I'm a typical career development center success story: I landed my "dream job" immediately after graduating from a four-year university. Unfortunately, the job wasn’t quite as dreamy as I had imagined. Super-long hours and poor structure led to me feeling overwhelmed, overworked, and often asking myself, What am even I doing with my time? I knew that climbing the ladder was certainly one way to get to the top, but the top of what? Was that really what I wanted? When I thought about my (dream) five-year plan, it didn’t include an office or conference room meetings.
The issue: I had nearly $14,000 in student loans following me. While I was in a lot less trouble than many of my friends were, the number felt intimidating. But I also didn't want that number to hold me back from a more fulfilling life. So I began doing a ton of research to try and figure out how I could change my reality — while dealing with the reality of my student loans. Here, read how hours and hours of research led me to where I sit at this very moment: in a brown leather chaise, drinking a lime juice by a pool in Cambodia.
Ask yourself what you really want. Do you want to backpack through Europe? Teach English in Asia? Or maybe you want to work on a farm in South America? All of these options are feasible. I would recommend writing down three to five places of interest and working off of that. Don’t pigeonhole yourself into the first place you think of, because chances are, it won’t work out, or you’ll fall in love with a different location. For me, I debated heavily between Thailand and Vietnam, but in the end Thailand won.
Then, last month — three days before I was set to enter the country — there were 11 bombings in five different cities across Thailand. Out of the five cities bombed, I had planned on staying in two of them for extended periods of time. After talking to friends in the area, I decided it was best to postpone my Thailand plans and am currently stalling in Cambodia.
Once you have a dream, commit to a timeline — and just like your dream escape plan, make sure you're flexible. I decided I was going to move in October ’15 and then actually made the move in August ’16. Discipline is key. I spent a solid 10 months preparing, and there were moments when I wanted to rip my eyeballs out due to pure anxiety over waiting and pondering if I had made the right decision. But I am here to assure you: I have one hundred million percent made the correct decision.
Illustrated by Abbie Winters.
While you're still stateside, break down your weekly spendings and figure out what’s going on in your bank account; minimize the bad, maximize the good. Some tools I found helpful were the Wally app and downloadable cash flow worksheets via Google. Choose a few things that you can cut out before leaving. How many times have you told yourself you want to kick your twice-a-day coffee habit? Or your incessant need to check Net-a-Porter for new deliveries daily? You don’t need to deprive yourself, but make sure you are truly enjoying every purchase you make.
Once I laid everything out on paper, only then was I able to see that my daily $4 afternoon snack was costing me $80/month. Wanting to jump into things cold-turkey, I cut out my afternoon vice and opted for buying snacks in bulk at Trader Joe’s. After stocking up on three bags of dried mango, one bag of cashews, one bag of tortilla chips, one jar of peach salsa, one bag of carrots, one thing of hummus, and four granola bars, my grand total was $27. In addition to bringing in one piece of fruit to work every day, I was totally content with my new snack routine, and even happier that I cut my afternoon spending by over 50%. While an extra $53 month doesn’t sound like a ton, when you take my total savings and multiply it by 10 months, you get $530, which is more than the cost of my one-way ticket out here. As my mother would say, "it’s budget-cut season."
Illustrated by Abbie Winters.
Once you’ve got a strict budget in place, look for ways to turn the stuff you have into cash. I know that Coach bag your grandma got you in the eighth grade holds sentimental value, but guess what? It also retails for $50 on a platform like Poshmark, and $50 gets you two nights at a pretty sick place in Vietnam. That Free People top you haven’t worn since your sophomore year in college but keep because it’s “special”? That will probably sell for around $30-$40, and that was about how much I spent on food my first week in Malaysia. Even further, I’m willing to bet that neither your grandma’s Coach bag nor your Free People top is making the cut when it comes to packing (a.k.a. the hardest, most overthought thing I have ever done, probably, ever?).
With that said, around month five, I quit my job and consequently had more free time than I knew what to do with. In the past, I had dabbled in apps like Poshmark but had never had any real luck. But with my newfound freedom and overabundance of unused clothes I had accumulated over the years, I decided to treat Poshmark like a part-time job. I spent, on average, 20 minutes per listing — taking high-quality photos of myself modeling the items, creating keyword-filled descriptions, and making sure to share every currently listed item at least once a day to generate more views. When it was all said and done, I sold 255 items and made $4,457; that’s an average of $17.50 per item. While you may not have as much time to spend on something like this, and you may not have as many unused clothes lying around — that’s okay. Let’s pretend that you were seeing the exact same profits as I was: $17.50 per item. That would mean that, to make roughly $500, you would have to sell 28 items. Over the course of six months, that’s really not that hard to do, and you probably have more clothes than you realize, just waiting to be liquidated.
