How we paid off $46,000 of debt while traveling and living abroad

In 2014, we left Canada for a life of full-time travel. Our first stop was Prague, where we would spend three months.

I had been planning for this for 10 years, even before meeting Lissette. But in 2013 it was as if everything conspired against us leaving. We had some major dental expenses, a bad business investment, and renovation costs (for our Montreal condo) that went way over budget.

We went from cash rich to having about $46,000 of debt.

Only two years later, we're debt-free and have traveled all over the world. Here's how we did it:

SEE ALSO: A couple who quit their jobs to spend 7 months traveling the world explain how they stretched $8,000 across 13 countries

We didn’t let our debt stop us. We had investments, including the Montreal condo and some locked-in retirement savings, so we knew we had a good base. Our goal was to leave that untouched while finding a way to pay off our debts.

We left Montreal with Lissette being able to continue her position as Director of Marketing (for a Montreal-based company) and me renting out the condo.

All together, it added up to $125,000 of annual income, about half the income we used to have when we were both working (I was previously a CFO for a Canadian exporter).

Lissette being able to continue her work from overseas was a major plus, but we also had to reduce our cost of living if we were going to cut into our debt. One of the cost factors was helping my son from a previous marriage with his university lodging and tuition.

We chose Prague as our first base because of cheap accommodation. We knew someone who taught English there and she had to leave Prague with three months left on her lease. The apartment came out to $500 a month. We were incredibly lucky and jumped on it.