How To Be A Financially Savvy Traveler (Ep. 7)

Transcript

Danielle (00:00):
Hey everyone, I'm Danielle Azir and I am a financially savvy traveler, and today you're listening to Travel Fuels Life.

Drew (00:19):
Hello everybody, and welcome to Travel Fuels Life, the show we share stories, tips, and inspiration to help you live a travel lifestyle. I'm your host, drew Hanish, and with 2019 upon us, it's about time we get those financial ducks in a row and start building a financial strategy that's going to help us travel more in 2019. So with that in mind, I've invited Ms. Danielle Dezi of the Thought Card podcast. She's going to be my guest this week on the first episode of this new year. And she is a podcaster. She is a blogger, and she is a financially savvy traveler, and she lays her focus on helping people make informed financial decisions so that we can travel more, pay off debt, and build wealth. So for my home here in Greenville, South Carolina, it's time to pull up the laptop, jump on the worldwide web and connect with Danielle Azir. Hey Danielle, welcome to the show.

Danielle (01:16):
Thank you Drew for having me. I'm so excited. I love talking about travel and money, so this will be a fun one.

Drew (01:23):
So I was looking through your webpage and I found on the about page this statement, which I thought was really interesting. I am not rich, nor am I privileged, but I am financially savvy. So for those people trying to figure out how to pay their bills and get the most out of their travel money, how would you describe being financially savvy?

Danielle (01:48):
Sure. So I would describe financially savvy as being smart with your money, being intentional with how you spend it and how you think about how you're earning your money. And for me, I want to reduce and eliminate as much waste as possible. So every dollar I'm spending, I want it to be intentional. I want to get a lot of value from it. I want to feel like I don't have any regrets when I spend my money. So for me, financially savvy travel is especially all about finding the best deals, the best bargains, not necessarily budget travel, because as a financially savvy traveler, you might have the budget to spend, but do you want to spend it on something that's wasteful or do you want to spend on something that's going to impact your experiences and make you feel really great about your travels?

Drew (02:38):
Okay, so it's basically optimizing and having good strategies and not necessarily sleeping in your rental car on the trip.

Danielle (02:47):
Exactly, exactly. Which you know can totally do sometimes. Yeah. For me it really depends on the kind of trip I'm having. There are plenty of times where I would stay at hostels, but I've also stayed at a Hyatt in Switzerland, which is super, super ritzy. So it really depends on the kind of experiences that you're valuing. And for me it really depends and it also depends on your budget as well. So those are all things to consider.

Drew (03:15):
So where do you think your financial acumen came from? Did you have a role model somewhere along the line?

Danielle (03:22):
I think for sure it was early age. It was inspired by my mom. My mom is an accountant and she has always been savvy with her money. She's always frugal, but also intentional. So I remember one of my early thoughts of money was I opened up a IRA when I was 15, and she's always implemented like, Hey, you need to save for retirement. Hey, if you want to have these aspirations and goals, you need to save for it. So saving has always been a big part of my family values. And I also remember as a child, my grandma would have a secret stash that no one would know about except for the woman in the house.

(04:04):
So that just also solidified that saving was very, very important. And throughout high school and college, I worked throughout that time and there were things that I wanted to do but I couldn't afford to do. And travel was one of them. I remember having friends who were wanting to go to spring break, they would go to Mexico and Puerto Rico, and I didn't have the funds. So that just kind of solidified like, okay, if I want to be able to afford the things that I really want to do, I have to save. I have to be smart with my money. I'm not a millionaire, I don't have an infinite amount of money, but how can I make this all work? And I've always been, especially now I've been a multifaceted saver, so I'm saving for multiple things at the same time. And for example, I was working on my student loans and saving for a house at the same time and traveling. So I just want to do everything. But when you have limited funds, you know, just it's just has to be creative with how you work with it.

Drew (05:05):
So I understand that you've actually paid off the house and the student loans.

Danielle (05:12):
So I paid off my student loans and I'm working on the house. Oh, okay. My student loans, I paid off $63,000 of student loan debt in four years. And for my house, I'm, I'm really shifting my mindset recently where I'm labeling myself part of the financial independence movement where you're not tied down to income producing activities all of the time, and you have the leisure and time and the finances to be able to maybe retire early or to pursue something that you really want to. So for me now as a homeowner, having a mortgage is very cumbersome. Even if you couldn't afford it, it's still cumbersome and it ties you, I can't do certain things because I have to make sure that my payment is made every month or else you go into foreclosure and you lose all your investments. So for me, I'm really trying to work on the house, but I also don't want to deprive myself of traveling as well because I love cheap flights. So it's doing all the things at the same time. No.

Drew (06:16):
So you mentioned cheap flights. So in terms of trying to figure out your budget and how you're going to do this, do you kind of plan your trips around when you see a cheap flight come up? Or do you have a list of places that you want to go and you're just waiting it out to till you see that come up?

