Before I get started with this post, I just want to quickly note that 99% of my content is overwhelmingly optimistic and positive.
Any longtime readers already know that, but I’m just referencing this for anyone who might stumble upon this article and encounter my writing for the first time.
Now, that positivity is not a front. My proclivity for inspiring others to lead happier and better lives is not fake.
It’s because I’m genuinely a very happy, optimistic, and blessed person.
And I share many elements of my FIRE lifestyle because I believe financial independence and early retirement can greatly improve quality of life for most people by taking ownership of their time and authentically pursuing their true passions.
With that out of the way, let’s get into the message.
This message, keep in mind, is coming from someone who has been building online businesses since 2011. I live abroad. And I also travel. So it’s not like I don’t have a clue here. I’m living that life.
I relocated to Chiang Mai, Thailand almost two years ago.
Life here has been nothing short of phenomenal.
My first year was filled with love, laughs, amazing experiences, personal growth, and the forging of new relationships.
One of those new relationships, of course, is with Oh. I’ve been dating her pretty much since I arrived.
But I’ve also made many, many friends. And I’ve met countless people as they’ve come in and out of my life.
Meeting so many people and getting to know them a little bit has obviously exposed me to the “digital nomad” movement, seeing as how Chiang Mai is kind of a mecca for this.
A digital nomad is someone who builds a business (or set of businesses) online and travels the world. As long as they have a laptop and a Wi-Fi connection, they can make money. It’s this supposed dream life where you quit your job, make money doing something relatively easy/fun, and travel full time.
Except it’s not that at all for many of these people.
As I’ve discussed before, Chiang Mai, despite its reputation and all that is truly great about the place, is actually a city that’s filled with wantrepreneurs.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ve met some successful people who are doing some really amazing things. It’s just that they’re the exception rather than the rule.
The vast majority of people I’ve run into (and I’ve met a lot of people coming through Chiang Mai) are actually struggling (even if they don’t yet realize it). And they almost universally end up going back to wherever they came from (US, Australia, UK, etc.) after their sojourn abroad.
I’ve lost count of how many people who have gone back to the homeland and picked up normal jobs again after spending a year or so traveling and giving the digital nomad thing a go.
Not that there’s anything necessarily wrong with that.
But I don’t think it has to be this way.
Earning My Admiration
I actually admire the digital nomad movement. I never really fit into the “9-5 till 65” mindset at all, which is what first led to chasing FIRE. And it later led to leaving the United States altogether.
I couldn’t imagine jobbing it up all my life, then finally retiring when I’m too old and tired to finally enjoy it. In my humble opinion, that’s a total waste of my life.
But even though FIRE is great, living in America and being surrounded by Americans who have a totally different take on life wasn’t all that pleasant. I respect all perspectives and lifestyles, but that respect isn’t always reciprocal.
Also, America is globally expensive. And I felt surrounded by this growing PC agenda, which is completely destroying the States from within. Paying a high COL for low (and deteriorating) QOL is crazy. The motivation to leave was strong.
Once I started to realign my expectations and definitions regarding what “home” actually is, moving abroad became the obvious next step for me.
However, it took no courage for me to leave the US and move to Thailand.
I was already financially independent, earning enough passive income to cover a very nice lifestyle here in Chiang Mai. And since I started working online in 2011, I was already an experienced entrepreneur with established businesses, too.
There was no downside for me coming here.
That’s not the case for a lot of digital nomads fresh off the plane, however. Most of them are totally new to working online. Some have some savings. Some (more than you might think) are getting support from their parents. But they don’t have an unlimited runway in front of them.
While I wouldn’t say that moving to Chiang Mai was solely, or even largely, motivated by the prospect of meeting fellow entrepreneurs, investors, or independent thinkers, I was definitely looking forward to the idea of living in a place that wasn’t permeated by the American groupthink hive where it’s “work and shop till you drop”.
Living in Chiang Mai has been a wonderful breath of fresh air.
