The digital nomad lifestyle has grown so much that thousands of people around the world are leaving their regular, full-time job to travel while working online. These digital nomads move from city to city every few weeks or months.
Until the emergence of the Covid-19, the idea of geographic independence was only a far-fetched dream for many employees. However, since everyone got forced to stay and bring their work to their home, many have adopted with “work from everywhere” setup, letting them have a firsthand taste of digital nomadism.
The remote job revolution we are seeing now would not be possible without the coronavirus pandemic’s inception.
Remote workers have an incredible amount of freedom to work wherever they want to. There’s no need to file a leave of absence and have it signed by the higher-ups just to flee to a tropical island surrounded by dancing palm trees and healing music of the crashing waves.
Every day is a day of liberty to go on an adventure. Gone are the days that employees need to wear uncomfortable suits and ties and travel early not to be late for work. Digital nomadism is the new working lifestyle.
Anyone can be a digital nomad. However, there are a few things you need to know before transitioning to a full-time remote worker.
From securing out the right tech to choosing your digital destinations, here are the valuable insights you should consider before becoming a digital nomad:
Harness your legacy skills
Whatever your legacy skills may be, you need to harness them to their full potential before shifting work to digital nomadism. May it be in marketing, teaching, copywriting, accounting, etc., you need to have a full grasp of what you are doing. Sharpen your skill at its finest.
The digital working arena is currently a battlefield crowded with people who want to achieve working freedom, so you need to have what it takes to outclass them. You can only do this by capitalizing on your expertise.
There’s a question arising from this point, though— “If I were a restaurant server, how can I capitalize on my expertise?” The question makes sense since you can’t serve foods online. However, you can come to think of it this way.
If you were a restaurant server, you must have encountered hundreds, or even thousands, of people during your working hours. You could take your customer service and social skills to your advantage. The same goes for other service-oriented jobs.
Not having prior experience working online doesn’t mean you don’t stand a chance on others. With hard work and persistence, you can keep up.
As French author, André Gide stated, “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” Try reassessing your legacy skills and figuring out ways to market them to begin your online career.
Establish your brand, build an attractive portfolio, increase your online visibility, and begin networking with people in the industry. This way, you can tap into the online digital arena.
Understand how to determine your digital destination
Many are shifting to digital nomadism to have the freedom to work in any place. However, the thought of working anywhere in the world isn’t all beds and roses. You need to consider some factors to determine the best destination that will allow you to work effectively.
A trip to the sea of golden waves of a desert or an isolated rainforest for a few weeks indeed sounds to be a fun adventure.
But will the geographic location of your destination allow you to connect to Wi-Fi, which is necessary for your nature of work? Or, if your go-to destination has a shortage of electricity, how will you charge your laptop and phone?
Your destinations should be relaxing places where you can freely sip your tea without worrying about getting disconnected to the Wi-Fi or electricity.
For anyone who dreams of working while traveling abroad, Thailand is one of the best options you have. With speedy Wi-Fi available in almost all cafes in the country and extreme cultural beauty, Thailand’s capital (Bangkok) was hailed as the top destination for digital nomads to work at.
If you prefer a destination with a continental climate and abundant cafe culture, Budapest might be the option more suited for you. With the lively magnificent natural setting of the Danube river and drop-dead gorgeous medieval architecture of Budapest, digital nomads all over the globe have been flocking in this so-called heart of Europe.
Electricity and Wi-Fi connectivity are the top two things to consider when choosing a destination to book as a traveling digital nomad!
Figure out your finances
Figuring out how you live would budget is important as a regular 9-5 employee, and even more so if you are a digital nomad. Your traveling expenses would take an enormous portion of your income.
You should also consider that your monthly expenses may differ every month since you might pay for Visa overstay or unexpected medical expenses. Being a digital nomad can leave you broke if you go to any location you want without understanding how much you are earning and spending each month.
Outline all your expenses expectations abroad. For instance, travel insurance and daily food expenses (computed in the currency of the place where you’d be heading).
Calculate all the outlay of your already existing expenses like credit card bills, loan repayment, etc. Everything that will remain after that is the true amount you could spend working abroad. Doing so will help you avoid overstretching your finances.
Use the lowest possible amount you can earn and use it as your monthly baseline budget.
Withdrawing money abroad can be pretty expensive too, so you need to give thought to getting a travel credit card, which will help you minimize the international fees of your withdrawal. International credit cards can also give you the perks of discounted travel insurance and cheap airfare lounge access.
Don’t forget to only visit places that are within your budget and won’t drain your hard-earned income.
Secure the right tech
As a digital nomad who fully relies on technology to earn money, you need to pick equipment that you can use to pursue your career online. Even if you can find good locations that will allow you to connect to speedy Wi-Fi, a lousy equipment choice can make your digital nomad life short-lived.
If you don’t secure the right tech to use, you might not last long in the digital working arena. You need to purchase a laptop, tablet, or phone that can cater to all your working needs. You need to look at the specs and the brand’s reliability.
If you’re pretty clumsy in handling things, you need to get insurance for the gadgets you will purchase, or they might cost you fortunes to repair or replace.
If you plan to work abroad, jumping from one place to another constantly, you will need a VPN that will allow you to connect to servers that might not be available in the country you’re staying at.
Prepare to work hard
Working anytime, anywhere might seem to be a lap-of-luxury, but life as a digital nomad isn’t all milk and honey. You will need to learn how to balance vacation and work perfectly without damaging concentration on your daily tasks.
While the regular 9-5 job can make you at ease because of the familiarity of day-to-day duties, a digital nomad lifestyle is pretty unstable and irregular, which requires a lot of decision-making.
Exploring the world isn’t so simple, but once you get the hang of it, you will be able to settle abroad quite easily.