Danielle (06:42):
So I think a little bit of both. I would say the first thing that I do is I have a travel fund and I regularly contribute to my travel fund every pay period. So for me it's really important to have a fully loaded or as fully loaded as possible so that when I do see a flight deal, I can just jump on it without hesitation. So for me, I think having a travel fund, and it really depends. If let's say you're traveling within the states, you might not need that much money compared to, let's say if you're traveling to different continents like Asia or Africa or something like that. So I would say to start off with a travel fund, and I am obsessed with cheap flights, so whenever I scour the web and I find something really interesting, I'm like, oh, okay, is it practical?

(07:29):
But I have cash in my travel fund, but I also do points in miles as well. So it really depends on is it more valuable to use my cash or is it more valuable to redeem my points in miles? And then from there I book it. But there are times that I do have destinations in mind that I am eyeing. For example, last year or maybe the past two years, I've been really wanting to go to Puerto Rico for a long time. So what I did, I established a baseline. I would do some research, preliminary research, and figure out how much my flights will cost New York City to Puerto Rico. And at the time, flights were around two 50. So I said to myself, you know what? Let's gamify this. Let's gamify this and try to see if I could find cheaper flights to Puerto Rico around my availability. And it took a year, but I got it down to about the low two hundreds. So I was really ecstatic. So that's a win for me. Yes.

Drew (08:21):
So do you find it a bit of an advantage that you're in a major metropolitan area to be able to get cheaper flights? Or when you're seeing these cheap flights, are you seeing them all over the place?

Danielle (08:34):
So when I'm seeing the cheap flights, I see them all over the place. But for the New York metro area, it's definitely a gold mine for finding cheap flights, especially if you're looking for flights to go to Europe. But for me, I always try to keep an open mind because I know a lot of my readers and listeners are not based in the New York area. So whenever I do find something very attractive, I try to share that out. But you can definitely find different places. For example, LA and San Francisco, you might find a lot of deals to Asia because that's so much more closer than going to, let's say Europe or something like that. So location and proximity to destination is really important.

Drew (09:14):
So one of the ones that I look at, and I just found out about this probably three months ago, well not even three months ago, is Scott's Cheap Flights. And I'm obsessed with it. It's not a good thing. It's every day in my inbox, I'm seeing a list of places that I go, gosh, that seems like that's near the top of my bucket list. Then that's pretty cheap flight. I don't know if I can hold off. I mean, have you ever had one that was just so good that you said, Ugh, I got to do it. I got to do it

Danielle (09:49):
All the time. So attempting, and I think last year I really just literally followed the deal. Every flight that I took was something that I found through a flight deal, which I thought was an amazing value. And I think for me, what happened is that I traveled a little bit too much. I also work. So it's just a very, very tiring, and I noticed that if I have other savings goals, it's harder to grow towards that. So this year for 2019, my focus is okay, having a little bit more and knowing that there will be more deals. So I remember last year I bought a flight to Hawaii for $330 and from New York City, and it was two stops and I was like, oh my God, this is amazing, this is crazy. And then I kind of sat with it and I'm like, okay, I'm going to go single as a single woman going to Hawaii, and I don't think that's really going to be as fun.

(10:55):
So I canceled the flight. So it really depends. Sometimes when you plan, especially when you're looking for flights, you can plan so far in advance. A lot of the flights that I buy are like nine months, six months in advance and things can change. So if you are one of those people that are hopping on the chief flight bandwagon, make sure you consider buying that insurance because if something happens, you can get your money back or there's no penalty to change. I've been canceling a lot of flights this year because things are changing. So that's one of my tips that I would say for sure.

Drew (11:27):
So for getting cheap flights, is there another website that you might suggest?

Danielle (11:32):
Oh, I have so many. Ready. Take your notes out.

Drew (11:34):
Okay. Okay. This is what show notes were made for, right? Yes,

Danielle (11:39):
Exactly. Exactly, yes. All right. So one of my favorites is Secret Flying. And Secret Flying has tons of flight deals all around the world. You can also just fixate on the U S A and I just enjoy browsing that website every day. They also send out a daily newsletter, and that is free. The other website that I really enjoy is the Flight Deal, another very popular one. Similar, they send out a daily email, which has all of the flights from the United States to everywhere pretty much, which is really, really great. Now in terms of more premium, you can purchase Thrifty Traveler Premium, that's the paid version, but they also have a free version. And I love Jared's product. Jared's the founder and he shares a lot of tips as well, like credit card tips and hacking. But one of the things I really value about his subscription service is that he shares insider tips for using your Delta Sky miles.