Even if many of these young, naive digital nomads won’t ultimately end up doing some of the things they’re setting out to do, they at least have the courage to think outside the box, leave their home country, and give something unique a good shot.
That’s awesome!
However, there’s an aspect to this digital nomad scene that I think is holding a lot of these people back.
And it makes the concept of being a digital nomad a terrible idea.
Being Digital Doesn’t Require Being Nomadic
The issue, in my opinion, is right in the name.
Digital Nomad.
That means you’re digital (working remotely, online), and you’re simultaneously nomadic (constantly traveling around).
I don’t have a problem at all with the digital part.
Yours truly lives a very, very digital life. I enjoy spending a great deal of time with my various online businesses. And most of my actual wealth is in digital form. In fact, I’d go so far as to say my digital avatar is more representative of who I am as a person than my physical self.
It’s instead the nomadic part of the equation that I think is a terrible idea.
The very term for these people implies that it’s required, or at least strongly recommended, to be nomadic if/when you’re digital.
This implication is totally unnecessary. Bordering on dumb.
The very nature of being digital means you can take care of business anywhere. You don’t have to incessantly bounce around to different countries every 60 days (or whatever).
This might be a shocker, but just stay with me a second.
You can (and probably should) be digital without being a nomad.
Let me be honest.
Most of these digital nomads I’ve met are just starting out. I noted that earlier. They’re trying to make their first $1,000/month online. The whole reason for leaving their home country in the first place is to give themselves a bit of a breathing room (a runway), which involves going abroad to cheaper countries so that they can stretch capital and time in order to scale their business(es).
Going from $0 to $1,000 per month online is tough. Giving yourself every possible advantage makes perfect sense to me.
But the constant bouncing around – i.e., being nomadic – is totally counterproductive to this.
Making money online is challenging. Traveling constantly is also challenging. Doing these two challenging things at the same time is a terrible idea.
Become A Digital Expat Instead
A lot of these young, energetic entrepreneurs would be far better served by contemplating being an expat rather than a nomad.
Digital Expat.
That’s where the real gold is.
See, moving around every 60-90 days is extremely harmful to everything it is that being digital and scaling a business should be about.
And I’ll give you five reasons why.
First, there’s the cost.
Traveling around isn’t cheap, even if you’re hacking your way past some of the expenses. If you’re on a limited budget because you’re trying to scale your business and income, this additional cost is a huge problem that should be avoided. One of the biggest reasons people become a nomad and leave their home country (avoiding high overhead) is largely or even completely mitigated by the nomadic aspect of this lifestyle they take up. It’s silly.
Second, there’s the time.
Traveling requires a lot of time. There’s the planning. Picking spots. Figuring out visas. Scoping out good locations where you can do what you have to do. There’s the research regarding language, transportation, accommodation, networking opportunities, food, etc. This is valuable time you should be spending on your digital business.
Third, there’s the limited productivity.
If you’re spending all of your focus in these ancillary areas of life that have nothing to do with being digital, you’re not able to zone in, flow, and be 100% productive. Even here in Chiang Mai, where I live full time, walking up to my usual coffee shop and seeing it full (which means I have to find a different place that day to do my thing) takes me out of my zone a little bit. That’s because I love my structured routine that maximizes my productivity. And that’s a molehill compared to the mountain of limited productivity when you have to constantly figure out a new routine (where to eat, where to sleep, which coffee shop/co-working space to visit, etc.) every couple months in totally different countries.
Fourth, there’s the “keeping up with the Joneses”.
I’ve met a few digital nomads who have actually admitted how exhausting it is to keep up with the nomad scene. It’s ironic. These people want to escape the rat race back home, but they end up entering a rat race all over again – except it’s now passport entries and YouTube drone shots instead of a house and a car. Chris Dodd, a one-time prominent digital nomad who I met here in Chiang Mai a while back, has been open about this phenomenon. And now he’s back in Australia (indefinitely, as far as I can tell).
