It’s no secret that we love our job. Beginning our weblog and turning into digital nomads was one of the best determination we’ve ever made. We like it a lot that our purpose in life is now to get extra individuals to begin their very own blogs, discover distant work and journey extra usually.
However, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. We have now 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 put up, 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 dwell anyplace on the earth. This easy definition is often sufficient to persuade somebody to get into this way of life.
What may very well be higher? Working whenever you need. Selecting your personal hours. Working for your self. Working from anyplace on the earth. 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 couple of yr it began incomes a bit of cash. After lower than 2 years it was incomes sufficient to pay for our travels and at this time the weblog is incomes almost quadruple what our well-paying jobs in Canada ever did.
We selected the running a blog route, however there are actually a whole lot of journey jobs and much more distant jobs that you could find. If you happen to don’t take pleasure in writing, taking pictures and sharing issues on-line, there are many different methods to earn money on the highway.
One advisable distant work job is to grow to be a proofreader. Work from anyplace there’s an awesome wifi connection, study fascinating matters, make your personal hours, and earn an excellent revenue.
Taking a proofreading and modifying course is one of the best ways to bulk up your resume and will provide you with one of the best probability of securing jobs. Take a look at this highly-rated course, which is at present 15% off and affords assured work.
So long as you’re using the world huge net to make a residing whereas travelling and residing all over the world, you’re technically a digital nomad. Learn on for the benefits and downsides 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 direction of location independence and monetary freedom, I don’t assume we’d have ever been so glad. In fact, 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 facility 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 consider the constructive facets of digital nomad life as a result of, to me, it’s one of the best way of life I can think about.
1. You Can Have The Freedom To Work From Wherever (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 now not must be a selected place in any respect.
Right this moment, 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 anyplace is the core of what makes location independence so nice.
Our workplaces 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 condominium in Malta and lots of extra. We’ve created our own residence workplaces in additional locations than we will depend and every of them was distinctive.
By working in so many alternative environments, we’re capable of 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 in the future and browsing the waves of Canggu the subsequent, your job simply by no means appears to get outdated.
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 outdoors workplace in Grenada and fascinated about how lucky I really feel.
For a travel-lover like myself, the liberty to work from anyplace 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 High 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 further work to be completed.
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 should 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 house 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. Every time we wish.
We work facet by facet and the minute I discover myself wanting on the clock, I get off the pc. At that time, I’m not being as productive as I may very well 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 stressed, but it surely’s additionally made me more healthy, nearer to Dariece and finally a lot, a lot happier.
Working whenever 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 really wish 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, development and success.
Not solely will we get to bid farewell to the scheduled 9-5 work hours, however we’re additionally capable of have as many holidays as we wish. 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 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 anyplace we visited.
Having the ability to go on vacation for so long as you need, everytime you need is among the biggest 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 cause, 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.
Lately, bloggers, distant employees, and net 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, attempting to save lots of sufficient for a flight house, however at this time these locations have boomed as digital nomad scorching spots and the monetary demographic has shifted.
The age teams are comparatively the identical and the way in which they costume hasn’t modified all that a lot, however today there are a whole lot, 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 lot of hundreds of {dollars} per yr.
Sure, there’s extra competitors to succeed on-line than there was 10 years in the past, however at this time there’s far more alternative.
That’s why locations like Canggu, Chiang Mai and Lisbon are thriving with one of these 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 anyplace 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 might have all three, you’ll possible 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 whenever you liberate your time so you are able to do no matter you need, whereas nonetheless incomes a residing.
Passive revenue isn’t attainable with all kinds of distant jobs, however the most effective methods to construct up an excellent quantity of passive revenue is thru running a blog.
By merely rising your site visitors to a sure stage, you possibly can activate advertisements in your pages (just like the advertisements you see on this web page) they usually can earn passive revenue. When you flick that swap and activate advertisements, you’ll be incomes cash whilst you sleep.
