A digital nomad is basically someone who travels while working online.
In other words, the “digital” part refers to working online. The “nomad” part to moving around, living in many different locations.
Who wouldn’t want this for an office?!
There is a surprising number of people who have managed to do this – including us! Most seem to have the opinion that it is possible for anyone, as long as you are willing to work hard, at least initially, and be creative. I must admit that I doubted this initially but now I firmly believe this as well.
There are many different ways that people manage to make an online income. Some have managed to find online jobs in their home countries that they are able to continue abroad. This can include things like IT related jobs, such as programming or web development, or writing, translating or even being a phone sex worker. If you are able to do this, it may be the easiest way to make a good living online.
Other people manage to make an online income from their blogs, tutoring or finding work on sites such as upwork.com. Many people combine many online jobs such as these and others, and make what can be referred to as a patchwork income – having multiple income streams. This is the approach that I have taken.
There are two main reasons why the “nomad” part of digital nomad is quite attractive. Firstly, there is obviously the attraction of travelling the world, of seeing the unknown or spending longer in places of interest.
Secondly, often money earned online goes far further in countries other than your country of origin. For example, $2000 could give our family a very good lifestyle in many places in Asia. In Australia, we can not afford to live on that. It can actually be easier to make online jobs work overseas, especially if you are taking the patchwork income approach as you don’t need to earn as much money.
If you are lucky enough to be able to continue your current career online, you may find that since living overseas can be so much cheaper, you can actually travel around having a better lifestyle than at home and save more money than you would otherwise. Or you could just work part time. This can also make a digital nomad lifestyle attractive to many people.
It obviously has its drawbacks as well, but overall, being able to work flexibly online would give our family the freedom we desire to see more of the world, become bilingual and spend more time together. All important goals to us.
Check out the progress we are currently making.