It’s no secret that we love our job. Beginning our weblog and turning into digital nomads was the perfect choice we’ve ever made. We find it irresistible a lot that our objective in life is now to get extra individuals to start out their very own blogs, discover distant work and journey extra usually.
However, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Now we have quite a few posts on this web site that present the constructive facet of on-line work, however there are some cons as properly. For my part, 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 could seem like for you.
What’s a Digital Nomad?
Mainly, a digital nomad is somebody who makes use of expertise, particularly the web, to earn cash on-line whereas having the liberty to journey and dwell wherever on the earth. This straightforward definition is normally sufficient to persuade somebody to get into this way of life.
What could possibly be higher? Working once you need. Selecting your personal hours. Working for your self. Working from wherever on the earth. Making good cash. Being free.
All of it sounds so nice, and consider 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 immediately 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. In the event you don’t take pleasure in writing, taking photographs and sharing issues on-line, there are many different methods to make cash on the highway.
One really helpful distant work job is to develop into a proofreader. Work from wherever there’s an important wifi connection, find out about attention-grabbing matters, make your personal hours, and earn a great revenue.
Taking a proofreading and modifying course is one of the simplest ways to bulk up your resume and provides you with the perfect probability of securing jobs. Take a look at this highly-rated course, which is at present 15% off and presents assured work.
So long as you’re using the world broad internet to make a residing whereas travelling and residing world wide, 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 inform you, 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 making an attempt 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 direction of location independence and monetary freedom, I don’t assume we’d have ever been so comfortable. After all, my opinion is biased!
I’m a digital nomad myself and the web mainly 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 seashore villa for 15 hours per week and feeling financially free.
Sure. It’s simple for me to consider the constructive elements of digital nomad life as a result of, to me, it’s the perfect way of life I can think about.
1. You Can Have The Freedom To Work From Wherever (with Wi-Fi)
Often known as “location independence”, this freedom means all the pieces to a digital nomad. The web has modified the panorama of the office a lot that your office not must be a selected place in any respect.
Immediately, your workplace will 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 stunning pool villas in Indonesia, seashore huts in Thailand, volcano craters in Guatemala, a seaside home within the Caribbean, co-working areas in Bali, a metropolis condominium in Malta and plenty of extra. We’ve created our own residence places of work in additional locations than we will depend and every of them was distinctive.
By working in so many various environments, we’re in a position to maintain our time on the pc recent and enjoyable. It by no means appears to get boring.
When your espresso break will be spent kayaking in a volcanic lake sooner or later 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 searching over the ocean from my exterior workplace in Grenada and eager about how lucky I really feel.
For a travel-lover like myself, the liberty to work from wherever on the earth is the final word professional to this digital nomad way of life. See Additionally: 15 Finest Cities For Digital Nomads
SEE ALSO: 7 Finest Jobs For Digital Nomads – Get Paid With These Prime Careers
2. You Can Select Your Personal Hours
That is by far one of many largest 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 carried out.
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 bear in mind dreading Sundays as a result of I knew that I used to be going to need to get up on Monday at 5:00 am to make it to work on time. Whereas I used to be at work I’d 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. After we make it to the pc, that’s when our shift begins. Each time 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 a substitute 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 wired, nevertheless it’s additionally made me more healthy, nearer to Dariece and in the end a lot, a lot happier.
Working once you need doesn’t imply that you just 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 revenue, progress and success.
Not solely can 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. After 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 essentially expertise any nation. We might go on a vacation, however we didn’t have sufficient time to journey and actually get beneath the pores and skin of anyplace 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 motive, when most individuals consider running a blog as an occupation, they image a broke backpacker working from the seashore 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.
Nowadays, bloggers, distant employees, and internet entrepreneurs are among the wealthiest individuals within the workforce. Go to a distant working hub like Bali, Chiang Mai or Lisbon and meet just a few individuals there.
Ten years in the past you’d have met a bunch of destitute travellers scraping by on $5 per day, making an attempt to save lots of sufficient for a flight dwelling, however immediately 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 lately there are a whole bunch, if not 1000’s of millionaires of their midst.
Some made it large on Bitcoin, others began a profitable dropshipping firm, whereas lots of them have constructed a weblog empire that now earns them a whole bunch of 1000’s of {dollars} per yr.
Sure, there’s extra competitors to succeed on-line than there was 10 years in the past, however immediately 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 revenue.
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 seemingly 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 once you release your time so you are able to do no matter you need, whereas nonetheless incomes a residing.
Passive revenue isn’t doable with all kinds of distant jobs, however probably the greatest methods to construct up a great quantity of passive revenue is thru running a blog.
By merely rising your visitors to a sure stage, you may activate advertisements in your pages (just like the advertisements you see on this web page) and so they can earn passive revenue. When you flick that swap and activate advertisements, you’ll be incomes cash when you sleep.
Adverts are only one method that you may herald a passive revenue. Affiliate gross sales, product gross sales and electronic mail advertising and marketing are only a few methods that you may work arduous at times reap the advantages later. It is a passive (or deferred) revenue technique and it’s probably the greatest elements about operating your personal on-line enterprise.
