These days, paying for college can be such a financial burden that the idea of traveling after school might seem impossible, irresponsible, and reckless. However, if you're smart about it, traveling after college can be one of the best things you can do for your career and your financial future. Naturally, you do not want to incur huge credit card debt by flying first class to Paris or business class to Cairo on a whim. However, if you choose wisely and budget well, a post-college experience abroad will be well worth it.Traveling solo can make the journey even more rewarding. Maybe you are afraid of traveling alone, fearful that you will get lonely or will not be able to hack it without your friends around. That is exactly why you should travel alone. Solo travel can help you to enhance certain skills, like independent thinking and communication.

Taking off after college is a prime time to travel on your own. If you're smart about it, your travel experience can have a positive influence on your career. Here's how.

Most recruiters and interviewers will be looking at your work experience and your degrees, but they also want to hire people who are well rounded and who have some life experience under their belt. Traveling alone is an amazing way to gain some life experience and learn that the world doesn't revolve around you. You will be able to talk about the time you trekked through the jungle in South America or saw Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Experiences like that stay with you, and you'll be able to draw on them in surprising ways down the line.

If you're traveling alone after college, you are most likely traveling on a tight budget. This can help you later when you get back to the real world and find yourself needing to plan for things like rent, retirement, car payments, and cable. Create a daily budget for your trip, keep track of your spending, and start a savings plan for your trip. Managing your money is a critical skill, and a post-college solo trek can be a great boot camp for managing your money later in life.

Depending on where you travel, you will probably need to either learn a new language (at least a few phrases) or become a great communicator to get by. Maybe all the signs in a particular city are in a language you can't read, and you need to find out how to get from point A to Point B. Traveling alone teaches you how to communicate, especially if the country you visit has a different national language. In whatever career you choose–communication and problem solving are key skills, and you can tout these skills in job interviews as well.

Traveling alone isn't always easy–but it is incredibly fulfilling. It will test your resilience and patience, and teach you to persevere when things get tough. Say while traveling you miss a train, it's pouring out, you can't find a hostel or hotel room, and you're starving. You can give up and get on the first flight home, or you can push through, turn things around, and show some resilience. When you're back home and facing challenging days at work, you can draw on that resilience and remember that you survived that solo trip even during the toughest moments–so you can survive any career-related obstacles that come your way.

Being quick on your feet and exhibiting solid decision-making skills will impress future employers, and there's nothing like a solo trip to test your decision-making skills. You're totally on your own, with no friends or family to lean on, so you're forced to solve problems creatively and make smart, in-the-moment decisions. When you're sitting in that job interview, and they ask you questions to test your thought process when it comes to decision-making, you'll be prepared.

Knowing more than one language is a huge asset when you're applying for most jobs. Traveling alone forces you to communicate (see above) and that often entails learning a new language. If you're going to Japan, learn some Japanese. If you're trekking around Spain, polish up your Spanish. If you want to master a language, traveling to that country on your own is an excellent way to reach your goal. It'll be great for your career too.

Taking off on a solo trip later in life is likely going to be a lot harder the older you get. If you take that solo trip right after college, before major responsibilities make it tougher, you'll be able to get so many incredible life skills out of the experience. Plus, you'll be able to commit to your career knowing that you've traveled and seen part of the world. You won't get five or ten years into your career and think, I really regret not traveling in my twenties.

So work out a budget, create a trip that will expand your horizons and challenge you, and take off and see the world on your own. You'll be able to come back and commit to your career with an incredible skill set and some pretty awesome memories.