It’s no secret that we love our job. Beginning our weblog and turning into digital nomads was the very best choice we’ve ever made. We find it irresistible a lot that our objective in life is now to get extra folks to start out their very own blogs, discover distant work and journey extra typically.
However, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. We’ve quite a few posts on this web site that present the constructive facet of on-line work, however there are some cons as properly. In my view, the upsides far outweigh the downsides!
On this publish, I’m going to share with you the professionals and cons of being a digital nomad. I hope that after you learn this, you’ll have a extra trustworthy, clear image of what distant work might appear like for you.
What’s a Digital Nomad?
Mainly, a digital nomad is somebody who makes use of know-how, specifically the web, to earn cash on-line whereas having the liberty to journey and stay wherever on this planet. This easy definition is normally sufficient to persuade somebody to get into this way of life.
What could possibly be higher? Working while you need. Selecting your personal hours. Working for your self. Working from wherever on this planet. Making good cash. Being free.
All of it sounds so nice, and imagine me… it’s.
Our digital nomad life revolves round our weblog. We began this weblog in 2012 and after a few yr it began incomes a bit of cash. After lower than 2 years it was incomes sufficient to pay for our travels and right now the weblog is incomes practically quadruple what our well-paying jobs in Canada ever did.
We selected the running a blog route, however there are actually a whole bunch of journey jobs and much more distant jobs that you could find. When you don’t get pleasure from writing, taking pictures and sharing issues on-line, there are many different methods to generate profits on the street.
One really helpful distant work job is to change into a proofreader. Work from wherever there’s an awesome wifi connection, find out about attention-grabbing subjects, make your personal hours, and earn an excellent earnings.
Taking a proofreading and modifying course is one of the simplest ways to bulk up your resume and gives you the very best likelihood of securing jobs. Take a look at this highly-rated course, which is at present 15% off and provides assured work.
So long as you’re using the world huge internet to make a residing whereas travelling and residing all over the world, you’re technically a digital nomad. Learn on for the benefits and drawbacks of being a digital nomad.
SEE ALSO: 10 Steps To Assist You Succeed As a Digital Nomad
Advantages of Being a Digital Nomad
I’ve to let you know, the professionals of digital nomad life are far simpler to put in writing than the cons. This text may sound like I’m biased. As if I’m attempting to promote you a timeshare and in doing so, I make the professionals sound so significantly better than the cons, however in my expertise, that is the reality.
Had Dariece and I not pivoted our life and brought this path in the direction of location independence and monetary freedom, I don’t assume we might have ever been so glad. After all, my opinion is biased!
I’m a digital nomad myself and the web principally saved my life. I went from working 12 hours per day, in a darkish manufacturing unit incomes $30 / hour, to working in my pyjamas in a seaside villa for 15 hours per week and feeling financially free.
Sure. It’s straightforward for me to think about the constructive points of digital nomad life as a result of, to me, it’s the very best way of life I can think about.
1. You Can Have The Freedom To Work From Anyplace (with Wi-Fi)
Also referred to as “location independence”, this freedom means all the things to a digital nomad. The web has modified the panorama of the office a lot that your office not needs to be a selected place in any respect.
In the present day, your workplace could be from a browsing village in Bali, a mountain city in Nepal or wine nation in Italy. The liberty to work from wherever is the core of what makes location independence so nice.
Our places of work have been lovely pool villas in Indonesia, seaside huts in Thailand, volcano craters in Guatemala, a seaside home within the Caribbean, co-working areas in Bali, a metropolis residence in Malta and lots of extra. We’ve created our own residence places of work in additional locations than we are able to rely and every of them was distinctive.
By working in so many various environments, we’re in a position to preserve our time on the pc recent and enjoyable. It by no means appears to get boring.
When your espresso break could be spent kayaking in a volcanic lake at some point and browsing the waves of Canggu the subsequent, your job simply by no means appears to get previous.
This sense of freedom is indescribable. It’s nice. The humorous factor is that as I’m typing this now I’m looking over the ocean from my exterior workplace in Grenada and occupied with how lucky I really feel.
For a travel-lover like myself, the liberty to work from wherever on this planet is the final word professional to this digital nomad way of life. See Additionally: 15 Greatest Cities For Digital Nomads
SEE ALSO: 7 Greatest Jobs For Digital Nomads – Get Paid With These High Careers
2. You Can Select Your Personal Hours
That is by far one of many greatest advantages of being a digital nomad. Once I labored in Canada as a printing press operator, my hours have been determined by the corporate. I needed to work the morning shift one week, afternoons the subsequent, and graveyards each time there was additional work to be achieved.
