It’s no surprise that we love to travel. We’ve taken our family all over the world and still maintain our home and our life here in Australia. One of the things that helps us is to keep our debts low and to only go on trips where we can pay for it in cash.
This plan has served us well, so we wanted to share a few ways you can apply this to your own life to start seeing the world with your family.
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FREES UP YOUR INCOME
It may seem obvious, but one of the best reasons to pay off your debts is so you get back more money in your budget without needing to work more. More money in the budget, means more opportunity to travel. If you’re like us and you travel part-time, it’s easy to build your trip balance back up when you get home. You also get to fully take time away from your work and daily routine to fully enjoy your trip.
YOU GET TO TRAVEL TO MORE EXOTIC PLACES
It’s one thing to travel a few weekends a year to go camping nearby. It’s a whole other thing to plan a trip to the Great Wall of China with a family of 5. We’re talking airline tickets, travel insurance, hotels, food, transportation, travel VISAS, and more. It’s possible to plan for a big trip like this, but you need more money for it than your typical weekend getaway. The nice thing about having low or no debt is that you free up your finances to save up for these once in a lifetime adventures.
LESS STRESS
Being low or no debt means you don’t need to worry as much about your finances. If you want to take a break from work, try a new job, or move to a more nomadic lifestyle, you’ll have more freedom to do it. We love traveling and exploring and find we have so much less stress when we aren’t focused on paying off debt.
GIVES YOU FUN GOALS TO WORK TOWARDS
Who wants to spend their whole lives planning how to pay off debt? Most people I know would love to enjoy their lives before they die. No one wants their lifelong goal to be “get out of debt”. So, get out of debt so you can make exciting travel goals. Where do you want to go first? Do you long to climb the highest mountain or to walk through ancient ruins? Do you wish for beach days that feel like they could go on forever? Paying off your debt will give you more freedom to do all of it.
TOP 3 WAYS TO PAY OFF DEBT FOR GOOD
Stop Using It
First get on a budget that helps you spend less than you make. Stop charging expenses on your credit cards. It’s best if everything comes out of your bank account. Then stop using debt for everyday things. While a home loan and a car loan are typically more essential, you can live without the latest and greatest models while you clean up your finances.
Make a Plan
You need not only a budget that helps you pay for your essentials and all your minimum balances, but that helps you get ahead and pay things off. A debt payoff plan can be as simple as paying an extra $100 per month on your credit cards until they are gone. Travelers like us may use credit cards while we are traveling because of exchange rates and other perks, but we always spend what we budgeted for in the bank account so we can pay it all off right away.
Get Help
Sometimes, a budget and a plan isn’t enough and you need strategic consulting to get out of your mess. When you have debt collectors and piles of bills showing up, you may need to consolidate high interest rates under lower interest rate loans. You may need legal help as well.
Paying off debt isn’t fun, but the quicker you can do it, the faster you’ll get back to enjoying life the way it was meant to be. Free of financial stress with the excitement of going on adventures with your family.
What’s your top debt busting tips? Share them in the comments section below.
Safe travels,
Sal, Craig & Our3kids.
