What is a digital nomad? How does the whole lifestyle work? This is a question which many people are asking and there doesn’t seem to be a good answer to it.
Well, you may have heard this term being used to describe one of your friends, who seems to be living the dream. They’re earning high, enjoying their time and traveling to exciting and new destinations all the time.
But what is a digital nomad, and how do they make money?
What is a digital nomad?
A digital nomad is someone who earns their income remotely, usually from a laptop.
This means they can work from anywhere, and don’t have to work from a particular office.
Usually digital nomads work from their laptops on projects such as web development, Ecommerce and things like this.
But there are actually lots of jobs you could get as a digital nomad. You could work in any of the following jobs and be a digital nomad:
- Web designer
- SEO consultant
- Social media consultant or assistant
- YouTuber
- Blogger
- Book author
- Ecommerce store owner (Or dropshipping)
- Investor or trader
And so on.
The other way you could become a digital nomad is by creating a passive income information marketing business.
This means you can take a skill or idea that you know a lot about, and turn it into a passive income. A passive income means you do the work once and get paid for life.
You can do this with any skill or interest, and it’s something anyone could learn to do. I have a course called the Nomad Bootcamp which teaches you how to create this type of business.
But as you can see, there are many types of job or business you could have that would enable you to become a digital nomad.
In fact, more and more companies and businesses are offering remote working positions now, as the trend continues.
How did the trend start?
It’s unclear how the digital nomad trend began but it was unavoidable. It was always going to happen.
As long as people can work online and earn money online, there is the option of working from anywhere in the world.
In fact, there have been many digital nomads exploring the world for a LONG time before the term ‘digital nomad’ came around and became popular.
People who have online incomes or passive incomes have been traveling perpetually for a very long time.
It’s only really become a popular term and thing to aim for in recent years.
For most online marketers, however, it’s been a lifestyle for a long time.
But don’t let that put you off, in fact this makes it easier and more fun. Because there are more and more people wanting to create this lifestyle, there are more options.
More options for accommodation and tours, and things like co-working and co-living spaces specifically for digital nomads in most locations.
This means you can socialize and make new nomad friends almost everywhere you go.
This wasn’t the case before, and running into a fellow digital nomad was very rare before it became super popular.
How do digital nomads make money?
Digital nomads make money by selling something. Usually they sell either a digital product, a service, or both.
This means most nomads know at least a little bit about selling.
In fact there are many ways you could make money as a nomad. They’re not just dependant on ONE source of income usually.
The smart ones have at least 3-4 sources of income, and the knowledge of how to create new income sources on the go.
It’s much easier to maintain the lifestyle if you know that you have several sources of income flowing to you at any one point in time.
Things on the road can go wrong, and you can find yourself stressed, or un-motivated to work.
Passive income MASSIVELY helps with that.
Is being a digital nomad legal?
The lifestyle of nomads os perfectly legal, yes. The confusion comes because most nomads are ILLEGALLY not paying taxes in their home country.
The smart nomads have a good accountant and pay the right taxes in the right places.
But because the trend has grown so much, there are hoards of new nomads who get into the lifestyle by reading an article online and buy a one way ticket to Thailand.
They have an online income but their limited tax knowledge gets them into trouble.
I’ve met nomads who thought they didn’t owe taxes if they weren’t physically IN their home country.
Some of them even think that if they earn money ONLINE they don’t owe taxes. As if you can escape paying taxes just by earning money in a different way.
Taxes are the biggest pitfall nomads fall into at the start.
Make sure you’ve got a good accountant, or at the very least, you know what you’re doing.
By not paying taxes, you CAN fall on the wrong side of the law. Also if you’re traveling to places in Asia for example, make sure you have the right VISA.
By not having the right visa, you might be breaking the law in that country. Most digital nomads don’t disclose that they’re in the country to work, and tend to get away with a tourist visa.
Technically, you’re not supposed to be in places like Thailand for more than 30 days if you’re WORKING there.
And the visas you’ll need are different depending on if you tell them you’re working or just there as a tourist.
This forms a very large grey area, because how could anyone prove that you are working or not? You could just be a tourist with a laptop.
Because there’s no real way of proving whether or not you’re in a place working or not, most if not all digital nomads just don’t disclose it, and travel on tourist visas.
