This story is part of CNBC Make It's Millennial Money series, which details how people around the world earn, spend and save their money.

Kevin Levu faces unpredictable dangers during his nursing shifts, including the risk of being stabbed or beaten.

A travel nurse, Levu works at Pelican Bay State Prison, which is home to some of the most violent inmates in California. "You're dealing with some of the most dangerous people who have violated other people's rights or have taken lives," he tells CNBC Make It.

But "it is what it is," Levu says. "I just do my job and try my best to care for people."

An army veteran who studied nursing as part of active duty, Levu says his military training prepared him for the role.

"I'm not afraid, but I'm aware — I treat them like prisoners of war," he says, "I don't turn my back to them, I don't leave pens out, I make sure I have all my equipment — like prison keys — always on me."

As the 2,200-inmate penitentiary's clinic nurse, Levu mans the medical clinic, doles out medications, monitors inmates on suicide watch and responds to medical emergencies resulting from prison violence.

Travel nurses usually work short-term contracts in places with staffing shortages around the U.S., commonly in hospitals or long-term care facilities.

But there's also high demand for travel nurses in correctional facilities, which tend to pay better due to the added risk and stress that comes with the job. The extra pay is what attracted Levu to a six-month contract at Pelican Bay, in Crescent City in Northern California.

"I don't want to hold a limit over what's going to make me more money," says Levu, who is projected to earn about $112,000 in 2024. Levu works a full-time schedule with occasional overtime, covering the morning shift, from 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., five days a week.

Being a travel nurse "provides a lot of freedom in my life," he says. "For me, it's the benefit of choosing how long I work somewhere, negotiating my pay and feeling like I'm being paid what I'm worth."

'An experience where the world suddenly feels so big'

As a first-generation American, Levu wanted to be a soldier as far back as he can remember. He grew up in an "extremely pro-American" Vietnamese family, with parents who fled their country after the communist government took power.

In 2017, when Levu graduated from high school at 17, he asked his parents to sign a consent form so he could join the army, although it took a "few weeks" to convince his mother, he says.

However, he wasn't interested in being a basic infantry enlistee; Levu wanted to find a role that would be useful when he left the army.

A recruiter nudged him toward nursing, and after three months of basic training in Oklahoma, Levu went to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, to study to become a licensed vocational nurse.

The responsibility of the job didn't really hit him until early in his training, says Levu. He witnessed his "first CPR incident" when a baby in a neonatal intensive care unit suffered cardiac arrest.

"The alarms were blaring, the baby was non-responsive and the parents were screaming in the background," says Levu. "It felt like an experience where the world suddenly just feels so big."

Doctors rushed in and were able to resuscitate the baby, but the incident deeply affected Levu: "I didn't have a passion for nursing until I experienced life being lost."

Seeing the assured competence of senior nurses and doctors as they worked "definitely fueled my ambition," he says. "They were like 'I'm here for you, I'm going get you out of this' — that really inspired me."

Becoming a travel nurse and doubling his pay

When Levu was a baby, his father opened a convenience store, "Kevin 99 Cents Plus," named after Levu, which became successful and allowed his parents to later invest in other properties, including homes and an almond farm.

"Seeing my parents' success and how hard they worked gave me a sense of, 'You can do it too,'" says Levu, who started working in the shop when he was about 9. "Knowing they worked 12 hours a day for the first 10 to 15 years [they were in the U.S.] made me feel like I need to achieve and strive further than my parents."

In 2020, Levu left active duty and became a reservist living in Fresno, California, with his parents. While there, he took pre-requisite courses at Fresno City College to become a registered nurse, a certification that has a wider scope of practice and greater autonomy over patients compared with LVNs. He also worked mostly part-time for about $20 per hour as a nurse at a long-term care facility.

Travel nursing was always in the back of his mind, though, "especially when I came home around the end of [the Covid-19 lockdowns] and saw these job listings for like $50 to $60 an hour," he says. "I was like, 'Whoa, my life can always revolve around that.'"

In 2023, Levu put his studies on hold and signed a short-term contract to be a travel nurse at a county jail in Placerville, California.

While the job initially paid an hourly rate of about $20, his overall pay was higher due to a tax-free reimbursement of around $1,000 per week for housing expenses. Reimbursements or stipends are common incentives for travel nurses, and are intended to cover rent and other costs that come with being away from home.