Advertisements are only one method which you can usher in a passive revenue. Affiliate gross sales, product gross sales and e mail advertising are just some methods which you can work onerous at times reap the advantages later. This can be a passive (or deferred) revenue technique and it’s the most effective components about operating your personal on-line enterprise.
The very best a part of operating your personal enterprise and dealing on-line is which you can cease buying and selling {dollars} for hours. While you begin incomes cash via your personal channels, you’ll begin seeing the standard methodology of hourly pay and wage to be barely primitive and old style. With the web and most types of distant work, you may make your cash be just right for you.
Now you possibly can set one thing up that may run robotically and generate revenue for you long run.
Take for instance a weblog put up that ranks properly in Google. After you publish that put up, you possibly can neglect about it, however it might probably constantly earn you cash via affiliate gross sales, product gross sales and promoting. This is called 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, you could discover that you simply’re capable of assist individuals. Cash and freedom are nice perks of this job, however there’s nothing extra rewarding than understanding that you simply’re having an impression on the world.
If you happen to’re instructing English on-line, you could discover that you simply’re giving younger individuals in growing international locations a brighter future. If you happen to’re working in tourism you may be capable to present individuals how you can benefit from their vacation, and in case you have a weblog you possibly can assist individuals do no matter they need.
You may give them extra confidence, present them how you can construct issues, train them about tech, assist them be higher dad and mom, present them how you can earn money 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 be capable to sustain with it if we have been simply including phrases to a web site.
The truth that we’re capable of 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 worthwhile than financial institution deposits.
You’ll be able to 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, you could discover success in your work and in your life.
6. Not All {Dollars} Are Created Equal
When you might have the liberty to work from anyplace, you even have the liberty to go the place your greenback is price much more. Working in Canada, it’s nearly unattainable to get by on $1,500 / month. However in locations like Thailand, Indonesia and components of Japanese Europe, you possibly can dwell fairly properly on this quantity.
In our case, most of our revenue 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 lot 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 possibly can actually dwell twice the life at half the value.
7. No Extra Getting Caught in Visitors
When Dariece and I labored in Canada, we had about an hour of commute to get to and from our jobs every single day. That implies that once I labored 12-hour shifts, I used to be really away from house for 13 hours.
Dariece selected to commute by foot for one hour every method, so despite the fact that she solely labored 8-hour shifts, they have been really 10 hours by the point she returned house.
Lately the one commute is from our comfortable 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. 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 facility in Calgary, I rolled off the 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 should prepare for it.
However in Dariece’s case, working for a legislation agency, she needed to spend an hour preparing and time getting unready every single day. 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 stress-free on the sofa at house.
Not anymore! Right this moment we each work from our pyjamas and, except now we 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 among her favorite components of the job.
9. No Annoying Co-Staff
In case you are working in a co-working house as a digital nomad and somebody annoys you, you possibly can merely sit elsewhere, go to a special co-working house or simply keep at house and work as a substitute. However in a traditional job, it’s important to put up with these individuals day in, time out.
By working remotely, not solely do you might have the liberty to work from anyplace on the earth, however you even have the liberty to work with whomever you need.
If you happen to merely wish to work by your self, you are able to do that. If you happen to solely wish to work along with your accomplice, you are able to do that too. If you happen to 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 purpose. To journey without end. Distant work and digital nomadism can give you this freedom, however you could discover that after you have it, you crave a little bit of normality.
I do know a whole lot of bloggers, dozens of them whom I’ve met in individual, and never one among them has been capable of 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 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’s and we’ll discuss these stresses a bit within the cons part of this put up, however the stress is completely 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 lot 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 car parking zone at work earlier than a giant, costly job and stressing that I’d mess it up. Dariece could be stressed 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 house life, I usually got here house annoyed and irritated after a protracted onerous day. Now, if a day isn’t going my method, I’ll merely stroll away and do one thing else.
If you end up stressed 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 aid which you can usually 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 is probably not true for you when you’re merely doing distant work with set hours like instructing English on-line, or when you’re working for another person who pays you a gradual wage, however for bloggers, web site homeowners, drop shippers and some other sort of freelance on-line entrepreneur, the unsteady paycheck will be onerous to take care of.
