I'm a 25-year-old with 2 master's degrees and $131,000 in student debt. I just left Paris and am getting ready to travel to Asia.

• Hayley is an American who spent two years living in Paris and going to school.
• She lived off loans and the income from various jobs to help fund the life she wanted in Paris.
• Hayley is about to travel to India for a conference and will then explore parts of Asia.

Hayley is a 25-year-old from Kalamazoo, Michigan, who has two master's degrees. She recently left Paris and is getting ready to travel to India and beyond. She broke down her biggest spending categories for life abroad and her student debt. This as-told-to essay is based on an interview that has been edited for length and clarity.

I got my undergrad degree at Anderson College in South Carolina. I graduated a semester early, in December 2019, and was going to do a big, two-month trip to Asia, but then COVID happened.

At the time, I was already lined up for my first master's degree at Arcadia University in international peace and conflict resolution. I completed it virtually.

Originally, I was having a hard time picking between a peace-studies program or a more traditional international-relations and diplomacy program. Then I found an opportunity to do both and get two master's degrees. It would only take three years instead of four for doing two separate degrees.

When the opportunity came up to do my degree in Paris, I didn't hesitate. I grew up doing road trips with my parents around the US. I went to Uganda with a group from my church senior year in high school. and I did a semester abroad as well. I spent four and a half months living in the Middle East and that definitely taught me how to travel — how to do it confidently and safely.

I jumped at the chance to move to Paris

I moved to Paris in September 2021 and was there until June 2023 and completed my second master's degree. I was there on a student visa and I think I went to 11 or 12 European countries. Even though the finances were tight, travel was a priority.

My first year in Paris it was a little bit quieter because it was still in the back half of COVID. I was living in the neighborhood that I wanted to live in: Marais. I had my regular cafe; I had my regular coffee shop. I'm on a first-name basis with my produce guy and my wine guy. And I really have this sort of community that I hadn't really experienced living in other cities like Philly or in Kalamazoo Shore.

I had the same experience living in Jordan as I did in Europe. Despite, perhaps, the assumption that maybe the French aren't always kind or welcoming, people are so much more willing to be helpful. It just looks differently than it does when you grew up in a Midwest town, where everyone waves at everyone who drives by in their car.

Definitely Paris is one of the most expensive cities to live in, especially in Europe, but I knew that going into it. I knew to expect sort of outrageous prices, particularly on rent. Rent is kind of crazy.

My apartment was 17 square meters, or 183 square feet, and I paid 950 euros a month. I did have my own bathroom; I didn't have to share a toilet. In some of the older buildings, there's a toilet in the hallway and you just have a cubicle shower in the corner of your apartment. I was living in the 4th arrondissement, which is one of the most expensive parts of Paris.

I definitely got lucky in terms of location and it had a washer, which was really important to me because, frankly, I am too cute to carry my laundry through Paris!

I found the apartment on a website that connects owners to would-be renters. I rented from a man whose wife is Canadian, and she always prefers to rent to young women from North America, preferably students, because they're quiet; they're responsible. And I thought, "That is gonna be me!"

I became a dog walker to cover some expenses

My monthly expenses included 50 euros for internet and around 16 euros for my phone. With utilities, I paid my landlord directly and we split some of that cost.

I was attending an American university in Paris, so I paid American tuition, which is just heartbreaking. I think my tuition was between $12,000 and $15,000 a semester, depending on how many courses I took.

I used my student loans to pay for my accommodation, and for my tuition fees.

I walked a dog every day and pretty much used my side-gig money as spending money to keep me alive. So groceries, matcha lattes, little treats, or renting bikes and scooters.

I got around $20 to walk a couple's dog, for like an hour, which is like an outrageous amount of money to walk a dog! But he's an 85-pound boxer, so it was a bit of effort involved there. The owners are from the US and New Zealand, so sometimes I'd get paid in dollars through Venmo and other times it would be cash in euros. I'd also dog-sit for them when they went on big trips. I'd get paid more for that, but it wasn't a set fee. Sometimes they'd pay me by buying me tickets to the ballet or bringing back my favorite alcohol from Italy!

I also had a position at my university as a social media intern for the school that paid 10 euros an hour, so around 350 to 400 euros a month.

I was also a bike tour guide in Paris with a company. This started in May 2022. I got paid 60 euros per tour, or 20 euros per hour. My schedule was not consistent, but I averaged two tours a week during the school year and five a week over the summer.

During my last semester, I got connected with an American family that recently moved to Paris. I worked with their 8-year-old daughter on her reading and math. Once a week, I'd pick her up from school and we'd spend about two hours together. I got 50 euros every time, so 25 euros an hour.