Research have proven that nightshifts can actually take years off of your life and each time I modified shifts I felt exhausted and drained.
I keep in mind dreading Sundays as a result of I knew that I used to be going to must get up on Monday at 5:00 am to make it to work on time. Whereas I used to be at work I might watch the clock and tick every minute down, excited to hurry dwelling to see Dariece.
Now we sleep in till we really feel like waking up. We begin the morning sluggish with a espresso and a stroll. Once we make it to the pc, that’s when our shift begins. At any time when we would like.
We work facet by facet and the minute I discover myself trying on the clock, I get off the pc. At that time, I’m not being as productive as I could possibly be, so as an alternative of losing time being unfocused, we shut up the laptops and exit to do one thing.
This freedom to decide on my very own work hours has not solely made me really feel much less stressed, but it surely’s additionally made me more healthy, nearer to Dariece and finally a lot, a lot happier.
Working while you need doesn’t imply that you simply by no means do any work. I’ve discovered that now that I’m working for myself, I truly need to work. Each minute I put into our weblog and on-line companies is one other step up in our entrepreneurial journey. For each hour I put in, I’m repaid in earnings, progress and achievement.
Not solely will we get to bid farewell to the scheduled 9-5 work hours, however we’re additionally in a position to have as many holidays as we would like. Once we labored in Canada we have been restricted to only 2 – 3 weeks of holidays per yr (I had 2 weeks, Dariece had 3).
This meant that we didn’t have sufficient time to actually expertise any nation. We may go on a vacation, however we didn’t have sufficient time to journey and actually get beneath the pores and skin of anywhere we visited.
Having the ability to go on vacation for so long as you need, everytime you need is without doubt one of the best issues about working for your self, working on-line and having location independence.
3. The Pay is Good!
That is the place so many individuals get confused. For some purpose, when most individuals consider running a blog as an occupation, they image a broke backpacker working from the seaside to earn just a few hundred {dollars} a month — simply sufficient to pay for surfboard wax and a hamburger. However that’s not the case anymore.
Today, bloggers, distant employees, and internet entrepreneurs are a number of the wealthiest folks within the workforce. Go to a distant working hub like Bali, Chiang Mai or Lisbon and meet just a few folks there.
Ten years in the past you’d have met a bunch of destitute travellers scraping by on $5 per day, attempting to save lots of sufficient for a flight dwelling, however right now these locations have boomed as digital nomad scorching spots and the monetary demographic has shifted.
The age teams are comparatively the identical and the best way they costume hasn’t modified all that a lot, however nowadays there are a whole bunch, if not hundreds of millionaires of their midst.
Some made it massive on Bitcoin, others began a profitable dropshipping firm, whereas a lot of them have constructed a weblog empire that now earns them a whole bunch of hundreds of {dollars} per yr.
Sure, there’s extra competitors to succeed on-line than there was 10 years in the past, however right now there’s way more alternative.
That’s why locations like Canggu, Chiang Mai and Lisbon are thriving with this sort of work. Many governments have seen such an inflow of distant employees that they’ve needed to change their immigration insurance policies to accommodate the variety of people who find themselves coming into their borders with a full-time distant earnings.
Having monetary freedom, paired with the liberty to work from wherever and select your personal hours is the bedrock of what makes digital nomad life so superb. That is the trifecta of distant work and when you have got all three, you’ll probably be singing its praises as I’m on this article.
SEE ALSO: Our Journey To A Six-Determine On-line Enterprise
4. You Can Earn Cash Whereas You Sleep
Whereas monetary freedom is nice, it’s even higher while you unencumber your time so you are able to do no matter you need, whereas nonetheless incomes a residing.
Passive earnings isn’t attainable with all varieties of distant jobs, however probably the greatest methods to construct up an excellent quantity of passive earnings is thru running a blog.
By merely rising your visitors to a sure stage, you’ll be able to activate adverts in your pages (just like the adverts you see on this web page) and so they can earn passive earnings. When you flick that change and activate adverts, you’ll be incomes cash whilst you sleep.
Advertisements are only one means that you may usher in a passive earnings. Affiliate gross sales, product gross sales and e mail advertising are only a few methods that you may work exhausting from time to time reap the advantages later. This can be a passive (or deferred) earnings technique and it’s probably the greatest elements about working your personal on-line enterprise.
One of the best a part of working your personal enterprise and dealing on-line is that you may cease buying and selling {dollars} for hours. If you begin incomes cash by way of your personal channels, you’ll begin seeing the normal technique of hourly pay and wage to be barely primitive and old school. With the web and most types of distant work, you may make your cash give you the results you want.