(12:45):
So Delta Sky Miles isn't the most lucrative of the airline loyalty programs, but he's able to share with us when there's a sale and it's called a Delta Miles Fair Sale, and that's when they discount how many points you're needed to fly with them. So for example, on average from New York City to Europe, it's 60,000 sky miles, delta sky miles, but on occasion, thrifty Traveler Premium might find it for 32,000. So that's like huge savings. Oh yeah. Especially for Delta. That's huge savings. So that's exactly what I did. So I'm going to be flying from New York to London in the springtime and instead of paying 60,000 or 65 depending, I'm going to be, I paid 32,000 and I just have to cover the taxes and fees. So that is what I really, really love about Thrifty Traveler Premium. I like subscription services that email you, so you're not constantly having to go on their website, which I know that's Scott, Scott Sheep Flight does as well. Right. There are also other apps, for example, whisker and Hit List. There are also, those are the two apps that you can download and they'll let you know if there's anything exciting that's happening in the airport that you're watching. So there's tons, tons of free and paid services, but the paid services are really, really valuable for sure.

Drew (14:13):
Well, the next thing of course, that you've got to do is once you arrive to the location is you've got to track down some lodgings. And so when you travel, I know some people will look towards maybe staying in a place longer so that maybe they reduce their costs because they have less transportation costs and that sort of thing. Or when I travel, I'm like kid in the candy store going to as many places as I possibly can go all at once. And so transportation costs become pretty high and my lodging is much more hotels for the short term, which can definitely add to the cost of things. Do you have a particular strategy?

Danielle (14:56):
So I think over time I've become more of a relaxed traveler. In the beginning I would plan out everything to the T. And in terms of planning my itinerary, I like to use CGIC Travel, that's an app, a free app. They always have a paid version as well. And with CIC Travel, you can really plan out your day. But now as I'm traveling more, I'm more relaxed and what I do, I might look at CIC Travel to just kind of get some inspiration. But I love searching on Pinterest. So Pinterest, you can type in the city, the state, the country that you're going to, and you'll find tons of articles. And I actually love the articles from other bloggers who have actually been there so I can get the insider tips. And for some reason I always gravitate to the free things to do. So free things to do in Rome, free, things to do in Bermuda.

(15:49):
So I like to fill my itiner with a bunch of free things first, and I like to kind of plan that out first. And then from there I like to be flexible and free where I can, let's say go on a walking tour or go on a cooking class or a beer crawl or a brewery tour. So those are some of the things that I like to do. I think it's about figuring out what you enjoy. For example, for me, I enjoy viewpoints. So one of the things that I look for whenever I'm going somewhere is, okay, can I go to the top of a building or a mountain or something like that? And those are usually free or low cost activities. So if you're on a budget, I would say try to hit all the free things that you can do that are enjoyable first, and then you could gradually increase your funds that you can do more expensive things

Drew (16:39):
Well. And then getting there sometimes or between places can be a bit pricey. For instance, I'm looking right now at going to Scotland and for two weeks of renting a car in Scotland, I'm going to be spending, depending on which car rental place I go with anywhere from 500 to a thousand dollars just on my transportation for two weeks. So do you rent cars? Do you take trains? Do you like using public transportation? How do you usually do that?

Danielle (17:11):
So I usually use public transportation. So when I land in the airport, I usually just, again, I don't do a lot of research anymore, but I just go into the information desk and they usually speak English. So I just say, Hey, I am looking to get to X next airport, can you direct me? And especially if you can use your phone, you could use Google Maps and Google Maps will just let you know this is what train to take or what a bus to take. So that's really, really helpful. It really depends. Like let's say if I'm not really in a rush, a lot of times when you land in a city, they'll have multiple transportation options. Some of them are faster than others. So usually I'm landing and I just get into a city. I usually take the longest way cause I'm not in a rush. I, I'm just got there, there's no rush. But when I'm coming back to the airport, then I might spend maybe a little bit more money to get there faster. But personally I like to do bus tours. So for example, when I went to Ireland, Ireland has, and Dublin has great bus tours where you can go all over the country. So I like bus tours because I don't have to worry about driving on the other side of the road. I don't have to worry about traffic issues.

Drew (18:23):
Some of us want to Yeah, I was going to say, some of us want to see if we can challenge ourselves and pull that off. See if my dyslexia pays off. Oh no,

Danielle (18:34):
No, thank you for me. Oh my gosh. No, no, no. I like to just relax and allow other people to chauffer me around, which is nice.

Drew (18:45):
On

Danielle (18:45):
A budget. On a budget. So you can usually find me on bus tours. And I also like that you have the local perspective as well. Cause you have a local who's sharing things with you, you're getting a glimpse of the local culture. You're also, a lot of times bus tours give you admission to wherever you're going. So for example, when I go to Iceland, I always do bus tours. Now when I wouldn't do a bus tours, if I'm traveling with multiple people and we could split the bill. So when I'm traveling, let's say with a group of friends, it might be cheaper to just rent a car than it would be for us to pay for the bus. So I think it really depends on what kind of trip that you like. But I usually go for the bus tour route for sure.