Fifth, it’s a vicious circle.
Building on my last point, these digital nomads often get caught up in this vicious circle. This is especially true for those that rely on at least some of the income from the content they create as a digital nomad. They end up needing to create amazing content (usually via YouTube videos and/or blog articles) showing their travels, which locks them into a very nomadic lifestyle (because that’s what the viewers/readers expect). And so their bread and butter ends up being the very thing that exhausts them due to what’s honestly unsustainable. Not only that, but it’s tough to actually enjoy the moments and take your time with the travel because you’re so busy creating the content that feeds you the income to live this life.
The Solution
The solution to all of this is to take the digital part of the equation and just set up shop on a more full-time basis in one place. Eliminate the nomad part of things altogether, at least until you’re more established and can actually enjoy that travel for yourself (rather than to keep up with anyone else or create content).
Become a digital expat.
Or stay where you’re at and still be digital.
Working online and staying in your home country aren’t mutually exclusive. You can do both concurrently. That’s apparently what Chris is doing.
That’s what I did for years. I worked online in the US. I didn’t need to move abroad to become digitally successful, nor does anyone else.
Or move abroad, become an expat for a while, scale up, then move back to where you came from. Take advantage of temporary geographic arbitrage.
Or stay as an expat, travel back to your home country every once in a while, and also travel around your new region intermittently after you’ve already become relatively successful.
Or become FIRE, like I did, then permanently move abroad to live a happier and more interesting life. This is, in my opinion, the best solution of all.
Personally, my long-term plan is to travel for a bit in the spring, when Chiang Mai is particularly hot. I’m essentially going to become a very young snowbird and leave Thailand for a bit every year when it’s most uncomfortable.
I think it’d be interesting to spend springs or summers in a different country every year.
Explore in a slower, more enjoyable, and sustainable manner. These countries aren’t going anywhere. They’ll still be there after you put yourself in a better economic position.
Whatever. There are many ways to go about it.
Well, every way except the way that most digital nomads are going about it, which is traveling around in a constant and unsustainable manner.
Conclusion
This article wasn’t meant to hurt anyone’s feelings.
It’s the opposite. I’m attempting to provide insight that I believe can help others become more successful.
Of course, people usually prefer pats on the back, not constructive criticism. So this post probably won’t be winning me any friends.
In the last two years I’ve been living in Chiang Mai, I’ve noticed how many of these people end up going home after living like a rock star for a year. That one year might have been really cool to show on YouTube, but it’s just not sustainable – or even a very thoughtful way to go about things.
If you instead take the digital part of the equation, then exchange expat for nomad (or stay where you’re at), you’re likely setting yourself up for more sustainable and long-term success.
And after you get yourself scaled up and making a little bit of money online, you can then travel around.
But you’ll actually be able to enjoy it because it’s not a costly, temporary, and exhausting thing that you’re trying to keep up with.
Nobody has to take my advice. Indeed, it doesn’t behoove me to see more Westerners setting up shop long term in Chiang Mai. That would only serve to make the place more expensive and crowded. If I wanted to be surrounded by Westerners, I’d move back to America.
But I feel like I’d be remiss if I didn’t share some honest and helpful reflections after living here and witnessing this phenomenon play out.
Lastly, I want to note that those who have already scaled up a business and are successful are free to nomad it up. This article is directed toward those who are just starting out, which is seemingly where most digital nomads are at (because of such a high failure rate).
What do you think? Are you a digital nomad? Is this a better long-term solution? Why or why not?
Thanks for reading.
Image courtesy of: saphatthachat at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
P.S. If you’d like to become financially independent, which could more easily allow you to pursue online ventures from anywhere in the world, check out some awesome resources that I personally used on my way to becoming financially free at 33!
Hey. Thanks for the interesting post. I actually started to follow your blog just last week. I feel like investment and FIRE blogs are more popular as the stockmarket is booming. It creates inflation of people looking for certain lifestyle without actually thinking it through. You made nice points about living abroad and being an entrepreneur.