Now you’ll be able to set one thing up that may run mechanically and generate earnings for you long run.
Take for instance a weblog publish that ranks properly in Google. After you publish that publish, you’ll be able to neglect about it, however it might probably constantly earn you cash by way of affiliate gross sales, product gross sales and promoting. This is named passive earnings and it’s one thing that the web has made extra attainable than ever earlier than.
5. You Can Assist Others
Relying on what distant job you go for, it’s possible you’ll discover that you simply’re in a position to assist folks. Cash and freedom are nice perks of this job, however there’s nothing extra rewarding than understanding that you simply’re having an influence on the world.
When you’re instructing English on-line, it’s possible you’ll discover that you simply’re giving younger folks in growing international locations a brighter future. When you’re working in tourism you may have the ability to present folks easy methods to benefit from their vacation, and you probably have a weblog you’ll be able to assist folks do no matter they need.
You may give them extra confidence, present them easy methods to construct issues, educate them about tech, assist them be higher dad and mom, present them easy methods to generate profits on-line… the checklist goes on and on.
The paycheck that we get from this weblog is nice, however I don’t assume we might have the ability to sustain with it if we have been simply including phrases to an internet site.
The truth that we’re in a position to assist folks get off the sofa and discover, and the emails that we get from individuals who have give up their jobs and now earn extra working on-line are extra worthwhile than financial institution deposits.
You’ll be able to assist folks in so some ways on-line. The web has given everybody a voice and an viewers. By working in a subject that helps others, it’s possible you’ll discover achievement in your work and in your life.
6. Not All {Dollars} Are Created Equal
When you have got the liberty to work from wherever, you even have the liberty to go the place your greenback is price much more. Working in Canada, it’s nearly inconceivable to get by on $1,500 / month. However in locations like Thailand, Indonesia and elements of Jap Europe, you’ll be able to stay fairly properly on this quantity.
In our case, most of our earnings comes within the type of US {dollars}, so once we convert that to Thai Baht, Mexican Pesos or Indonesian Rupiah, we’re doing fairly properly for ourselves.
There are a whole bunch of cities all over the world the place the price of residing is actually half of what it’s in locations like Vancouver, London and New York, so by residing in these locations whereas incomes international foreign money, you’ll be able to actually stay twice the life at half the value.
7. No Extra Getting Caught in Site visitors
When Dariece and I labored in Canada, we had about an hour of commute to get to and from our jobs on daily basis. That implies that once I labored 12-hour shifts, I used to be truly away from dwelling for 13 hours.
Dariece selected to commute by foot for one hour every means, so though she solely labored 8-hour shifts, they have been truly 10 hours by the point she returned dwelling.
Today the one commute is from our cozy beds to our computer systems. Typically we don’t even arrange our workplace, we simply drag our laptops from the nightstand to our laps and lie in mattress whereas starting the workday. Superb.
SEE ALSO: Distant Work – The Final Information To Working Remotely
8. No Make-up, No Getting Dressed, No Prep
I’ve to be trustworthy right here. Once I labored within the manufacturing unit in Calgary, I rolled off the bed, brushed my enamel, threw on some garments (typically soiled garments) and went to work. My job was soiled and sweaty anyway, and there was no costume code, so I actually didn’t must prepare for it.
However in Dariece’s case, working for a legislation agency, she needed to spend an hour preparing and time getting unready on daily basis. By the point she completed work, she had spent about 11 hours out of her day preparing (bathe, make-up, hair, garments), commuting to and from the workplace, after which eradicating the make-up, altering garments and enjoyable on the sofa at dwelling.
Not anymore! In the present day we each work from our pyjamas and, until now we have a video skype name, we don’t have to decorate up for anybody… ever.
For ladies, that is typically a significant professional of being a digital nomad. So many ladies discover freedom in not having to decorate to impress anybody anymore and in Dariece’s case, it’s one in all her favorite elements of the job.
9. No Annoying Co-Employees
In case you are working in a co-working house as a digital nomad and somebody annoys you, you’ll be able to merely sit some place else, go to a special co-working house or simply keep at dwelling and work as an alternative. However in a traditional job, you must put up with these folks day in, time out.
By working remotely, not solely do you have got the liberty to work from wherever on this planet, however you even have the liberty to work with whomever you need.
When you merely need to work by your self, you are able to do that. When you solely need to work together with your associate, you are able to do that too. When you run your personal on-line enterprise, you’ll by no means be pressured to work with somebody who you don’t agree with ever once more!
