I got this snapchat from my friend Travis a few years ago.

He had just finished paying his final loan after 8 months of hard work and determination. Travis is not a man of extravagant wants, but simple pleasures. I’m thankful to have learned from him in his season of paying off debt and continuing to live a life outside of it. Here’s his story in his own words!

Initial Debt: $17,000 (student loans)

Time frame: January 2014-October 2014

I left the U.S. on September 6th of 2012.

This was my first real taste in the mission field. My initial plan was to come to Taiwan for a five month school, go home and resume life in America. Five months turned into over a year, and after studying the Bible for nine months, I knew my life in Taiwan wasn’t over. I knew I wanted to come back for a longer commitment to hopefully make a bigger difference. However at the advice of a couple of my leaders, I knew I was going to have to pay off my student loans before I could make a serious commitment to Taiwan.

I had initially studied university in the Fargo/Moorhead area and planned on moving back at the end of the Bible school. But I began to feel God leading me to come back to Taiwan, and it became clear to me that if I wanted to honor that commitment, I needed to go somewhere where I could pay off my loans more quickly. So I headed to the land of the American black gold rush of 2013… Williston, North Dakota.

I took a few weeks to rest after a long and tiring season studying the Bible in Taiwan and got my first job. I was offered a job working overnights guiding traffic and having oversight of oil well sites, however I politely declined and took a day job getting in dirty old oil tanks and cleaning the sludge and old oil off the bottom with a vacuum so powerful it could nearly rip off your arm. If you want to see what I was doing, this video shows pretty much exactly what I did. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFBJa8YZH0g)

I worked that job for a couple months and got offered a better job with better pay and weekends off at my friends company doing safety inspections for oilfield companies. I worked this job for the next year and was able to pay off about $17,000 in loans in about ten months. Most people will look at jobs like this and think them unfulfilling and not worth it. For me, it was an opportunity to get out of debt so that I would be free to go where God had called me, which was back to Taiwan. But even though these jobs weren’t glamorous, I learned to enjoy them.

I know not every person has the exact same opportunities that I had to pay off debt, but I want to share a few things I did to get out of debt that I think can be helpful for anyone who wants to be debt-free.

1. Make being debt-free a value. This is key in paying off your debt quickly. When I was working at my first job in the oilfield, a trainer I was listening to talked about values and if a person values something, it will be a priority. If you want to pay off your debt quickly, don’t just make this a priority, cultivate being debt-free as a value. If you value paying off debt, you will do it. Priorities ebb and flow. Values last a lifetime.
2. Know what you need. What I mean by this is know what your fixed expenses are. Know how much money you need for rent, tithing, cell phone payment, food, gas… the essentials. Once your needs are met, put everything you can to your loans. For me, as soon as I got my paycheck, I calculated about what I would need for the next couple weeks and then throw just about every dollar I could at my loans. I didn’t have a credit card at the time and I figured, I can’t spend money I don’t have. It may seem challenging, but in the long run, it will save you hundreds and probably even thousands of dollars of interest. Rather than getting to the end of the month and seeing what you have left, put money towards debt early.
3. Find inexpensive ways to be entertained. Going to the theater, going out to eat often, and traveling are expensive. Find things you can do for free or cheap. For me it was board games, cooking with friends, and watching movies at home. If you like entertainment, rather than going to a couple movies and having cable, get Hulu or Netflix for ten bucks a month. Get books from the library. Start a board game or movie night. There are hundreds of ways to find entertainment without spending an arm and a leg. Find those things that work for you and do them.
4. Be willing to take a job you don’t love. People in the millennial generation especially want to find a job they feel fulfilled in or they feel like they are making a difference. Be willing to put your dream job on hold for a job that will pay your loans off. Cleaning out oil tanks wasn’t a world changing job. I didn’t wake up every morning at 5:30 and say, I just really want to suck sludge off the bottom of a dirty old oil tank today. But remember, every job needs someone to do it and even if it isn’t a world changing job, you will learn humility if you end up doing a job nobody wants.
5. Work Hard & Rest Well. Work hard when you are at work. Be willing to put in overtime if your job allows it. Take an extra shift if possible. That money can all go straight toward paying off debt. But don’t forget to rest. Contrary to popular belief, it is possible to rest and even enjoy a season of life when you are working hard and spending little. If you don’t rest, you will burn yourself out.

If I could reiterate one thing that has been repeated is that paying off debt is addicting (in a good way). Every time you get a paycheck and you put 500, 1,000, 2,000 dollars towards your loans, it’s rewarding watching the dollars drop like cockroaches in the Kleppen house in Taiwan. And once you get your first paycheck after you have paid off your loans, treat yourself, do something you enjoy. Take a little trip. And then, start giving more money away, saving it for a house or something else. Continue to cultivate healthy habits with money. Just a few nuggets of wisdom from a guy who’s debt free.