Drew (19:27):
Okay. And so now you brought up traveling with people and you've traveled solo as well, correct?

Danielle (19:34):
Yes, for sure.

Drew (19:34):
Okay. So what do you see as the benefits for traveling solo versus traveling with friends or with a group?

Danielle (19:44):
So for solo travel, you have a lot more flexibility and a lot more freedom to do what you want. But sometimes, depending on your group of friends, if you guys have an understanding that, hey guys, we'll meet at dinner, you guys can do your own thing. If you guys aren't tied to each other, having a group with you can be an amazing experience. And I think it's important to find a travel buddy that you vibe with and you have similar travel styles and also being open to doing what each other wants to do. So for solo travel there's a lot more freedom, but there's also, as a woman, you're a little bit more vulnerable than if you are with a group as well. So for that, I would say if you're looking for some companionship group tours, especially the free group tours are great. They're really, really great. You meet a ton of other solo travelers if you're into hostels, hostels, it's all about having a social experience. So if I'm traveling solo, I might definitely consider a hostel because if you're at a hotel, it's, you are not going to meet a lot of people. You're not going to meet anyone sometimes. So those are a little bit of the differences. I love traveling with friends. I'm at the point now where I can text my friends a flight deal and they're like, yes, I'm going to go now. But now

Drew (21:01):
That's awesome.

Danielle (21:02):
Yeah. Yes, it took a lot to get there. It took so much like, okay guys, this deal will expire. You need to let me know right now.

Drew (21:10):
Well, because it's funny too that I have friends who don't like to travel, that travel is just not in their vernacular at all. So it's just shocking to me that sometimes it, it's hard to get people motivated to want to go travel.

Danielle (21:24):
That can definitely be a challenge. But I always say there's always some place that people are interested in going to. For example, my friend, I said to her, Hey, how about we go to China? I want to go to the Great Wall of China, would you want to come? She's like, no, but she wants to go to Italy with me. And I'm like, oh, okay. So everyone has that sweet spot. Everyone has that sweet spot. So just finding that sweet spot. And there's nothing wrong with doing more local things. Like last year I live in Connecticut, so it's kind of one of those states you kind of fly by through, it's in between New York and Boston and it's kind of in this weird position, but there's so many amazing experiences that you can have in your local area or outside of your metro area. So even if you are challenged and you can't do big travels, local travels also something to consider and explore.

Drew (22:15):
Yeah, so funny that when I talk to people sometimes they'll say where they're from and I'll remember having done something in that area and they're like, oh, we never do that. You know, really neglect the place, the closest to you when it comes to travel, we're always looking distance, but what I got out of your Italy thing is that you probably have so many different places that you want to go that it's not too hard for you to adjust on the fly. Whereas they may be a little bit more locked into three or four experiences total that they really want to want to have. Whereas you're probably looking more of a global level and saying, man, when am I going to get to all of these different places?

Danielle (22:58):
Exactly, exactly. And for me, I'm super patient too. I know I'm going to get there. So for me, for example, I really want to go to New Zealand and I actually found an amazing flight deal last Black Friday to go when I booked my flight, when it came down to actually getting myself situated and figuring out my tenure, I just couldn't get over the fact, oh my God, I'm going to New Zealand. I dunno, it's so hard. So I actually canceled that, canceled that trip, and I know it. And for me, I don't like the theory of once in a lifetime because I feel like if it's something that you really want, it will happen. You'll find a way to get there. So even though I was really stoked about going to New Zealand, it didn't feel right. It didn't feel like, and my money wasn't right either.

(23:45):
So I know these is very expensive, so it's okay, it's okay. I know I'll go there in the future and maybe I'll be able to take a friend along with me, share their experience with me, or another opportunity will come. So I'm super open, I'm very open and flexible and I think that helps me to see more of the world. Especially when you're chasing the next flight deal, you don't know where that's going to be. You're very, very open. You're just like, Hey, let's just go there and see. And I love that approach to travel.

Drew (24:14):
So kind of give me your philosophy on credit cards because there are some people who are probably credit cards are have a bad name because they can't handle them so well, or they, they've just built up a lot of debt over a period of time and they're kind of nervous about using those. And I've heard different philosophies. Dave Ramsey as a financial counselor will say, cut them up. You should never have them around. I've heard Susie Orman say, you know, can have them around, just learn how to use them. Where do you stand on that?

Danielle (24:59):
I think just anything, it really depends on what works for you. For me, I think credit cards and earning points in miles is a wonderful way for you to earn free travel. And the biggest, biggest thing that I love about credit cards is that they entice you to sign up for their credit card. They give you a very lucrative signup bonus, which usually equates to maybe one or many free flights. So that is what I love about credit cards is that ability to earn and redeem for free travel. And especially if you have multiple goals that you want to have, or let's say money's a little bit tight, doing the credit card game can free you up to afford to travel because you're relying on your points and miles. Now again, it's all really about having the discipline to make sure that you're spending is in line with, is in line with what you have in your bank account.

