it were more expensive than the fanciest hotel, just for the genuine interactions and real-life culture you experience. And it’s very . It might just restore some of your faith in humanity, if you’re lacking.

How were you able to prioritize traveling?

I know that I have to travel in order to remain content in my day-to-day life. As such, it’s never been difficult for me to prioritize it. I’m always planning the next trip, or even two or three next trips.

What advice do you have for those wanting to travel, but a bit short on money?

Traveling doesn’t have to be as expensive as everyone thinks. If you can save enough for a plane ticket, figure out how to economize everywhere else. Many countries around the world have very cheap public transport once you get there. Couchsurf, or connect with a local church before you arrive and find out if there’s a place you can sleep. Buy food at markets or grocery stores rather than going out to eat. Capitalize on visiting places that are free – national parks, waterfalls, lakes and rivers – and only pay for a museum or site if it’s REALLY going to be worth it.

Also – if you find yourself with a chunk of time but not much money, you need to seriously investigate this website. http://www.workaway.info. Do you want to spend a couple weeks working on an organic pear farm in Italy? A dive shop in Crete? Play music at a hostel in Buenos Aires? Dream up a job, and you can probably find it. You trade 2-4 hours of work every day for a free place to live and food.

What have you found most helpful in planning your trips?

I often glance through Lonely Planet’s website before going to a new place, just to make sure there’s nothing huge that I’m unaware of. But network with friends! Chances are, you know someone who’s been to where you’re going, or even lived there for a time, or knows someone who lived there for a time. I’ve stayed with friends of friends countless times on travels, just by talking about the trip before I left, and making connections.

Where’s your next trip going to be?

I’m leaving on June 21^st for 6 weeks in Europe. J I’m working for a month at a hostel in Annecy, France, where I’m hoping to make leaps and bounds in my French conversation skills, and hike the Alps every day. The other two weeks I’ll spend traveling with my sister. I’m most excited about reconnecting with my friends in Germany, visiting Greece for the first time.

Final words of wisdom?

I’ve never spent money on a trip and later thought, “Man, I wish I could I have that $____ back.” It just doesn’t happen. Experiences are the most rewarding way to spend your money. Even better is if these experiences include people you love. If your cousin is spending a year studying in Chile, if your college roommate is working at an orphanage in Thailand… seriously consider buying a ticket. Live a little piece of their life with them. It’s expensive, you have limited time off, you might get robbed… there are a thousand reasons to stay home where you’re safe and comfortable. But the greatest regrets that people express at the end of their lives is the things they didn’t do, the risks they didn’t take, the stories they don’t have. It’s a great big beautiful world out there.