In May 2024, Levu signed a six-month contract to work at Pelican Bay, which increased his regular hourly rate to $42. Along with his hourly pay, he receives a weekly tax-free reimbursement of $1,080. The combination of his hourly pay and the reimbursement more than doubled his 2023 income of $56,600.

"This is the first time I've ever made over six figures compared to my other jobs and it's just different," says Levu. With the increased income comes a sense of "relief" knowing there's more "breathing space" in his monthly budget, he says.

Working at Pelican Bay prison: It can feel 'a little unreal'

As a clinic nurse at Pelican Bay, Levu begins his workday by walking through a series of security checkpoints before reaching the armory, where he collects prison keys and a stab vest engineered to resist knife attacks.

Most of the work is low-key, but the threat of violence is always present and when it happens, Levu has to be ready. 

If a call comes through the radio, or there's a cell block alarm, "everybody has to respond," Levu says. Equipped with gloves and a fanny pack full of medical equipment, Levu will grab a gurney if he's in the clinic and run along with correctional officers to assist any injured inmates.

Most violent incidents are gang-related, as gangs exert significant influence within the prison by enforcing their own rules and codes of conduct.

With prisons, you're stepping into a "pre-established culture," says Levu. Unlike a traditional hospital where patients come to you, "it's kind of like you're going to these people's homes."

The contrast between the prison environment and the outside world can be jarring too. 

"I have blood on my hands, and then later my shift ends," Levu says. In the outside world, "people are greeting me at the grocery store, and I'm like, 'Dude, this feels a little unreal.'"

On the other hand, working in a prison gives Levu perspective about his own freedom: "The beach is three minutes away from my house, but for some of these inmates it might as well be 1,000 miles away, because they're never getting out."

How he spends his money

Here's how Levu spent his money in June 2024.

• Savings and investments: $9,063 toward savings, a Roth IRA and a health savings account
• Housing and utilities: $1,450 for a one-bedroom rental
• Food: $836 for groceries and the occasional takeout order
• Discretionary: $534 for household goods and clothes
• Insurance: $379 for health, dental, concealed weapon, auto and life insurance
• Gas: $174
• Phone: $162
• Subscriptions and memberships: $79 for his gym, Netflix, Spotify and Patreon

A self-described "frugal person," Levu rents a pre-furnished one-bedroom home in nearby Brookings, Oregon, for $1,450 per month, which comes with utilities included. When he's not working, "I just stay home, play video games, or I hang around on the beach," he says. "I try to keep costs low."

Living with his parents until summer 2023 allowed him to pay off his 2018 Toyota Tacoma and a $6,000 KLX 230 motorcycle, so his only transportation expense is gas.

One relatively big expense is food: "I'll splurge on something like ribeye steaks. It's like my little treat."​

Since becoming a travel nurse in 2023, Levu has been putting money aside into investment and savings accounts, although he doesn't have any particular goals with the money.

Levu tends to make piece-meal contributions every few weeks, typically whatever is left in his checking account: "The more I can shovel into investments, the better." He was able to save over $9,000 in June, but doesn't usually contribute that much per month.

He has a mix of cash savings and investments, including a brokerage account and certificate of deposit. All told, he has about $16,000 in savings and $35,000 in investments as of June.

Looking ahead

Levu plans to eventually to go back to school and become a registered nurse, perhaps starting in 2025. His parents have been supportive about going back to school, he says.  

"Corrections isn't something I plan on doing on a long-term basis," he says. "I have long-term aspirations that include achieving a higher level of care and knowledge [so] that I'm able to treat patients in the I.C.U. and the E.R. and anywhere in the world."​

For now, he will likely extend his contract at Pelican Bay until the end of the year. He sees travel nursing as a way to gain "capital, work experience and experience something outside of the norm."​

He thinks he's uniquely suited to be a travel nurse, based on his military experience. "It's definitely taught me a lot of perseverance," Levu says. "It taught me how to be flexible, I can up and go and be ready for any moment."

He might even join the army again as a commissioned nurse, which would come with a higher ranking and new duties, potentially including managing medical staff.

"I really like helping soldiers," says Levu, "With my family being refugees from Vietnam, that was another kind of aspect to it. It's like giving back to what the country had provided for us."

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