10. You Can Journey Non-Cease
For a lot of hardcore travellers, that is the final word objective. To journey endlessly. Distant work and digital nomadism can give you this freedom, however it’s possible you’ll discover that upon getting it, you crave a little bit of normality.
I do know a whole bunch of bloggers, dozens of them whom I’ve met in particular person, and never one in all them has been in a position to journey continuous in perpetuity.
A few of them greater than others, however all appear to inevitably seek for a house base. However, if travelling continuous is your factor, then there’s no higher means to do this than by working on-line.
SEE ALSO: How To Work and Journey in 2019
11. The Stress of a Dangerous Day At Work is a Factor of The Previous
I’m not saying there’s no stress in working for your self on-line. There may be and we’ll discuss these stresses a bit within the cons part of this publish, however the stress is totally different.
Each Dariece and I had comparatively anxious jobs. She was coping with multi-million greenback mortgages on the legislation agency, and I used to be creating a whole bunch of hundreds of {dollars} price of product every day.
Easy errors from both of us may price the corporate tens of hundreds of {dollars} (I as soon as printed $200,000 price of unusable product at work).
This accounted for lots of stress. I keep in mind sitting within the parking zone at work earlier than a giant, costly job and stressing that I’d mess it up. Dariece can be stressed earlier than any day that she needed to do closings on mortgages and each of us can be extra on edge with one another throughout these instances.
Despite the fact that I attempted to not enable my job to have an effect on my dwelling life, I typically got here dwelling pissed off and irritated after an extended exhausting day. Now, if a day isn’t going my means, I’ll merely stroll away and do one thing else.
If you end up stressed out of your job frequently, it’s time to make a change. Working for your self and dealing on-line can provide a lot stress aid that you may typically really feel more healthy, extra alive and extra fulfilled.
Cons of Being a Digital Nomad
Okay right here is the half that a lot of you most likely clicked on this text to examine.
The professionals of digital nomad life are fairly clear. There might not have been many surprises there, however there are just a few cons, and a few of them you may discover substantial sufficient to contemplate a special line of labor.
1. Unsteady Paycheck
This might not be true for you for those who’re merely doing distant work with set hours like instructing English on-line, or for those who’re working for another person who pays you a gradual wage, however for bloggers, web site homeowners, drop shippers and another kind of freelance on-line entrepreneur, the unsteady paycheck could be exhausting to cope with.
That is notably true while you first begin out, however each entrepreneur on this planet, whether or not they work in brick and mortar or on-line may have a fluctuation of funds month on month.
This was positively true of us once we have been first beginning to earn a full-time earnings on-line. We might have one month the place we earned $5,000 and the subsequent, we’d earn $1,500. It was a bit anxious and made it exhausting to actually settle into one explicit way of life.
Your month-to-month earnings dictates what sort of way of life you’ll be able to comfortably stay, so if it’s all the time fluctuating, you’ll probably must stay on the decrease finish of your month-to-month earnings one month, simply in case you hardly make any cash the subsequent.
In the present day we’ve constructed a extra regular earnings and whereas it nonetheless adjustments every month, now we have a dependable base that we all know will are available in. The bottom line is to diversify your earnings streams as a way to make certain of a sure sum of money every month.
2. Everlasting Battle of the Work-Life Stability
Earlier than you began working remotely, you most likely simply saved a bunch of cash annually in order that you can afford to journey for some time. However while you begin incomes cash on-line, you’ll discover that you may journey whilst you’re working. That is nice proper? Effectively, not all the time.
The power to work whilst you’re travelling is a blessing for certain, but it surely may also be a curse as a result of many people are unable to “change off”.
What was once a vacation journey to Spain is now tainted by the nagging urge to “get caught up”. As an alternative of having fun with your breakfast and occasional on the cafe, it’s possible you’ll end up frantically answering emails or replying to social media feedback which have been increase whilst you have been on a airplane or using a bus.
The important thing to unlocking a wholesome digital work-life steadiness is to plan definitive holidays. Positive it’s nice that you simply get to journey the world whereas incomes a residing, however that doesn’t imply that you simply don’t want a trip each on occasion. Dariece and I not too long ago “switched off” on a journey to Ecuador and Peru and it felt nice.
We have been in a position to put our laptops away and apart from just a few social shares, we have been fully within the second. Earlier than our departure, we scheduled months of content material to go stay whereas we have been on the street and we employed some assist to permit us to be away from the enterprise for an prolonged time period.
To our shock, our earnings and visitors truly grew once we have been away and we returned from the journey feeling refreshed and recharged.
3. Lack of Neighborhood & Native Help
One of many nice issues about working on-line is that it doesn’t matter what job you’re in, there’s probably a Fb group or a discussion board someplace that permits you to really feel related to your fellow colleagues within the space.