My internship and bike-tour money was for bigger things, like travel and tattoos — I got 11 while living in Europe!

I probably gave myself between 80 and 120 euros a week. The motto I lived on was "don't spend money" so I could do things that were important to me like traveling. I'd much rather save for a trip than blow my money at one night in a club. So I'd always cook with friends.

I'm a vegetarian so I was basically living off produce and things like cheese, eggs, legumes, chickpeas, lentils — things like that. I had a one-pizza-a-week budget. I had a pizza place where they knew me really well. I'm also someone who likes a snack, so the little treats I would say were like a different category. And that was probably closer to like 20 euros a week.

My spending went in phases: If I had a big trip coming up, I'd think, "Oh, I'm poor. I need to stop spending" versus when I'd think, "I'm in the semester, living my life." If I had 120 euros a week to spend and 50 went to groceries or things to sustain me, the other 70 was for fun. I'd probably say I spent between 35 and 40 euros on sitting at a cafe with friends.

I have $131,000 in debt

I got through undergrad with only $17,000 to $18,000 in student loans. My parents were really wonderful and helped put me and my brothers through school.

Now I am $131,000 in debt, which is just such a large number to say out loud. That is from undergrad and two master's degrees. All things considered, it's really not that bad.

If we're honest, the job positions that I'm looking at are entry level somewhere between $60,000 to $80,000 a year. So I'm looking at something that's going to make it possible for me to pay things off pretty quickly. Since I'm planning on going into public service, there's also loan-forgiveness opportunities for that: After 10 years in public service with consistent payments, all of the rest of my loans will be forgiven. I knew that going into the school and choosing to do two master's — knowing that I was headed for a career that was going to result in loan forgiveness.

I could have taken out way less loans. But the priority for me was really just to enjoy the two years in Paris and to have the experiences that I felt like I wanted. For me, that meant taking out more loans so that I could live in the neighborhood that I wanted to live in. And then with any extra money, I was able to put that towards traveling and things like that.

I'm heading to India with about $200 to my name

I have been pretty much unemployed since May. I also have hardly any expenses if we're honest. Once I gave up my lease in May to a friend, I spent the month of June living in northern Spain with the couple who owns the dog that I walked. They invited me to spend the month with them. The most I was allowed to purchase was ice cream. They said they could afford to buy dinner because that's what their level of income looks like. They were so generous with me and I love them dearly. So, yeah, I spent two months in Europe just like schmoozing off of any friends who loved me at all.

I had a decent amount of savings when I decided that I wanted to spend two months in Europe with no job. I had enough saved up to get me through the summer and figured it'd be fine. And, thankfully, I have parents who love me a lot and will let me crash with them for a few weeks. So I am only here in Michigan until August 13th and then I'm headed to Southeast Asia with like essentially $200 to my name.

I am going to India for the Y 20 conference, the youth conference that precedes the G20. I'll be participating in an event called Talking Across Generations on Education, which is something put on by UNESCO's Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development. I'm so thrilled. Technically, I am attending with UNESCO's MGIEP and, as such, they are covering the costs of my transportation, accommodation and food while I am in India for the conference.

But that event is only one day long, and in my mind I said, "Well if I'm going all the way to India for just one day, I'm not only gonna go to India for one day." So I asked them, "Well, wouldn't it be cheaper if it was a longer round trip?" To do a round trip from August 13 to 17 is like $3,000. But to go from August 13th to September 11th is only $1,700, but I never saw the final ticket price.

I'm going to do a week in India, then I'm going to do a few days in Singapore, then a week and a half in Australia with friends. Then I'm meeting up with a friend in Vietnam and then staying with other friends in Thailand. So I'm sort of getting a redo on the trip that I meant to do back in 2020.

The trip afterwards is my most ambitious traveling on a budget to date. I'm part of a Facebook group called Host a Sister so I'm staying with women in India who also love to travel solo and then with friends in all the other countries I'm going.  

Post-Asia, I've been applying for jobs over the past month or so to keep the anxiety at bay of not having anything really substantial lined up. I think realistically I'm gonna be back in Kalamazoo for at least the first few months after I get back from Asia. And since I have a history of working in the public school system in my mom's school as a substitute teacher, I have a couple opportunities lined up there where I could come back and work and I could live at home.

My dad, without speaking to my mother first, agreed to let me pay rent in chocolate chip cookies. And probably I'll have to help them paint their house. I think that's sort of the other half of the chocolate chip cookie rent.