(25:57):
It's easy to fall into the trap, especially for the holidays, the holiday season if you are just spending a lot of money on these gifts and other things like that. So it's super, super hard to fall into that trap. But I think that if you have a goal, what I like to do is when I open up a new credit card, it has to be valuable. What am I going to get out of this? These points is going to be allocated to a certain trip. Where do I want to go? I remember when my first credit cards I got was the Chase Freedom credit card, and my best friend at the time was having a wedding, and the wedding was an Ecuador and the flights were like $700. And I was like, oh, I don't want to save all that money, but how about if I open this credit card, get the points, use that towards my trip to Ecuador, and that I can get her awesome gift and we can, all these really cool things.

(26:44):
And that's exactly what I did. So every credit card that I open, I have a goal. What is my travel goal for that? And that kind of helps me stay motivated. And really, when you're carrying a balance month to month in your credit card, it's not really serving you a purpose. It's not helping you reach your travel goals because you're paying more for everything. When that interest hits, that means every little thing that you bought is just going to be more and more inflated. So try to avoid that as much as possible and try to pay your credit card in full. Another thing that I like to do is when I spend money, I like to, at the end of the day, I do a quick transfer from my checking account into my credit card so that I know that that balance is taken away. And for me, when I'm doing my credit card reconciliation, I like to pay individuals. Let's say I buy a coffee for let's say five 50 at Dunking Donuts that night, I would just pay five 50. So when I'm looking at my credit card bill, I can see plus five 50 minus five 50, and this is zero wash. So that helps me to be like, okay, I paid for this item. And that just for me is a lot of record keeping, which I love.

Drew (27:51):
I love that. I know the audience is going, what I don't want to, yeah, me trying to keep up my QuickBooks for my business alone is sometimes a challenge. So I guess to each his own, right. When you go to set a budget, do you set a budget of a certain amount and try to stay within that amount when you go on a trip? Or do you kind of use the credit cards above and beyond a bit and then anticipate paying it off when you get back home?

Danielle (28:28):
I definitely set a budget, and I'm at the point where my travels where I can kind of guesstimate how much am I expecting to spend. And if you're not really sure how to do that, look at blogs, read blogs, go on Pinterest, find, you know, can Google, how much does it cost to visit Dublin for a week? And you'll find articles, you might find my article because I like to share my budget breakdowns for every destination I visit. But that really helps us set a baseline. And from my baseline, I figure, okay, I'm going to spend X amount of money and I just kind of maintain it. And I've been recently, I have a little money journal, so it's like a little pocket notebook and I just kind of write down the costs for the day. And when I look at it, I'm like, oh, I spent a lot on taxis, that's not fun.

(29:12):
What value did I get from that? That wasn't really the best? So I like being able to look back at my expenses and figure out how I feel. And I think that's the intention of being a financially savvy traveler is being able to spend, but also evaluating your spending. Where can I improve? Where, what could I have done better? Could I have walked instead of taking a train? So different ways, but for me, again, every dollar that I save is a dollar that I can spend elsewhere on a trip. So I, I'm trying to stretch as much as possible while still having a wonderful time and having wonderful experience, but try to stretch so that I can afford to go to more and more places.

Drew (29:53):
Are there any apps that you've ever tried to use to do that? Or is it just easier to do pen and paper?

Danielle (29:58):
I think for me, pen and paper, I don't think, I don't know, I'm not really that big of a tech person when it comes to money. So I have Excel spreadsheets and just keep it super old school. But if an app works for you, that's definitely for sure. I also like to keep all my receipts. So at the end of a trip when I do my budget breakdowns, that's why I love having a blog because it really helps me keep me accountable, especially since I'm sharing how much I spend on each trip. I need to make sure it's accurate. So keeping my receipts really, really helps. And then having a money journal, again, it could be tedious to some, but I feel like for me, getting down to nitty gritty details helps me be more confident in what I do and how I spend my money so that it doesn't just escape me. So for me, that helps me a lot.

Drew (30:49):
Well, and one of the things I've carried with me over the years is this notion that if you plan out your money and tell it where to go at the beginning of the month, there's going to be less surprises at the end of the month and you'll actually stay a whole lot more disciplined.

Danielle (31:03):
Exactly. I definitely agree. So after buying my house, I spent a long time off of budget, so I didn't have a budget. And I found that it did me a disservice because every month I would just be like, where did my money go? I have no idea. There's no savings. It just all went away. So just after a couple of months of doing the whole rat race thing, I just decided what, let me go back to basics and just go back to my budget. And I've been doing that for the past couple months, and I feel so great about it because I'm finding all this new money. So every paycheck I'm able to be like, okay, I'm going to spend this, and I find all this new money at the end, which is like, wow, there's actually money left over. Right.