Anonymous,
My pleasure. Happy to share some firsthand experience. 🙂
I don’t think the FIRE idea has more attention on it because of the stock market. The S&P 500 is right about where it was 18 months ago. I think it’s because the mainstream media has caught on to the concept and hyped it up. I’ve been at it since 2011. Seen a lot of people in the space come and go, just like with the whole digital nomad thing.
Cheers!
Hey Jason,
Sometimes when I see YouTubers that are constantly traveling around posting videos, I wonder, how sustainable is that? It seems like trading one full time job for another and they can never truly enjoy their travels. At some point they will get tired and go back to what they were doing before.
A lot of what you see on the internet is a short term solution to a long term problem. The long term problem is being unhappy with their current job. The short term solution is to quit and travel, but for a lot of folks it is unsustainable. Then, it is likely back to the job or similar job that they hated in the first place.
You had the right idea to build up a portfolio first that can support you. Then do interesting things that may make money, but don’t have to. Your runway is indefinite and there is no added stress.
While I am trying to build my net worth to a point that it can support me, sometimes I feel like the road is so long that I just want to quit for awhile and come back to a job later. But then I would be quitting into something unsustainable myself. If I did that, it probably wouldn’t be constant travel, but pick a place to slow down for a year and see where it takes me.
As always, thanks for the great post.
Sixty Months
Sixty,
Absolutely. Your intuition is correct. And these people, after you get to know them a little bit, will clue you in on just how unsustainable it really is for them. Of course, I get it. Your not happy working as a barista or whatever, so traveling the world and doing stuff online sounds awesome. But you can’t go off and do that without any sort of long-term plan. I guess you just gotta be young and learn those lessons.
I’m glad I did it the way I did it because I can sit back and fully enjoy this lifestyle permanently. There’s a foundation in place there. And I appreciate it so much because I know what went into it. I built all of this with my own two hands. But it wasn’t easy to grind it out for years beforehand. Some of these young millennials have this real entitlement issue where they think they deserve to earn a lot of money online right out of the gate and can skip right past all of the hard work. They come over here thinking it’ll all pan out in a month or two while they dabble on miscellaneous projects at co-working spaces for a few hours per day. If you can do that, cool. But it rarely works out like that.
There’s a lot that one can do online. My journey is proof of that. I’m just saying that the nomad aspect of this lifestyle is totally unnecessary, if not downright harmful.
Best regards.
As someone who has spent recent years moving between Chiang Mai, Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh and Melbourne each year I agree with your points made.
From a productivity perspective a heap is lost from the travel and loss of a routine. Having said that I personally still find it very suitable. I’m not someone trying to go from very little passive income and build up an online business. I have enough that I am happy to accept the loss of productivity.
For me the loss of productivity is offset by getting a heap of enjoyment returning to some of the cities mentioned above after a stint away. I also feel a bit diversified in case one place clamps down on visa rules or just becomes less desirable all of a sudden.
I certainly don’t move around for the sake of keeping up with the Joneses or ticking off new destinations in my passport. I just enjoy the places and a few cities now feel like my home.
But I can totally see where you are coming from especially for someone younger trying to get ahead financially and build an online business.
I can also relate to you timing a potential get away from Chiang Mai in the hotter months, I am sure you are not the only one that thinks that way!
Steve,
Totally agree. If you’ve already built something and can do with productivity loss, go for it. You’re obviously in that spot. So am I. As I noted, this message is aimed at those looking to become a digital nomad from scratch. The thing is, you have to that get whole digital thing off the ground. If you’re trying to do that while simultaneously hopping around every two months, you’re almost certainly going to fail.