This is technically breaking the law, depending on which country you’re visiting, but it’s almost never enforced (and can’t easily be enforced).
What skills do you need as a digital nomad?
Well, the actual skills you’ll need are mainly marketing and sales type skills.
Anything that means you can work online is going to be useful. Typically, nomads have skills like marketing, sales, and web design or development.
It’s also good to have social skills as well as basic finance and business knowledge.
These things can easily be learned, but it’s important to learn them.
How much do nomads make?
The actual income of digital nomads varies but in a recent study it was shown that they make on average $70K a year or more. This is because most jobs that are internet based tend to be really well paid.
Developers and designers in particular, tend to be really well paid no matter where they work from.
So it’s no surprise that they bring up the average income for digital nomads.
You can also find nomads earning more or less the same as people working in their home countries, though.
The income is massively varied because you could potentially be a digital nomad doing almost anything.
Consulting, online singing lessons, language teaching, selling an ebook, investing, or almost anything else.
The only thing you NEED in order to be a digital nomad, is an income that doesn’t depend on you being in a particular location. Once you’ve got that, you could be anywhere in the world.
Knowing that, all you really need to do to become a nomad is to create or acquire an income of about $2K a month.
It doesn’t matter how you earn that money. It could all be through investment interest if you wanted!
But once you’ve reached that point, you’ll be able to comfortably travel to MOST places in the world, indefinitely.
How to become a digital nomad
There are actually many ways but I’d suggest first that you read my article on how to be a digital nomad.
It gives up to date tips for 2019 and a clear action plan.
It also explains the main mistakes people make, and how most people go about doing this all wrong.
In general, you can become a nomad just by getting a job that pays you remotely. In fact, many people can just ask their current boss if they can work from the road.
If you know your boss well, and you’re settled in your job, this might actually be quite easy.
But sometimes it takes a bit more work. The 4 hour work week outlines a few detailed techniques for escaping the office and negotiating remote work with your current job.
One bit of advice I would give you is this:
Make SURE that you’ve been earning an online REMOTE income for at least 3 months, BEFORE you buy a plane ticket.
I actually played it even safer and did many short trips of just a few weeks at a time. Then I booked a 3 month trip, and THEN went full time on road.
But you can just test it with 3 months.
This makes sure you KNOW you’ve got the income to support yourself, BEFORE you put yourself in the world and start creating COSTS for yourself.
Things like plane tickets, eating out, insurance, travelling, accomadation and so on.
My experiences as a digital nomad
I’ve been a digital nomad for about two years now. But I haven’t been on the road that whole time.
That’s how long I’ve had a 100% self generated ONLINE remote income. I work from home, most of the time.
But lately I’ve been doing longer and longer stretches abroad. It’s the freedom to CHOOSE that I love the most.
Some months I actually prefer to work from my house, but I don’t have to. If I want some sun, I can just book a one way ticket to Spain or just go and travel the Italian coast.
And I think that’s the main benefit of being a digital nomad, is being able to CHOOSE where you work from, how often you work, and how you live your life.
This freedom makes the lifestyle very attractive for most people.
Downsides of the lifestyle
There are a few downsides of the digital nomad lifestyle, and they’re mainly:
- You’ll miss family
- You might not be able to maintain an income
- Technical issues are harder when you’re in a place with bad internet
- The internet might not be great
- You might get lonely
- Relationships are difficult (Unless you’re traveling with your partner)
But I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I don’t think the nomad lifestyle is for everyone, but it’s certainly a fun and enjoyable way to live.
Most people think the nomad lifestyle is really really difficult to create and live. It’s actually not.
In most cases, you can simply get a remote job and buy a plane ticket. The harder way of doing it is to create your OWN business that provides you an income (Ideally passive).
This gives you the most freedom because you’re not tied to work certain hours.
It can be a little bit annoying if you get all the way to a beautiful destination and you’re super excited to go and explore but you have to work 10 hour days to maintain the lifestyle.
It’s much better to have a passive income os say $4K a month that provides you the money to do what you want, when you want.
That way you can decide when to work, and when to travel. It’s much better this way and you’ll actually enjoy everything much more.
But this takes more time, so I’d suggest building your own business BEFORE going to Thailand or wherever you want to go to.