One of the best a part of operating your personal enterprise and dealing on-line is that you may cease buying and selling {dollars} for hours. While you begin incomes cash via your personal channels, you’ll begin seeing the normal methodology of hourly pay and wage to be barely primitive and old style. With the web and most types of distant work, you can also make your cash be just right for you.
Now you may set one thing up that may run mechanically and generate revenue for you long run.
Take for instance a weblog publish that ranks properly in Google. After you publish that publish, you may neglect about it, however it could actually constantly earn you cash via affiliate gross sales, product gross sales and promoting. This is named passive revenue 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 just’re in a position to assist individuals. Cash and freedom are nice perks of this job, however there’s nothing extra rewarding than understanding that you just’re having an influence on the world.
In the event you’re instructing English on-line, it’s possible you’ll discover that you just’re giving younger individuals in creating nations a brighter future. In the event you’re working in tourism you may have the ability to present individuals learn how to benefit from their vacation, and in case you have a weblog you may assist individuals do no matter they need.
You may give them extra confidence, present them learn how to construct issues, educate them about tech, assist them be higher dad and mom, present them learn how to make cash on-line… the record goes on and on.
The paycheck that we get from this weblog is nice, however I don’t assume we’d 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 individuals get off the sofa and discover, and the emails that we get from individuals who have stop their jobs and now earn extra working on-line are extra priceless than financial institution deposits.
You may assist individuals in so some ways on-line. The web has given everybody a voice and an viewers. By working in a area that helps others, it’s possible you’ll discover success 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 Japanese Europe, you may dwell fairly properly on this quantity.
In our case, most of our revenue comes within the type of US {dollars}, so after 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 world wide 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 overseas forex, you may actually dwell 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 method, so although she solely labored 8-hour shifts, they have been truly 10 hours by the point she returned dwelling.
Nowadays the one commute is from our comfortable beds to our computer systems. Generally 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. Wonderful.
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 away from bed, brushed my tooth, threw on some garments (usually soiled garments) and went to work. My job was soiled and sweaty anyway, and there was no costume code, so I actually didn’t need to prepare for it.
However in Dariece’s case, working for a regulation 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! Immediately we each work from our pyjamas and, until we now have a video skype name, we don’t have to decorate up for anybody… ever.
For ladies, that is usually 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 every of her favorite elements of the job.
9. No Annoying Co-Staff
If you’re working in a co-working house as a digital nomad and somebody annoys you, you may merely sit some other place, go to a unique co-working house or simply keep at dwelling and work as a substitute. However in a standard job, it’s important to put up with these individuals day in, day trip.
By working remotely, not solely do you have got the liberty to work from wherever on the earth, however you even have the liberty to work with whomever you need.
In the event you merely need to work by your self, you are able to do that. In the event you solely need to work along with your associate, you are able to do that too. In the event 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 perpetually. Distant work and digital nomadism can give you this freedom, however it’s possible you’ll discover that after 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 every of 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 method to do this than by working on-line.
SEE ALSO: How To Work and Journey in 2019
11. The Stress of a Unhealthy 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’s and we’ll speak about these stresses a bit within the cons part of this publish, however the stress is completely different.
Each Dariece and I had comparatively demanding jobs. She was coping with multi-million greenback mortgages on the regulation agency, and I used to be creating a whole bunch of 1000’s of {dollars} price of product every day.
Easy errors from both of us might value the corporate tens of 1000’s of {dollars} (I as soon as printed $200,000 price of unusable product at work).
This accounted for lots of stress. I bear in mind sitting within the parking zone at work earlier than an enormous, costly job and stressing that I’d mess it up. Dariece could be wired earlier than any day that she needed to do closings on mortgages and each of us could be extra on edge with one another throughout these instances.
Regardless that I attempted to not enable my job to have an effect on my dwelling life, I usually got here dwelling pissed off and irritated after a protracted arduous day. Now, if a day isn’t going my method, I’ll merely stroll away and do one thing else.
If you end up wired out of your job regularly, it’s time to make a change. Working for your self and dealing on-line can provide a lot stress reduction that you may usually really feel more healthy, extra alive and extra fulfilled.
Cons of Being a Digital Nomad
Okay right here is the half that lots of you most likely clicked on this text to examine.
The professionals of digital nomad life are fairly clear. There could 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 unique line of labor.
1. Unsteady Paycheck
This will not be true for you in case you’re merely doing distant work with set hours like instructing English on-line, or in case you’re working for another person who pays you a gradual wage, however for bloggers, web site house owners, drop shippers and every other kind of freelance on-line entrepreneur, the unsteady paycheck will be arduous to take care of.
That is notably true once you first begin out, however each entrepreneur on the earth, whether or not they work in brick and mortar or on-line could have a fluctuation of funds month on month.
This was undoubtedly true of us after we have been first beginning to earn a full-time revenue on-line. We’d have one month the place we earned $5,000 and the subsequent, we’d earn $1,500. It was a bit demanding and made it arduous to essentially settle into one specific way of life.