The failure rate among all of the digital nomads I’ve personally met has gotta be way over 90%. Maybe even closer to 99%. I mean that in terms of them going back home and returning to job XYZ. I really do think that would be a lot lower if they approached it a bit differently, like I’m laying out. It’s still tough to make a solid income online, but forgoing all of the issues with incessant travel will definitely give you a better shot at it. Almost every single digital nomad I’ve met has almost no long-term plan for any of it. It’s kinda crazy, but I think that’s just life. I suppose a lot of people just aimlessly go about life.
Best wishes.
That makes a lot of sense. Constantly traveling is stressful. We don’t even like to do that when we’re on vacation.
The best time to become a digital nomad is after financial independence. You don’t need the income so anything is gravy.
If you’re really trying to make a business, then focus on the business first. It’s way easier to be productive when you have a good routine.
However, I think it’s great to give it a try. You never know if it’s going to work out or not. I imagine that it’s a great learning experience.
Joe,
Right. Even if I were a billionaire, I wouldn’t want to up and go to a new place every month or two, indefinitely. That would get old, fast. I mean, I tend to like doing the same things, regardless of where I’m at. Working out, eating food, or drinking a coffee isn’t terribly different from one place to the next. I personally hate flying and traveling. Stresses me out like crazy.
You are right about the learning experience. And it’s not like it’s all a total loss. It’s a hell of an all-encompassing experience, even if it only lasts a year. I admire the stones on some of these people that come over here with no money and no real plan. That takes guts. I wouldn’t recommend it, but I do admire that.
Thanks for dropping by!
Best regards.
Great post, Jason. I’m right there with you. My fear with any of these “gap year” or “mini retirements” plans is that–aside from the fact that it’s hard to GET a job after a year+ off–is that it would be torturous to be free and then have no choice but to go back afterward. As a plan it feels like it builds in a lot of unnecessary discomfort.
I’m right with you with the growing culture shock in the US too. Between over consumerism, countrywide obsession with politics, etc., it can be hard to connect with folks, or, more specifically, FEEL connected to a community.
Brenton,
Yeah, good point there. Although, a lot of these digital nomads didn’t exactly have a huge career that they left behind. So I’m not sure they’re overly concerned about a gap on a resume. Sure, there are people with some kind of IT/software background, so there’s a natural gravitational pull toward doing your own thing online. But I’ve met A LOT of super young people who had these dead-end jobs, so they get sucked into this dream. In all fairness to them, there are a lot of shady people over here selling courses and all kinds of products that totally mislead people. But I digress.
My, my, my. What’s happening in the US? It’s a shame. You know, I think it’s just that life has become, in some ways, very easy. People were too busy trying to scrape by and find their next meal 100 years ago. Now there’s abundance. And people have plenty of time on their hands to become activists about this or that or hunt down something that offends them and make it known to the whole world just how much they’re offended. The PC stuff is just insane. Also, this commitment to extreme dogma is terrible. There’s no logic. Only emotion. It’s tearing the place apart. I felt like an alien living over there.
Cheers!
“Between over consumerism, countrywide obsession with politics, etc., it can be hard to connect with folks, or, more specifically, FEEL connected to a community”…Oh Breton, I so agree with you. I wish I could find people like you in real life!
Good post!
It’s true, in order to become successful in online business, one must dedicate lots of time and effort to it. It does not happen by posting cool Instagram pictures from trips around the world.
– NF
NF,
Amen!
Cheers.
Jason,
Excellent article. You can take these same type of people and put them in different situations and they would behave the same. I’ve known several people who decided to make career jumps from minimal pay jobs to IT/Programming. First thing they did was buy an expensive mac book pro (latest edition) instead of picking up a book first and diving into the topic to see if they can handle it. They think they just need to spend money to make it happen.
Rene,
Interesting observation. You’re right. This is something that repeats itself over and over again, across different lifestyle choices, careers, locations, etc. Spending all that money to travel around SE Asia or Europe isn’t gonna magically improve your online business. Unless they’re somehow intertwined (like with content producers), the two probably have nothing to do with one another. Staying where you’re at and building/growing an online business aren’t mutually exclusive. I started building my online stuff while simultaneously working 60 hours/week at my day job. Jetting off to some faraway place makes no sense at all for most people. In fact, it’s probably only going to limit them.
