Ever wondered what a digital nomad lifestyle looks like?

The chance to travel the world while working from exotic places is a dream life for many. However, becoming a digital nomad doesn’t just happen overnight — it takes saving money, setting up a business with companies that offer remote positions, and trying out different places to discover how you like to travel as a nomad.

Working remotely from the comfort of your own home or a sandy beach while sipping on coconut juice sounds like a dream, right? But before you become a digital nomad and embrace that lifestyle – you should know a few things about living abroad for an extended period.

A digital nomad can work remotely from anywhere in the world if they have a Wi-Fi connection. Digital nomad life is, fortunately, becoming the ultimate lifestyle, with more and more remote work opportunities available. A digital nomad lifestyle truly gives you so much freedom.

We created this guide from our own experience. Being active digital nomads for over five years now, we have lived in many different countries and across three continents. We worked in different countries with different languages and cultures, traveled on our own, and experienced the ups and downs of the nomad life.

What is a Digital Nomad?

In the digital age, digital nomads are independent workers who are embracing a location-independent, technology-enabled lifestyle, allowing them to travel the world and work remotely.

A digital nomad is a person who can work remotely from any location, all over the world, without having a base of operations. The ability to work remotely and be location independent allows you to earn a living or build a career from anywhere at any time. Work hours are often quite flexible too.

Nowadays, digital nomads are adopting the trend to travel around to establish good connections with other people, share experiences and knowledge, exchange ideas and innovate while having fun.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a seismic shift towards remote work, so it is no wonder that turning to the digital nomad lifestyle has become so trendy. And it’s happening globally, with more and more people discovering the potential behind work freedom. 

Pros and cons

Pros

Digital nomads enjoy many benefits from their location independence. Working from anywhere in the world while checking off their ultimate bucket list must be fun, right? Here are the pros: 

• Being able to live in a place of your choice
• Live in an area with a low cost of living to save money
• Get rid of the toxic environment of office politics
• Explore new cultures and make friends from different backgrounds
• Acquire new skills and learn new languages
• Gain a broad perspective through travel
• Having a flexible schedule and adjusting the time off 
• Enjoy the beach during the winter and the mountains during the summer (or whatever combination of seasons suits you!) 

Cons

For many people, working from anywhere is a dream. However, there are also cons to a nomadic lifestyle, like everything else in life. Some of the disadvantages are:

• Stability can be challenging to achieve
• It can affect the productivity
• It may become exhausting to move around constantly
• It can be hard to create a community 
• Traveling continuously can cause it to lose some of its excitement and luster

Digital nomad life guide

Digital nomad life can be really incredible and super rewarding, but it’s not for everyone. Before leaping to become a digital nomad, you might want to consider some factors:

Be desperate to move out as fast as possible

The main reason for this is the suffocation by the rat race of working for money. You get trapped in a career or life you don’t want to be in and end up unhappy. But once the digital nomad lifestyle starts making sense to you, everything will just click into place.

You are simply desperate for freedom. This helps to motivate you to do whatever it takes to succeed. It’s the desire to follow your dreams and achieve a life of freedom that pushes you to go all in. 

You might not properly set yourself up for success without this level of desire. However, you will also find motivation in leaving your old life behind during the challenges you endure as a digital nomad.

Adapt to nomadism

You must be prepared for the reality of life on the road if you want to become a digital nomad. For example, the constant movement of your location makes it difficult to keep in touch with your friends and family. Not only do you miss their birthdays and holidays, but you also miss out on quality time with them. 

However, you gain one huge benefit in exchange for all the pain – freedom. Being a digital nomad lets you travel wherever you want whenever you want.

Is becoming a digital nomad right for you?

Before leaping into digital nomadism, a trial run is a great way to test out the lifestyle. Set aside a few days or a week before your vacation to try out the lifestyle.

The experience will teach you about what it’s like to actually work and travel, whether your profession can thrive remotely, and how much time you need to spend locally to maintain your sanity.

You should remember that trial runs do not always represent the real thing. You are not going to get some incredible epiphanies over a few weeks. Additionally, some hurdles can arise over the long run, which you will need to get used to.

Tips and Tricks

Start with shorter vacations

Start your journey towards digital nomadism by practicing on a shorter vacation. You’ll find that although you’re in a new place and the workload is lighter, you still have the same responsibilities as you do at home. 

If there are tasks that are draining your time and energy, create a workflow so you can re-prioritize them upon your return home. Using task and project management softwares are a big help for staying organized day-to-day.

Have a steady stream of income

Having a regular source of income, usually monthly or yearly, is essential for the digital nomad lifestyle. You can start your own business, take your full-time job remote, do freelance work, or work on a passive income stream. Ideally, you want enough work-life balance so that you can still spend your evenings and weekends exploring wherever you have chosen to base yourself! 

Practice  minimalistic approach

Minimalism is indeed an essential element of digital nomadism, but it doesn’t mean you have to give up your current lifestyle or all of your comforts of home. Putting your excess belongings into a suitcase will force you to evaluate your life and find out what is meaningful. Then, take steps to eliminate anything that is keeping you from feeling satisfied with your current situation. Once you’ve spent a few months hauling luggage around, you really realize what you truly do and do not need. 

Stay in a single place for several months

You might move here and there until you find the right place to throw your anchor. After hopping around, in the beginning, you will notice that your stays will eventually become longer, or maybe you will fall in love with a specific culture and grow roots there. Settling down in a place for a couple of months or more will allow you to learn that place on a deeper level and start to build a community. 

Furthermore, it allows enough time for work, creating a life, and gathering experiences without worrying about keeping afloat while traveling. 