Drew (31:47):
Oh, that's super,

Danielle (31:49):
Super, super exciting.

Drew (31:51):
So we talked about student debt a little bit, and I know there'll be some people who are saying, will I ever be able to travel? Because right now I think the average is like $37,000 that a person, that is the average that people have in terms of student debt. And so how you, because you did travel a little bit when you had the debt, so how did you pull that off, justify it and make it work out for you?

Danielle (32:20):
So I definitely did the travel fund, which we talked about earlier. Having that big account that's separate from all of my other financial expenses really, really helps. And I just love going into my travel fund and being able to see how much money I have at any given time. So that really helps me be excited and pumped up and I'm working towards a goal. And then I love that also because I chase cheap flights, so I know that I have some money to just be able to go to anywhere that's affordable for my budget. So that's number one. So number two, I was making a lot of sacrifices. So I live in Connecticut, and where I live is about an hour and 45 minutes away from my job in New York City. And at the time when I got my first job, I, I was at the crossroads and I had two options.

(33:10):
I could one go and the city and live in the city and live a fabulous life with 10 different roommates, or I can live with my mom. And we made a deal that I would be focusing on my dad and working on my dad. So I wouldn't have to, let's say, pay the rent expense and I could just allocate that toward my student loans. So it was a really tough decision because I'm like, I only going to be 21 once and I don't want to be living with mom. Right? But I said to myself, you know what? This is an opportunity that I know I will not regret. And I decided to live with my mom for four years. But during that time, I said to myself, okay, I need to have an exit strategy. When I'm done with my student loan debt, I can't, I am not going to, I don't want to live there more often, more.

(34:02):
And I don't want to just rent. So I said to myself, okay, I'm going to triage myself for my student loans to buy a house, but I need to save for it now. So that's, I set goals. I set near goals that I wanted to pay off my debt. And I also set long-term goals of owning a home. And that's the things that I worked on. So for me, it was a little bit of travel, a lot of student loan debt, and a little bit of house savings for that four years. And that helped a lot in terms of the nitty gritty strategies of what I did. So there were two things that I did. One of them was just throwing a ton of money at my student loan debt, which means at many, many points in time, I didn't even know what the bill said because I was just, every two weeks I was just throwing as much as I could possibly afford at it.

(34:54):
And that really helps because it's kind of frequently reducing your interest. And with student loans, what happens, it's so tied to your principal. So as you pay down your debt, your interest will go down. So when I first started my sew loan journey, I had about 10, $10 in interest per day. And that lit a fire because at the time I had no job. And I'm like, oh my God, how am I going to do $10 a day? So I used my sew loan interest as a tracker, and over time you see it dwindle down. So that's what I used. Now, my second method is I would save up a sum of money, let's say $5,000. I would save $5,000, then I would make a lump payment towards my student loan debt. That would make a drastic decrease. And like we said, the interest is tied to it, so that would help a lot.

(35:43):
And then I said to myself, okay, I'm going to pay myself back. So I would spend weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks paying myself back and replenishing my funds. And once it was back up again, I would do the same thing again. So I just did that for four years and it just kind of compounded, I compounded on each other. So those are the two strategies that I used and that worked for me. But they're also people who do the minimum payment and they save money on the side. And once they get that enough money to just eliminate that debt once and for all, they do that. So you can mix and customize what feels right for you. But for me, I love the quick wins. I love when I would drop down a couple Gs on the loan and it went down. It just felt great. And then I would dread paying myself back once

Drew (36:31):
Later. So that was part of the kick of the whole thing, was actually just that feeling of accomplishment of, because I kept thinking you could just be putting large equal payments all the way through and what would be the reason for actually holding off. But I guess when you're doing these little payments, they don't feel like little wins. They just feel like you're making payments.

Danielle (36:55):
Yes. They don't telling you when you make a large payment, and it could be a $2,000 payment or a 5,000 or 10,000, whatever it is, it feels great to see it go from, let's say two, four digits to three digits. That feels amazing. And that really helped me because when you're paying off debt, it is cumbersome. It is tiring. There were days that I would be sad, and I feel like I'd never get out of this even though my spreadsheets that I was, but it's just very mentally exhausting. But if you stick to the course, you figure out a strategy and it really, really helps. And I was able to do so much in four years.

Drew (37:38):
I love that strategy because it's a playoff of the baby steps, that snowball thing where you're paying off the smallest credit card and then paying off the next smallest and the next smallest until you, so that you can get some momentum going and be able to feel like you're accomplishing something. I had $90,000 worth of debt coming out of the recession. And I mean, I didn't see any way that I was going to pay that money off, but it was, and a lot of it was tied up in credit cards. Part of it was having too much house payment, you name it. It was all coming up all at the same time. And it was amazing how just paying, as soon as you paid off that one credit card, you're like, yes, that's one less.

Danielle (38:28):
That's amazing.