Your month-to-month revenue dictates what sort of way of life you may comfortably dwell, so if it’s at all times fluctuating, you’ll seemingly need to dwell on the decrease finish of your month-to-month revenue one month, simply in case you hardly make any cash the subsequent.
Immediately we’ve constructed a extra regular revenue and whereas it nonetheless modifications every month, we now have a dependable base that we all know will are available. The secret is to diversify your revenue streams as a way to be certain of a sure sum of money every month.
2. Everlasting Battle of the Work-Life Steadiness
Earlier than you began working remotely, you most likely simply saved a bunch of cash every year in order that you would afford to journey for some time. However once you begin incomes cash on-line, you’ll discover that you may journey when you’re working. That is nice proper? Nicely, not at all times.
The flexibility to work when you’re travelling is a blessing for positive, nevertheless it will also be a curse as a result of many people are unable to “swap off”.
What was a vacation journey to Spain is now tainted by the nagging urge to “get caught up”. As a substitute of having fun with your breakfast and low on the cafe, it’s possible you’ll end up frantically answering emails or replying to social media feedback which have been build up when you have been on a airplane or using a bus.
The important thing to unlocking a wholesome digital work-life stability is to plan definitive holidays. Certain it’s nice that you just get to journey the world whereas incomes a residing, however that doesn’t imply that you just don’t want a trip each every now and then. 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 except for just a few social shares, we have been fully within the second. Earlier than our departure, we scheduled months of content material to go dwell whereas we have been on the highway and we employed some assist to permit us to be away from the enterprise for an prolonged time frame.
To our shock, our revenue and visitors truly grew after we have been away and we returned from the journey feeling refreshed and recharged.
3. Lack of Group & Native Help
One of many nice issues about working on-line is that it doesn’t matter what job you’re in, there’s seemingly a Fb group or a discussion board someplace that lets you really feel linked to your fellow colleagues within the space.
However how linked are you actually once you’re travelling from place to put each few days, weeks or months.
It’s arduous to type a strong group of mates when you realize 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 lately. As a substitute of being totally nomadic, they arrange a base in a rustic they love and journey from there.
While you first begin out on this digital journey, you may love not having to make plans with your whole mates, however after just a few years or many years, you’ll most likely miss having your personal assist group to fall again on. I do know that we did. Fortunately there’s a treatment for this ailment. All it’s important to do is ready up store someplace that you just love.
It doesn’t imply that it’s important to cease travelling, in reality, many individuals journey much more after they have a house base as a result of they get extra work carried out in after they’re dwelling of their acquainted atmosphere.
A house base can mean you can arrange a greater, extra ergonomic workplace, it could actually mean you can make an enduring group of mates and may give you time to recharge your batteries each every now and then.
It’s additionally good, after years of transferring from lodge to lodge, to truly unpack, purchase just a few requirements and really feel like you have got a little bit of a dwelling.
4. Lacking Pals and Household
As we grow old, we discover that we miss our family and friends an increasing number of being on the highway. We at all times attempt to meet up yearly both again in Canada, or some other place overseas, nevertheless it’s not at all times simple.
Seeing photographs on Fb of our nieces rising up, my mother having enjoyable with aunts and uncles and my mates going out for the night time typically makes me miss dwelling. For some individuals, 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 come back and go to us, and some mates that we will 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 individuals.
5. Poor Wi-Fi
I don’t usually curse in my weblog posts, however wi-fi warrants it. There’s nothing extra irritating than making an attempt to work on-line with shitty wi-fi. It’s terrible.
There are occasions once you simply must add a photograph, be a part of a category/tutorial, or publish an article and the wi-fi merely received’t enable it. Fortunately wi-fi is bettering all world wide, however once you get to these locations with a nasty connection, you is likely to be tempted to hurl your laptop computer via 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 nations, there are just a few computerized security nets in place like pensions and previous age safety, however the longer we dwell away from Canada as non-residents, the extra these funds depreciate.
In actuality, by the point we retire, we received’t have the ability to benefit from any government-subsidized programs and we received’t have paid in sufficient money to a Canadian pension to get any actual return after we retire. So what can we do?
Having carried out the maths many many instances, we’re assured that we’ll have more cash in retirement doing what we’re doing now than we’d have if we stayed working on the identical 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 Turning into a Digital Nomad Value It?
Completely.
For my part, 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 success than our jobs, and lives in Canada ever might have.
We journey the world, which is our best ardour. We’re free to do what we would like after 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 careworn from work. We not fear about cash, payments, unhealthy co-workers or bosses respiratory down our necks.
Turning into a digital nomad was the perfect factor we ever did.
Do you need to develop into a digital nomad? Try our record of 101 Journey Jobs that may enable you get into this life. We’ve tried many distant jobs, however the perfect by far is running a blog. If you wish to begin your personal weblog about something (it doesn’t need to be about journey), Click on Right here and I’ll present you learn how to begin one on 10 minutes. You’ll additionally get my free Newbie Blogger Course to stroll you thru the preliminary steps of establishing, designing and constructing a profitable weblog.
*Lead picture courtesy of The Dharma Trails.
