At the time of writing this, we’re in the throes of the Coronavirus pandemic. Millions of people have been sent to work from home. Several are asking themselves if they could continue working from home forever. The brave few are wondering if they can take it to the next level: working from anywhere forever. In other words, people are considering becoming a digital nomad more than ever before.
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While ‘digital nomad’ might conjure up images of millennials working on beaches, there’s so much more to it than that. The good news is, there’s no one cookie-cutter answer to ‘how to be a digital nomad’. However, I’d argue that there are a few keys to digital nomad success that people should know about before deciding to leave the 9 to 5 life in pursuit of eternal working holidays.
What is a Digital Nomad?
In short, a digital nomad is a remote worker. If you work from home, in theory, you’re a digital nomad already. However, more people would add on that digital nomads also travel while working.
How much do they travel, exactly? As much or as little as they want.
On one end of the spectrum, a digital nomad might be a parent that travels with their family and works as they travel. On the other, it might be someone that sleeps in a different bed every week, traveling to new, exotic places as often as they can.
More often, a digital nomad is someone that works full time and stays in places for a few weeks to a few months at a time.
Point being – anyone can be a digital nomad any way they want. It’s just important to know why you want to be one, and to do it in a way that works for you.
Why I became a digital nomad
When I was in college, I was recommended a book called the 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. The book changed the way I thought about a lot of things, including how I envisioned my future of work. I had spent the summer after my freshman year living and working abroad, so I knew that was possible. However, the 4-Hour Workweek led me to realize ‘work’ didn’t have to be in a single place.
To be clear, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I did know what lifestyle I wanted to have.
Read that again. I had figured out (a lot earlier than most) that my happiness wasn’t going to be found in a cubicle. My idea of working was not college –> work –> retire. Instead, I wanted to enjoy my entire life, and take short ‘retirements’ at my discretion.
I didn’t want to retire in the sense that I stopped working until I ran out of money. Instead, I decided that I wanted to work to live, and that my lifestyle was going to change and flow with me. My plan was to read often, work as much as I needed to, and chase ideas.
The good news is, that’s exactly what I’m doing now. It took me five years and finally making the jump to becoming a digital nomad, but I got here. At least I didn’t wait until I was 65.
5 keys to successfully becoming a digital nomad
Okay, so, how does one become a digital nomad? That’s easy. You take your computer and go somewhere. You continue to work and live wherever you want.
Like almost anything, there are good ways, bad ways, and better ways to do things. After meeting thousands of digital nomads in the past several years, here are a few things that I find the successful ones have in common:
1. Know why you’re becoming a digital nomad
The first key to a successful location independent lifestyle is getting your mind right. You should have a keen understanding of why you’re choosing this life. It’s nontraditional, and everyone thinks about going home and doing the easy thing occasionally, so it’s vital that you understand why you’re doing what you’re doing.
If you value freedom, want to travel more, or simply want to live more cheaply than in the U.S., then you might already have reasons to become a digital nomad.
On the flip side, if you enjoy the creature comforts of home and have never traveled to a place and thought, “Man, I wish I could just… live here”, then you might need to dig in to your ‘why’ a little bit more. Same goes for if you simply hate your office.
Your reason doesn’t matter as much as your conviction behind it. If you are truly interested in living a location independent lifestyle while earning enough to sustain it, then give it a shot. The worst thing that happens is you can go home and reset.
2. Prepare for the emotional roller coaster
Depending on where you go, how long you stay there, the people you surround yourself with, and the work you do, becoming a digital nomad can take a huge emotional toll on you.
One day, you might be in LOVE with Rome. You don’t think you can ever get enough aperitivo and basilicas. Then, one day, you suddenly will realize how loud it is. You’ll get annoyed with people being so touchy with each other, and start looking for a way out.
Sometimes, digital nomads take on a new career when they hit the road. Many people have a sudden, crushing realization that they hate teaching English online or finding their own clients.
What I’m saying is, one bad shower can leave you really missing home. So, prepare for the ups and downs.
Bring a few comforts of home with you. Mine is my memory foam pillow and several bags of microwave popcorn. There’s nothing some snacks and a good night’s sleep can’t fix.
3. Ride the global economy
This is a major key to location independent success.
“Earn dollars. Live on pesos. Compensate in rupees.”
Tim Ferriss
When you take on a digital nomad lifestyle, you put yourself in a unique position to earn as much as you did in the states but experience twice the lifestyle. Hear me out:
Let’s say that I still lived in Dallas. In a shared apartment, I spent $1k a month on rent, $100 on utilities, $70 a week on groceries, $100 a month on car insurance, $40 a month on gas, and $400 a month dining out. Not including other little things, like going to sports games, ubers, and more, I easily spent about $3000 – $3500 a month.
Now, let’s consider another major city that expats love: Kuala Lumpur. I could live alone in a luxurious downtown apartment for $500 a month (comes with utilities and regular cleaning, too!). I’d spend about $30 a week on groceries, and maybe $200 a month dining out. I wouldn’t have a car, so ubers everywhere might cost a little more. Getting a car to the beach for the day costs about $40 per person. My life there would only cost about $2,000 a month if I wasn’t being frugal.
These examples would be similar in other nomad hotspots including Playa del Carmen, Mexico; Tbilisi, Georgia; and in Bali, Indonesia.
Therefore, permitting that I earn the same amount in the U.S. as abroad, not only could I invest my extra money, I could choose to work less, therefore enjoying the places I’m visiting even more.
Riding the global economy means earning money in dollars, while living on cents.
A note on retirement and the global economy:
Being a digital nomad doesn’t mean you can’t afford to live in the U.S. Instead, it means that you’re choosing to live wehrever makes you happy. It’s still smart to invest for retirement.
A lot of people choose to retire outside of the U.S. However, it’s a heck of a lot cheaper to retire abroad. It’s worth considering a nomadic lifestyle, even in retirement.
4. Follow technology
Before becoming a digital nomad, I would seek out vacation spots that were off the grid. I’d use my PTO to go off into the mountains of Guatemala and not use my phone for a week. I got away from my work by getting away from technology. However, it’s a little bit different as a digital nomad.
Digital nomads don’t work from anywhere. They work from anywhere that has good WiFi.
Places like Asia and Southeast Asia are known for having some of the most advanced technology in the world. Not only that, but access to 4G internet and data plans are cheap.
If you’re just starting out, be sure to make sure that wherever you decide to go has strong WiFi. You can find this information by searching digital nomad forums on Reddit, looking on nomadlist.com, and searching for digital nomad blogs.
5. Know when to stop working
This is a key to success for any remote worker, but especially for digital nomads.
Imagine going to your dream location. For the sake of imagination, let’s say it’s Bali. You arrive, set up shop, and get your backlog of work done from traveling. Then, you spend the next several days getting ahead on work. A new project pops up, and suddenly, you’re spending 10 hours a day in your room on the computer. NOT ideal.
As a remote worker, you have to know when to call it a day. Give yourself time or productivity limits, and stick to them. There’s no point in choosing a lifestyle for yourself and not following through on it.
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The keys to success for becoming a digital nomad are simple. Like anything else you do, you should root yourself in a purpose. Then, take practical steps toward finding places that you love to be and things you love to do.
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