Becoming a Digital Nomad: Your Step by Step Guide to the Digital Nomad Lifestyle PDF
Preview Becoming a Digital Nomad: Your Step by Step Guide to the Digital Nomad Lifestyle
Table of contents Acknowledgements Disclaimers Intro What is a digital nomad? What digital nomads are What digital nomads are not How to use this book Experience and perspective — about the author and contributors Is this the right time to become a nomad? Seven steps to becoming a digital nomad (and an interim section) Step 1: know yourself and what you want Worksheet #1: know yourself Getting ready — what to do now Some important things to start working on: passports and visas Worksheet #2: what's important to you? Some possible destinations Worksheet #3: brainstorming Resources for researching your potential destinations Know the political climate Worksheet #4: the finalists — my most likely destinations Wrapping it all up Step 2: Clarify your desires and acknowledge limitations Worksheet #5: Clarifying desires Nomads vs. expats Getting ready — what to do next Finding a new home Living with a host family Co-living space Get your own place Find the perfect place House-sitting RV's — a home on wheels Other options Ways to deal with your stuff Budgeting: the 64,000,000-yen question Worksheet #6: monthly expenses Other possible limitations to consider Soft skills — strengths, not limitations Other considerations Who's coming with you? Traveling with others Traveling with partner / spouse Traveling with children Traveling for the LGBT community Worksheet #7: The plan Wrapping it all up Nomadus interruptus: just a test, please The five questions of the Nomadus Interruptus test Worksheet #8: Putting it all together for a test During the test… Now that the test is over... Worksheet #9: post-test: how's it going? Do any of these statements fit how you felt? Wrapping it all up Step 3: Making money as a nomad A quick word on flag theory Working with your existing job Working on your own Co-working spaces So, what do you do to make money? The list of opportunities Sales and marketing Teaching jobs I'm a people person! Technical jobs Artsy jobs for the creative types Pound-the-keyboard jobs Money and legal jobs Help people travel better Offline service jobs Worksheet #10: What do you want to do to make money? Where to find jobs Volunteering Should I incorporate my business? Tax stuff Basics for Americans Basics for Canadians Basics for Europeans Basics for Australians Basics for Kiwis Moving and accessing money Start with a bank account Add a Paypal account Consider a credit card Other options for Americans Other options for Europeans Other options for almost everyone Cryptocurrencies Wrapping it all up Step 4: get affairs in order Your anchor All about that (home)base Some other loose ends to tie up before leaving: Let's not forget about our health before leaving. Let's talk about sex, just for a second. Stay connected by voice Paperwork Travel insurance Book your travel Wrapping it all up Step 5: Gear up and slim down Laptop bag Backpacks Carry-on / checked luggage What to pack What not to pack Wrapping it all up Step 6: The Big Move and settling in The final countdown Leaving Arriving Wrapping things up Step 7: start enjoying your new life Worksheet #11: Now that you're settled in... As stuff goes... Creating routine Keeping track of finances Worksheet #12: Stay on budget! Taking care of yourself Evaluate how things are going Resources if things are going wrong What's next? Traveling philosophy Some pro-tips that didn't fit anywhere else Conclusions Acknowledgements This book is dedicated to you. Thanks, as always, to Laura, my better half and ever-patient wife. Thanks to Patricia Mackenzie for her intensive editing efforts. Thanks to Tristan Kerr for a kick-ass book cover. Thanks to all the commenters on the early drafts, whose decades of combined travel and nomad experience make this book as informative as possible: ● Laura Backe (AKA my wife) ● Myriam van Bavel (healthylivingcoach.nl) ● Stephanie Berchiolly (careermakeoveracademy.com) ● Gianni Bianchini (nomadisbeautiful.com) ● C.Angel Crush (facebook.com/groups/womenofamazon) ● Ina Danova ● Nanouk van Gennip (samendewereldontdekken.nl) ● Ashley Grant (famousashleygrant.com) ● Ivana Greslikova (nomadisbeautiful.com) ● Candy Harrington (emerginghorizons.com) ● Tiraya Krongvanich (ffyre.net) ● Ian Hamshaw ● Nancie McKinnon (budgettravelerssandbox.com) ● Sandra Muller (sandralmuller.com) ● Dina Pelletier, MPH (globalcitizen.online) ● Cristina Puscas (prinarad.info) ● Susan Renner- Eggleston (luxurycolumnist.com) ● Jan Robinson (budgettraveltalk.com) Thanks to everyone who offered to share their 'becoming a nomad' story. You'll find several of them in the introduction, but you can see them all at becomingadigitalnomad.com/stories. Disclaimers Nothing in this book should be construed as legal advice, tax advice, medical advice, or psychological advice. Seek qualified, professional help as appropriate for your unique situation. While everything in this book has been thoroughly researched and is presented as accurate as of the publication date (March 2018), things can change at any time. Use your brain, do your own research, and keep your ear to the ground for changes. Please note: Any dollar amounts quoted in this book