Create a schedule

Often, digital nomads spend a lot of time setting up their businesses online and then running them from different locations around the globe. Some digital nomads work a 9-5 schedule and take evenings and weekends off, while others work for two weeks and then take a two-week break. The main point is, everyone decides for themselves around the workflow, as long as everything gets done on time.

Creating a proper schedule of working hours and activities, with calendars and plans of upcoming or existing projects and due dates, minimizes the stress and chaos that may occur if you’re new to working remotely. That way, you will always be on top of your priorities. Some days you can decide to work in the mornings, and to have your evenings free for catching up. On occasions where you would feel more productive during the night, you’ll simply adjust your schedule without losing productivity.

Best Location for Digital Nomads

Choosing where to live as a digital nomad at the beginning can be tricky. If your dream office is a beach in Bali, you will have to consider many factors like how to get there, the time zones, how you’ll fit in with the culture, and of course, if you can afford it. So, unless you’re already well established, choosing your remote location when embracing digital nomadism should be well considered. The location you choose to work from must be the right one for your lifestyle and business. 

Having a network of people who are already there and those who are trying to make it happen remotely is extremely important. 

As a digital nomad, being able to communicate in different languages and cultures can make day-to-day life in a different country and making friends a little bit easier.  

Listed below are the top countries that can best suit your needs as a digital nomad:

• Thailand
• Indonesia
• Spain
• Hungary
• Mexico
• United States
• Vietnam
• Malaysia
• Romania
• Bulgaria
• Georgia
• Portugal

How to prepare?

If you don’t have a full-time job that you can take remotely or your own business, creating a side income is the first step to becoming a digital nomad. Dropshipping and selling information products are among the most common passive income sources for digital nomads. Nevertheless, remote freelancers can also be digital nomads. Making sure your business idea can help you earn enough income to satisfy your cost of living is going to be very important for being able to do this long-term.

Planning to base yourself in the right location is the second crucial step. Deep research of the city or country where you’re planning to reside and work should help you structure all the other secondary things related to successful digital nomad life. Local customs and culture may also be affecting your work-life balance, as well as the safety of the region.

Like we mentioned before, the third step is to do a trial run. If you are office-based,  take a vacation for a week or two and see how you will manage your work remotely during this time. You can go for that vacation you always wished to have or a simple getaway from the city. This way, you will get familiar with remote work and complete tasks on your own schedule while exploring new locations simultaneously.

While abroad, were you able to be productive? Could you pay your bills with money earned from online projects? Did you encounter any problems? 

Before you consider becoming a digital nomad, make sure such things are sorted out.

Digital Nomad Life Examples

The purpose of this website is to show you real-life examples of digital nomads, answer your questions, and provide advice on how to achieve your location-independent lifestyle. If you are just beginning your journey, our story will help you understand how we did it, our reasons for deciding on nomadism, and all the places we’ve lived!

Living Abroad & Playing Professional Basketball with KT & Jordan from On Arrival

The couple met while studying at the University of Michigan and have spent the last seven years traveling the world while Jordan traveled to six countries during his professional basketball career.

After living in Italy, France, Slovenia, Turkey, Greece, and the Middle East, they recently landed in Russia. KT and Jordan share what it’s been like to travel and play basketball while living abroad, some of their strangest experiences, and how they were inspired to create their travel podcast, On Arrival.

Tour Guiding and Travel Overload with Andy Steves of Weekend Student Adventures

While his father updated guidebooks, produced TV shows, and led tours, Andy Steves grew up following him on his work trips to Europe. After initially studying industrial design in college, Andy changed his focus towards travel after visiting Europe.

After graduating high school, he recognized a market for shorter-term city tours for students studying abroad and on a budget. 

With Andy’s company, travelers can go on tours of all lengths, styles, and excursions.

Also, they receive quality experiences by going to the city first, building optimal itineraries, and hiring only local guides. 

Aside from providing tours in fifteen cities across Europe, Andy has also published a Europe guidebook and launched the Andy Steves Travel Podcast.

Living an Offbeat Life with Debbie Arcangeles

Among her many projects, Debbie hosts The Offbeat Life podcast, in which guests are digital nomads and people living remotely.

Growing up, Debbie was fascinated by travel and built a career to earn a living while exploring the world. Her first two years as a travel journalist were fulfilling, but she felt burned out after a while. As a result, she went back home and started a more traditional career.

A few years later, Debbie felt that something was missing, despite her success in early childhood education. The stability and quality of life were excellent, but the freedom and creativity weren’t there.

Having set out on a new path, Debbie has created a fulfilling and successful career that offers the flexibility to travel and work remotely.

Travel with Kids: Jake and Michelle Schomp, Parents of the “Retired Toddlers”

Michelle and Jake Schomp were certain that they would have to put aside their love of travel and work at a corporate job once they started a family. But, as they realized they still wanted to spend time with their kids, they realized now was the perfect time to show them the world!

Since then, they have traveled with their toddlers Henley, 4, and Jagger, 2, to places like East Coast USA, Hawaii, New Zealand, and Cambodia, sharing their adventures on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.

What It’s Like to be Stranded on a Cruise Ship with Riley Tench

As a lighting technician on cruise ships, he spent the past four months stranded on a ship in the Pacific. Until cruise ships ceased sailing, Riley documented his experience on his YouTube channel and shared what it was like living through a pandemic while working on a cruise ship.

On our podcast, Riley explained how his interest in travel started, what led him to work on cruise ships, and then talk through his experience of living through the pandemic and now spending 100+ days living on a cruise ship without guests.

Resources

Hey World Wanderers! We want to make it easier for you to download a free ebook or check out one of our favorite travel products or services. So we created this page to help you optimize and organize your nomadic life while visiting our site.

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