Debt and Living Abroad

[Stallion]

Obviously the goal is to get our income above our expenses so we can start live abroad. But when you have debt, it's an added expense.

I'm looking for an opinion. Do you think it's better to eliminate debt faster or just keeping the minimum payment and adding it to your expenses?

I got student loans and I'll have them for 10 years at minimum payments.

Let's say I decide to go to Thailand for a while. I'll be paying student loan debt which will probably take up 40% of all my expenses.

I'm just looking for a perspective on this.

[jetpacklife]

It certainly could depend on your interest rate. I paid all mine down as soon as I had the extra cash. But, i wouldn't have done it if I had to take on credit card debt or something.

Living abroad doesn't have to be more expensive than here, as Tim says in his book, so I'm not sure that your strategy has to be any different.

[jonparker83]

Living abroad doesn't have to be more expensive than here, as Tim says in his book, so I'm not sure that your strategy has to be any different.

Precisely... I'm off to SE Asia for 6 months for exactly that reason.

It costs me a minimum of £1000 a month to live in the UK and I'm taking £2k with me for the whole 6 months when I go away.

Until you're making enough money from your muses it doesn't have to be a full blown mini-retirement with all the bells and whistles, more making use of the geoarbitrage that tim talks about

Cheers

Jon :)

[badhank]

no question about it, u have to get rid of ur debt first cause it will hang over you forever if you dont