are in US dollars. Intro In a way, we have a rocket scientist to thank for digital nomads. In 1972, former NASA engineer Jack Nilles was permitted to work from home on a complex NASA communication system. People asked how he could be working when he was at home, and his response, telecommuting, became a well- known term. He soon began to research telecommuting and teleworking at the University of Southern California, and was the lead author of the seminal book, The Telecommunications - Transportation Tradeoff. Telecommuting was an 'alternative to transportation,' it proposed, and since it would reduce the number of commuters, it could solve issues like gridlock, long commutes to work, and potentially helping the national energy crisis the US was experiencing at the time. While the internet and the personal computer as we know them didn't yet exist, the authors predicted new technologies would emerge that would be as revolutionary to life as the automobile. The freedom finder This is Jane. Jane left school at 16 and got married at 20. Work, a family and ‘normal’ life followed but after 25 years she ran away from her marriage. Needing time away after a long drawn out divorce process, she resigned from her job and set off for Peru. Initially planning to be away for 7 months, she quickly realised that she never wanted to lose the sense of freedom that she was finally experiencing. Jane discovered that she was also inspiring others to believe in themselves again via her blog and so she began to support people as a personal freedom mentor. Five years on, Jane is still travelling. See what Jane is up to now to at www.scarletjonestravels.com. Find more nomad stories at becomingadigitalnomad.com/stories. Another very early example of telecommuting and working with computers while away from the office comes from 1973. According to a January 1974 Cycle World article, a series of cassette tapes, phone adapters, and plastic time cards were used to time the ISDT, a six-day motorcycle endurance race held in the Berkshire Hills in Massachusetts. (Computers had been used in previous events, but only for backups, or they had created a lot of problems.) After riders had checked in, the worker would call the computer center and replay the tape, passing data to a computer in Michigan for compilation at a-then-state-of-the-art 75 baud, or bits per second. Fast forward to December 1997, when a book by Hitachi executive Tsugio Makimoto and Electronics Weekly writer David Manners was released. It prophesied that smaller and more powerful computer chips, along with new mobile devices and greater internet connectivity, would lead to a revolution in how people worked, lived, and traveled. The title: Digital Nomads. Despite the extensive experience of both these authors, and although the book came from a well-known UK publisher, it was virtually ignored by the public. Maybe it was just ahead of its time, or perhaps people were too caught up in the dot-com boom. Whatever the case, it predicted the future lifestyle and foresaw the technological shift that was coming. Before the 20th century ended, a few more building blocks were put in place that made the digital nomad lifestyle technically possible. Paypal launched in 1998, making it possible for people to get paid without a bank account, and laptops began offering wi-fi in 1999. Elance (now Upwork), also launched in 1999, was one of the earliest places to make money as a freelancer online. Still, this was an exceptionally early time to be a digital nomad. The marketing professional This is James. After several years of working as an online marketing professional, James decided to take the plunge and freelance. James decided staying in the UK made little sense from a quality of life and financial standpoint, so James and his girlfriend became digital nomads. Over five years later, they’re still on the road, and have lived in France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, and South Africa. Today, James continues to work as a marketing consultant. See where James is today at his travel lifestyle blog worldwideshoppingguide.com. Find more nomad stories at becomingadigitalnomad.com/stories. The concept of living and working wherever you like resurfaced in Tim Ferriss' 2007 best-selling book The 4-Hour Workweek, which put forth a way to "escape the 9-5, live anywhere, and join the new rich". Also released in 2007: Apple's first iPhone, a category-defining device that offered mere mortals the chance to compute from virtually anywhere in the world. Between the 2007-2008 financial crisis and the realization that a better way to live and work may exist, the 'digital nomad' lifestyle gradually gained mainstream acceptance. Even the US federal government employed over 100,000 remote workers in 2009, the same year National Geographic also started a 'Digital Nomad' blog. By this point, the tools needed to make remote work a reality were coming online. Skype and Google Adsense started in 2003, while Facebook and Twitter became available to everyone in 2006. People began leaving six-figure jobs and booking one-way flights to faraway countries to begin a new life — one where showing up to an office job became less important than actually doing good work, wherever they might be.
The list of books you might like