However how related are you actually while you’re travelling from place to put each few days, weeks or months.
It’s exhausting to type a strong group of pals when you already know you’ll be leaving in a short while. This lack of friendship and group led Dariece and me to type a base in Grenada.
Many bloggers, internet entrepreneurs and digital nomads are doing this nowadays. As an alternative of being absolutely nomadic, they arrange a base in a rustic they love and journey from there.
If you first begin out on this digital journey, you may love not having to make plans with all your pals, however after just a few years or a long time, you’ll most likely miss having your personal help group to fall again on. I do know that we did. Fortunately there’s a remedy for this ailment. All you must do is about up store someplace that you simply love.
It doesn’t imply that you must cease travelling, the truth is, many individuals journey much more after they have a house base as a result of they get extra work achieved in after they’re dwelling of their acquainted setting.
A house base can mean you can arrange a greater, extra ergonomic workplace, it might probably mean you can make an enduring group of pals and may give you time to recharge your batteries each on occasion.
It’s additionally good, after years of shifting from lodge to lodge, to really unpack, purchase just a few requirements and really feel like you have got a little bit of a dwelling.
4. Lacking Mates and Household
As we grow old, we discover that we miss our family and friends an increasing number of being on the street. We all the time attempt to meet up every year both again in Canada, or some place else overseas, but it surely’s not all the time straightforward.
Seeing pictures on Fb of our nieces rising up, my mother having enjoyable with aunts and uncles and my pals going out for the evening generally makes me miss dwelling. For some folks, this pullback to dwelling life proves an excessive amount of and so they find yourself abandoning the digital nomad life for a extra regular job again of their dwelling nation.
We’re lucky sufficient to have a household that may afford to return and go to us, and some pals that we are able to see after 5 years and really feel like we haven’t missed a beat, however for some, this isn’t the case.
Homesickness is an actual factor. For me, I don’t miss Canada, my job, our dwelling or the issues we did. I simply miss the folks.
5. Poor Wi-Fi
I don’t typically curse in my weblog posts, however wi-fi warrants it. There’s nothing extra irritating than attempting to work on-line with shitty wi-fi. It’s terrible.
There are occasions while you simply must add a photograph, be part of a category/tutorial, or publish an article and the wi-fi merely gained’t enable it. Fortunately wi-fi is enhancing all all over the world, however while you get to these locations with a nasty connection, you is perhaps tempted to hurl your laptop computer by way of a window.
6. Having To Plan For Your Personal Retirement
That is one other factor that we’ve began to consider extra as we grow old. For the primary three or 4 years of our travelling life, I didn’t take into consideration retirement in any respect. I used to be younger, having enjoyable and 65 appeared like two lifetimes away.
However now that we’ve settled down a bit and have grown this enterprise, we’ve had to consider retirement. In Canada and in most developed international locations, there are just a few automated security nets in place like pensions and previous age safety, however the longer we stay away from Canada as non-residents, the extra these funds depreciate.
In actuality, by the point we retire, we gained’t have the ability to make the most of any government-subsidized programs and we gained’t have paid in sufficient money to a Canadian pension to get any actual return once we retire. So what will we do?
Having achieved the mathematics many many instances, we’re assured that we’ll have extra money in retirement doing what we’re doing now than we might have if we stayed working on the similar jobs in Canada.
It has taken some time to construct up so far, however we’re assured that if all goes properly for the subsequent 5 years, we’ll have the ability to retire comfortably.
So, is Changing into a Digital Nomad Value It?
Completely.
In my view, the professionals of working on-line far outweigh the cons. I measure success by the extent of happiness that it brings. In our case, this digital nomad life has introduced us extra happiness and achievement than our jobs, and lives in Canada ever may have.
We journey the world, which is our best ardour. We’re free to do what we would like once we need. We get to expertise new issues every day and we get to share this all with one another.
We’re not aside for 12 hours a day. We not come dwelling pressured from work. We not fear about cash, payments, dangerous co-workers or bosses respiratory down our necks.
Changing into a digital nomad was the very best factor we ever did.
Do you need to change into a digital nomad? Try our checklist of 101 Journey Jobs that may enable you to get into this life. We’ve tried many distant jobs, however the very best by far is running a blog. If you wish to begin your personal weblog about something (it doesn’t must be about journey), Click on Right here and I’ll present you easy methods to begin one on 10 minutes. You’ll additionally get my free Newbie Blogger Course to stroll you thru the preliminary steps of organising, designing and constructing a profitable weblog.
*Lead picture courtesy of The Dharma Trails.