Drew (38:28):
One less bill I have to pay next month, and I can put that extra amount towards the next card. Didn't start to get that paid off. Yeah,

Danielle (38:37):
Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And for me, I was so used to making those payments for four years, I said to myself, when I'm thinking about my budget for purchasing a house, I want to keep it as close to this as possible. So what I did is I literally swapped my sale loan payment for my mortgage. Nice. And it helped me feel so much more confident that I'm not stressed out because I know what it feels like to not have this income. And I mean, if I had to look back at it, I would say to myself, I should've maybe gotten a house that's less expensive, so I can see more of a ga. Yeah. But for me, it works. It works.

Drew (39:18):
So how much are you traveling in a year? I mean, do you have a couple of big trips a year, or how do you travel?

Danielle (39:29):
So this year, 2018 was very short trip focused. I went on countless short trips, and I don't know the number off the top of my hand, but there were many, many short trips. And this year, I don't think I spent more than five days in the destination. And I don't know if I'm going to continue that going forward,

(39:54):
Because fast travel means fast spending. So it's really, really hard when you're just kind of in and out in, when you're in a city for three, four days, you're spending a lot of money. But again, then again, it was that whole mentality of chasing the next cheap flight. And so this year I'm kind of doing a little bit less, I want to do less. I want to do more slow travel, and I want to feel less of a scarcity mindset. I think for me, it's like, because I work full time, I'm always like, oh, I have no time to travel, so I just got to go for a weekend. And it's like, okay, let's just, let's do a more extended trip, really get to enjoy and immerse yourself and feel less stress and go back to work rejuvenated. So that's my strategy for next year. But in terms of where I went this year, I went to Dublin. I started off the year going to Dublin, and I also spent a day in Belfast. I also went to Chicago, I went to Toronto. I went to Orlando and Disney World multiple times, multiple times to Disney. I went to Puerto Rico. It was just an amazing year of lots of new travel experiences, but I think it's a little bit too much, a little bit too much,

Drew (41:15):
A little too much of, too little, right. Of the, exactly. Of the little trips. Yeah,

Danielle (41:19):
Exactly. Exactly.

Drew (41:21):
Yeah. So how was Puerto Rico when you were down there? Did you go before or after the hurricane?

Danielle (41:28):
So I went after the hurricane, and I actually went a year later. So I went in October, 2018. I loved it so much. It's such a beautiful island. The people are so down to earth, so friendly, and it's so colorful. Old San Juan is so colorful, and I think Puerto Rico has easily become one of my top places. So I love Bermuda. I love Iceland. And Puerto Rico is number three. It's in there. It's in top

Drew (41:57):
Three.

Danielle (41:57):
I really enjoyed my stay. I really enjoyed

Drew (42:00):
It. So do you think it's pretty much recovered from the storm?

Danielle (42:05):
I actually didn't see a lot. I saw a lot of repainting of houses and fixing the facades, but it didn't feel like what you would think or what the media is showing. I felt really great. I felt safe. I felt the enthusiasm. The weather was beautiful in terms of expenses. It wasn't that expensive. It's a lot cheaper than the states. So it's definitely a place that I feel like I can go to anytime. Cheap flight, of course.

Drew (42:41):
Right, right. Well, here's an interesting question. Do you have to take a passport with you?

Danielle (42:44):
No, no passport, but, but I still took mines just in case. I just was just in case.

Drew (42:51):
Right? Yeah, absolutely. All right. So we've talked all about money and budgeting. And so my million dollar question is why don't they teach personal finance in school when you're in high school? Why is that something they teach you? Everything else? But one of the things that it's amazing to see when as soon as you get out of school, the first thing you do is you start building up tons of debt in terms of student loans. And of course, credit cards are thrown at you from every single angle, but it's, there's no training for any of this stuff.

Danielle (43:28):
That's a very good question. A part of me is, are they setting us up for failure? But then a part of me is maybe the system is expecting the household to talk about these things. I'm thinking about how do you teach your kids manners? That's from the family, that's from the home. So I can see both sides. And I think that if you are teaching your kids about money at home, it is so beneficial because they're able to actually see the ones that they love, people who they love are actually doing things and it's more personal, and you see the progress or you see the struggle. And I think that helps with our mindset, or it can hurt us as well. So if you're not talking about money or that it's a constant struggle, you'll frame this mindset of scarcity compared to framing the mindset of abundance.

(44:28):
So I think it's important, especially for me, growing up in the household money, I was very, was a very open topic. I remember at a young age picking up a bill and seeing my mom has student loan debt, and I was like, mom, what is this? And I was like 10 or something like that. I was like, well have that. But it's a very important question. But at the end of the day, I still feel like at home you can do a lot to educate your kids. You have YouTube, you have blogs now, you know, have Siri on Google and all that things you

Drew (45:01):
Have, right?

Danielle (45:04):
I think it's a lot easier now for us to learn about money. And I think people are being more transparent about how they're building wealth, how they're paying off debt, how they're affording things. So I think that's really helpful.

