Would like to hear some personal testimonies

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I am currently doing my second local travel assignment. I really enjoy it and I have decided to go out of state and really experience travel assignments. I have decided to do long distance travel to experience new places\people\cultures and to payoff some debt. I mainly tend to payoff debt the first year and I would love to hear from travelers who have been able to payoff debt thru travel nursing. I would love to know what strategies you used? If its not too personal, an average of how much you have been able to pay off and how fast?

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this is a great question and my goal as well...would love to hear some answers if they are out there.

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Specializes in Peds, ER/Trauma.

I am currently traveling to pay off debt- in one year, I have been able to make enough to pay all of my regular bills, plus pay off about $8000 in debt.

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Specializes in Paramedic,ER, House Supervisor, OR, CVOR.

While it's good to pay off bills. Do not take a travel assignment to do it. You may be making more money per hour and getting some tax breaks but if you are seriously in debt, it may increase on the road. There are always extra expenses in a new area. Sometimes you have to pay deposits, there is always the possibility of a mechanical breakdown on your car and remember you will have no PTO time. Time taken off work is non paid time. Often times the cost of living is greater, especially in the Metro areas. Have your bills under control before you head off on a travel assignment and then you will be able to enjoy one of the greatest benifits of traveling to a new area. Exploring and doing the activities that are there. Some cost money. That's my 2 cents.

Rod

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While it's good to pay off bills. Do not take a travel assignment to do it.

I would disagree. Traveling to pay off debt is a great idea. The two ways to pay off debt are to increase income and decrease expenses. Traveling offers the opportunity for most to do both.

there is always the possibility of a mechanical breakdown on your car

There is a possibility of a car breakdown whether you are driving 10 miles across town or 1000 miles across country. This risk can be reduced with regular maintenance.

To answer the OP's question, I paid off 120k in 20 months. 80k was from the sale of a house and a car, but the rest was from hard work. I would recommend a book called The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. It's a great place to start and very motivating.

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I think it all depends. When I was first traveling, i used my Moms address as a home address (which I know is illegal since I had no intention of ever living at her home). I made TONS of money then. Now that I own a home and pay the mortgage each month, I find that I am making only somewhat more cash than I made as a staff nurse. I am also not working the full 52 hours a week that staff will do, ecause of breaks between contracts. I usually only take the time needed to drive from one place to another.

The other thing with travelling is that sometimes very unexpected things happen. Your contract gets cancelled...and you are in Arizona but you are from Florida..so you are out of luck. You get sick or injured, you don't have sick time, so you are again losing money. (And if you call out sick, YOU are responsible for paying the agency for the housing costs of those hours...not very nice)

Once when working a staff job, I broke my hand...I tripped and fell while running on my off time. I ended up having surgery and out of work for a month with pins in, and then limited duty for another month because I had to have hand therapy. I was so lucky I was not travelling away from home because if I had been, I would have been out of luck. These things happen. So it is usually better, in my opinion to have less debt, and have about 3 months of living expenses saved up for the unexpected things that happen in travel.

It's not a completely bad idea to take some high paying contracts to pay off debt, but I definitely am glad most of my debt was paid before I started this stint of travelling....

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Specializes in Peds, ER/Trauma.
I think it all depends. When I was first traveling, i used my Moms address as a home address (which I know is illegal since I had no intention of ever living at her home). I made TONS of money then.

It's not a completely bad idea to take some high paying contracts to pay off debt, but I definitely am glad most of my debt was paid before I started this stint of travelling....

So, what you're saying is that you made more money when you committed TAX FRAUD! Of course, all of us could make more money if we didn't pay the taxes we're supposed to! Not a very smart thing to advertise that you're guilty of tax fraud on a public forum..... :icon_roll

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