Illustrated by Abbie Winters.
While my career prior to leaving was a glamorous-sounding one in the fashion industry, the entry-level salary didn't leave a lot of room for savings. After thinking about it long and hard, I realized I would actually make more money and have more free time if I worked as a nanny. A $20-per-hour position actually netted me more cash than my former job. Obviously there were downsides (no benefits, no growth), but it was the right choice for me.
My only regret is that I didn’t have the guts to make this decision sooner. Quitting a job is never going to be easy; uncertainty breeds anxiety. But be strong, trust your instincts, and put yourself first. You know you best.
Illustrated by Abbie Winters.
As soon as a student opens a loan with the government — unless otherwise specified — the loan is set up on a 10-year repayment plan. However, what many new grads don’t realize is that you absolutely do not have to stay on this 10-year program. If you wish, you could pay off your entire loan amount today, or you could adjust your loan to the minimal monthly payment so that you are paying it off in 10+ years.
At the time of my graduation, I was close to $14,000 in debt, which meant that if I had stuck with the normal 10-year plan, I would pay $115 on my loan each month. However, due to my work and living situation at that time, I decided to fast-track my payment plan and pay $142/month. This small yet significant monthly increase put me on an eight-year repayment plan. Shortly after, I decided I was going to quit my job and move abroad. Not wanting to pay $142 each month, or even $115, I called my loan provider and asked them to lay out my options. Together, we found the best plan for me: Graduated Repayment. Without getting too technical, this new plan basically let me keep my eight-year program by letting me pay less now and more later. This lowered my current monthly payment to $86/month — an amount that I felt comfortable paying each month while abroad, with the knowledge that I'll increase payments once my income increases.
For further information on student loan repayment, this link, via Fed Loans Servicing, will answer many of your initial questions: https://myfedloan.org/billing-payment/payment-plans/
Illustrated by Abbie Winters.
Never underestimate the power of your home kitchen. Take a half hour each week to browse online for fun recipes. A huge misconception around cooking is that it takes too much time, but this doesn’t have to be true. Focus on healthy and easy meals that follow the “three-step wonder” formula: chop, season, bake. Go to your local Trader Joe’s and pick up whatever veggies are in season, along with a pack of tilapia. Chop the veggies, defrost the fish, spread ingredients on a baking pan, season, and bake. The veggies will need around 20 minutes, while the fish should be done around the seven-minute mark. Occasionally, I would get fancy with it and put the veg/fish mix over quinoa or spinach, but to each her own.
Pro Tip: Double your recipe to make enough for lunch the next day. Not only does this save you major cash throughout the week, but it also gets rid of your “it’s so hard to cook for one person” excuse. I had always been super into cooking dinner at home because #health, but once I started packing a lunch every day, I saw a total savings of about $45 each week. That’s around $180 each month, which translates to $1,800 over 10 months — or three months' worth of expenses in Yangon.
Illustrated by Abbie Winters.
If I could have given myself some advice last fall when I was beginning to concoct my master plan, I would have told myself to chill out. I was always the type of friend to ask things like, "So where do you think you’ll be living in five years?" Or, "So, like, you might marry him, right?" My friends would just look at me as if I were insane. They would say, "Can you relax?" They were right. I needed to relax. I have absolutely no way of knowing what is going to happen in February of next year, just like I have absolutely no way of knowing what’s going to happen tomorrow. Life is unpredictable. Right now, I pay $800 a month for an apartment (which I split with my boyfriend), and we have a stream of income from labeling products for Amazon. We also plan to teach English — we've done the training, and English teachers are always in demand — and we make enough to comfortably live.
But, when I first started thinking about living abroad, I didn't know any of that would happen. While it's good to have a rough plan, like how much your monthly expenses will be, and how you plan on making money, know that it's okay for things to shift. Right now, I plan to come back in a year, but who knows? My point: If you have a dream, even if it doesn't make any sense, you can usually find a way to make it work.
Illustrated by Abbie Winters.Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
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