This is the next 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 Kassy through many classes we had together at Union and enjoyed spending time together throughout the years. Her and Ross were extremely helpful as Pablo and I planned our European adventure last year! Though they’ve since moved to the west coast, our love of travel and living on a small budget still holds much in common for us. Check out some of their advice in how they’ve been able to pay off debt and still prioritize seeing the world.
About Ross and Kassy:
Kassy is from Eugene, Oregon and Ross is from Bismarck, North Dakota. We met at Union College and spent a year dating long distance. During that time we started creating a list of things that we both thought would be a lot of fun to do together once we were actually together. We enjoy traveling, anything that gets the adrenaline pumping, board games, playing sports, and exploring the Portland area. Ross is a Network Administrator for a Managed IT Services company and Kassy is currently staying home as our first child is almost here.
What’s your top piece of advice for college graduates coming out of school with a lot of student loans?
Pay off the debt with the highest interest first and work your way down to the lowest.
How did you determine your plan/time line for paying off your loans?
Our goal was as quickly as possible- and before we had children.
What have you found to be most effective in paying off your loans?
One mistake a lot of people make is to increase their standard of living as soon as they get out of college to match what they are making. For example: if you have a car that works, use it- don’t rush out and buy a new one. We lived on as little as possible and took one of our salaries and dumped it into our loans and saved some of it for our travel.
Also, don’t let other people try to talk you out of paying your loans. We found that a lot of friends would tell us it is “good debt” so we shouldn’t pay it off right away. We didn’t buy that, especially when we figured out the additional money we would be paying in interest.
What’s one thing you wish you had known or done differently in handling the loans?
I can’t think of anything.
What was the first thing you did when you were debt free?
We went on a celebratory trip to New Zealand! (Of course we had saved for it before so we weren’t creating new debt.)
Where did your love of travel come from? Why do you love it so much?
We both have fond memories of traveling with our families growing up, and both had lists of places we wanted to visit when we were making the travel plans ourselves. We combined our lists to create our bucket list. It sort of became a challenge to see how many places we could see in our lives.
What has been your top travel adventure so far?
While we were in New Zealand we went sledging, glow-worm caving, and hiking. Our favorite day, though, was when we went skydiving, bungee jumping and luging all in the same day!
What is your craziest travel story?
We visited nine countries in Europe in two weeks. Everyone told us we were crazy before we left, but we wouldn’t change a thing. Probably our best day there was in Florence where we took an Italian pasta making class in the morning, had so much fun that we decided to literally run around the city to see everything, then come back for the evening pizza making class before taking a red eye train ride to Venice.
What are your top tips for saving money while traveling?
- Go to the grocery store when you get to the destination, and buy enough to make simple things like pb&j. Decide on a few special meals you want to eat out, but you can save a lot by eating simple things.
- Couchsurf!
- Get a book and plan ahead.
How were you able to prioritize traveling?
We knew we wanted to take certain trips before expanding our family. We would plan our trips around holidays so we could get the extra vacation days and we just started chipping away.
What advice do you have for those wanting to travel, but a bit short on money?
Stop eating out and put that money aside to your travel fund. You can also start doing short/domestic trips that don’t require plane tickets.
What have you found most helpful in planning your trips?
Lonely Planet travel guides are fantastic. They have more information in them than any of the other ones that we have found.
Also, know exactly what you want to do and plan your trip out well ahead of time.
Where’s your next trip going to be?
Most likely Alaska, but we aren’t sure when yet.
Final words of wisdom?
Money spent on making memories and traveling is never wasted. To quote a famous gnome: “Go and Smell the Roses!”
Fire Round the World 