That is notably true whenever you first begin out, however each entrepreneur on the earth, whether or not they work in brick and mortar or on-line can 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 revenue 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 onerous to actually settle into one explicit way of life.
Your month-to-month revenue dictates what sort of way of life you possibly can comfortably dwell, so if it’s all the time fluctuating, you’ll possible should dwell on the decrease finish of your month-to-month revenue one month, simply in case you hardly make any cash the subsequent.
Right this moment we’ve constructed a extra regular revenue and whereas it nonetheless modifications every month, now we have a dependable base that we all know will are available. The bottom line is to diversify your revenue streams so as to make sure of a sure amount of cash every month.
2. Everlasting Wrestle 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 whenever you begin incomes cash on-line, you’ll discover which you can journey whilst you’re working. That is nice proper? Nicely, not all the time.
The power to work whilst you’re travelling is a blessing for certain, but it surely 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 an alternative of having fun with your breakfast and low on the cafe, you could end up frantically answering emails or replying to social media feedback which were build up 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. Certain 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 infrequently. Dariece and I not too long ago “switched off” on a visit to Ecuador and Peru and it felt nice.
We have been capable of 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 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 site visitors really grew once 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 possible 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 whenever you’re travelling from place to put each few days, weeks or months.
It’s onerous to type a strong group of associates when you recognize you’ll be leaving in a short while. This lack of friendship and neighborhood led Dariece and me to type a base in Grenada.
Many bloggers, net entrepreneurs and digital nomads are doing this today. As an alternative of being absolutely 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 associates, however after just a few years or a long time, you’ll most likely miss having your personal assist group to fall again on. I do know that we did. Fortunately there’s a remedy for this ailment. All it’s important to do is ready up store someplace that you simply love.
It doesn’t imply that it’s important to cease travelling, the truth is, many individuals journey much more once they have a house base as a result of they get extra work completed in once they’re house of their acquainted surroundings.
A house base can will let you arrange a greater, extra ergonomic workplace, it might probably will let you make a long-lasting group of associates and may give you time to recharge your batteries each infrequently.
It’s additionally good, after years of transferring from resort to resort, to really unpack, purchase just a few requirements and really feel like you might have a little bit of a house.
4. Lacking Pals and Household
As we become old, we discover that we miss our family and friends increasingly more being on the highway. We all the time attempt to meet up yearly both again in Canada, or elsewhere 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 associates going out for the evening typically makes me miss house. For some individuals, this pullback to house life proves an excessive amount of they usually find yourself abandoning the digital nomad life for a extra regular job again of their house nation.
We’re lucky sufficient to have a household that may afford to return and go to us, and some associates 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 house 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 attempting to work on-line with shitty wi-fi. It’s terrible.
There are occasions whenever you simply have to add a photograph, be a part of a category/tutorial, or put up an article and the wi-fi merely received’t enable it. Fortunately wi-fi is bettering all all over the world, however whenever 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 become 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 outdated 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 be capable to reap the benefits of any government-subsidized programs and we received’t have paid in sufficient money to a Canadian pension to get any actual return once we retire. So what will we do?
Having completed the maths many many instances, we’re assured that we’ll have extra money in retirement doing what we’re doing now than we’d 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 be capable to retire comfortably.
So, is Changing 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 may have.
We journey the world, which is our biggest ardour. We’re free to do what we wish once we need. We get to expertise new issues every day and we get to share this all with one another.
We’re now not aside for 12 hours a day. We now not come house careworn from work. We now not fear about cash, payments, dangerous co-workers or bosses respiration down our necks.
Changing into a digital nomad was one of the best factor we ever did.
Do you wish to grow to be a digital nomad? Take a look at our record of 101 Journey Jobs that may make it easier to get into this life. We’ve tried many distant jobs, however one of the best by far is running a blog. If you wish to begin your personal weblog about something (it doesn’t should be about journey), Click on Right here and I’ll present you how you can 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.
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