Drew (45:17):
Well, definitely learning those skills early is going to be something that's going to be beneficial, I think. And a lot of people probably didn't have that ability to learn it in the home and that they need that little boost. And I understand that you're actually doing a budgeting course coming up.

Danielle (45:35):
Yeah. Yes. So I spent the last four years talking about how to afford travel and all these tricks and hacks. But then I went to myself and said, okay, let's kind of step back from all of the gimmicks and all the extra fluff and think about how can we afford to travel? And it goes back to having a budget and a budget is simply a plan for your money. So for me, I really wanted to go back to the basics, and that's why I'm calling it back to budgeting basics. And I just want to go back to how do we set financial goals? How do we track our spending? How do we meet our goals? And then from there, let's talk about the trip. Let's talk about the trips, let's talk about the hacks. Let's talk about ways to optimize your finances. But you can't optimize your finance if you don't know the fundamentals. So that's why I think budgeting is very important. And there are certain people who have tried to budget it didn't really work out for them. So this is just a new approach. And the approach that has worked for me, and I think I'm a recovering, recovering budgeter because I left, I abandon in my budget for so long,

(46:45):
I abandon it for so long. So now I'm stepping back to it with fresh eyes. So that's what I'm going to be bringing to the course.

Drew (46:52):
Yeah, it reminds me of when my dad was trying to teach me how to drive a stick shift car. I mean, he learned how to drive a stick shift probably 30 years before then. And so it's kind of hard to describe to somebody how you're supposed to switch from the gas to the clutch and be able to handle that. And he couldn't explain it well enough. And I kept stalling the car out over and over and over again until I finally figured it out on my own. But yeah, sometimes you just, it's have to deconstruct yourself to be able to explain it to somebody else, and taking that time I think is definitely going to be beneficial. So is it going to be on your website? Is that where they'll be able to download it?

Danielle (47:41):
Yes. Yes. It will definitely be on the website. And we're working hard to get it launched for early 2019.

Drew (47:48):
Okay, perfect. And the podcast, I've, you're about 13 episodes in it sounds like, and things are going well with it. Yes. So

Danielle (47:57):
Things are going amazingly well with the podcast.

Drew (48:00):
So I mean, really, you've got all this material already on your blog. Are you taking a strategy of, let me pick out my favorite articles and get those into an audio format, or I hear you doing a lot of interviews with people, the tone of the, and the direction that you're taking with the podcast.

Danielle (48:24):
Sure. So for me, I feel like the podcast is a supplement to my blog. So if you like what I'm talking about on the blog, you're actually on the podcast, you're going to hear from other travelers and other people who are finding ways to be creative with their money. So I really like that the podcast allows me to share stories from people from around the world who are doing amazing things. And the content on the podcast for right now is different from what's on the blog still in realm of financially savvy travel. But I think for me, for the podcast, I really want to share what's immediately on my mind compared to for the blog. It's like an archive of all the things that I've done and all the things that I've kind of experienced. So the podcast is more up to date, and it kind of brings you the people who I'm chatting with right now, these interesting conversations and all these things that we're learning. So I like to think of it as a supplement to the blog.

Drew (49:21):
Perfect. And something to help us keep a reminder that we need to be paying attention to our money while we're thinking about all this fantastic travel that we want to do.

Danielle (49:31):
Exactly, exactly. Exactly.

Drew (49:34):
Perfect. Okay, so the You're on Apple podcast. You're on Google Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, and also are there other places that, besides the podcast and the blog that people can keep up with what you're doing?

Danielle (49:50):
Yes, you can find me on social media, that's Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at the thought card. And you can send me a DM or you can at me. And I would love to talk to you about travel and money and everything in between.

Drew (50:04):
Well, thank you, Danielle. I really appreciate you giving us all these great insights and helping us to figure out how to marry our money and travel together so that we can hit all those great places that we want to go to and have those awesome adventures in 2019. And I wish you luck with your budgeting course and also with the podcast, and I look forward to hearing more from you in the future.

Danielle (50:27):
Thank you so much, drew. This was so much fun, and I cannot wait to continue to fuel my travels. For sure.

Drew (50:35):
Well, thanks Danielle for showing us how this is done. I wish I had had some of this advice about 20 years ago, but hey, we're where we are right now, and there's no better time than this moment to get started fixing ourselves financially. So let's do it, get successful at it, and do some more traveling. So if you enjoy the show today, make sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast app, and you can head out to the show notesPage@travelfuelslife.com slash podcast. Hunt down episode number seven and find tons of money saving links. I put all the links from today's show in there, Scott's Cheap Flights, the Hit List and more. And also links to Danielle's blog and podcast, which you should be subscribing to as well, and also her social media. Until next time, have yourself a great week. Safe travels and thanks for listening to Travel Fuels Life.