Best regards.
Hello Jason, I stumbled on this post from a Google recommendation on my phone. Google knows me too well. 🙂
Totally agree with you here. With the constant travel, lost of productivity. I will even say even if you are not trying to start a business, it gets old pretty fast.
My quick background related to travelling: I lived in 20 cities to date. I have moved about every year or two. I did not find it breaking my flow. A lot of time what i was supposed to do in that city was done. (that is kinda your expat way of living)
In the last couple of years though i started working remote for a company. I wanted to check a lot of boxes really quickly. Mostly finding a couple of places that I really love in the world where i would rotate every year or 6 months if they are close.
So i did a world tour. Started in latin america, then asia, europe and north america. Conclusion: this all traveling thing is expensive. No matter what hacking or cheap tickets you get. And i could clearly note a loss of productivity about 1 week before my trip (was not into that mindset of working, worrying about the right phone company to get in the new country and all that), during my trip and a week or so after my trip (depending on how long the trip was)
Good to see that other people out there had the same insight i had.
Quick question non related though: What visa allowed you to stay in Thailand?
I have been looking all over the place and it does not seem easy unless you teach english, you get hired by a company or start your own company but i think there is quite some cash to fork out even for this option. I am really curious. Doing the border run every 30 days is not scalable. and even that i think the rule is you get 15 days when you renew and you can only renew twice.
Closest thing i heard in regards to stay in Asia long term, vietnam and cambodia have some sort of business visa allowing you to stay there a year.
Jo,
Thanks for sharing!
Sounds like we’re on the same page. If you want to, and can, travel indefinitely without any sort of major impact on everything else you’ve got going on, I say go for it. But starting out digitally? It’s silly to try to scale something while simultaneously traveling around. It’s crazy expensive and stressful. It seems like a totally new keeping up with the Joneses phenomenon nowadays, except it’s Instagram glamour shots instead of a new luxury car. People buying experiences they don’t need, with money they don’t have, to impress people they don’t care about. Get your business and life under control first. Those places aren’t going anywhere.
I’m on an ED visa here in Thailand. There are options to stay long term, but you have to be smart about it. Thailand, unlike America, has no debates going on about whether or not to let illegal aliens stay. They don’t mess around. If you don’t follow the rules, they deport you and ban you from coming back (as they should).
Best wishes!
Good points. Nice read. For full disclosure l travel 4-6 months out of the year usually 2 trips..in between info home recharge and get inspired for the next journey, I also freelance and have a good flow of clients. I never liked the term digital nomad either. I would say alot of people that I encounter value this lifestyle more than sustainablity and financial outcomes at least for a period of time. Can you blame them? I don’t think so especially when you are young enough to recover from a down few financial years. That year or couple or of years you spent might be that much more worth it when you zoom out. If it is a financial outcome or online business that you are looking for totally agree but maybe you should scale back your expectations and just have a longer time horizon for these things to happen?
AQ,
Yeah, I hear you. If you want to just go “YOLO” crazy for a year at 22 years old and go back home when it’s all done, go for it. Like I said, I admire it. I don’t recommend coming over here with relatively little money and no plan. I don’t think that’s a very intelligent way to go about it. But I do admire the courage. Maybe it’s just me, but I would find it hard to enjoy the whole thing if I knew that I was almost certainly destined to go back home and get a soul-sucking job all over again. That would bum me out. And that’s why I worked incredibly hard for years, stayed patient, delayed gratification, and scaled everything into a lifestyle that was more permanent in nature.
What you’re talking about sounds more like a “gap year” than any kind of newfangled “digital nomad” to me. If you’re just taking a year out of life to have fun, burn some cash, and maybe dabble around with a few things online (because it’s easy to start something), that’s fine. That’s precisely what these people are often doing. But I don’t really see anything entrepreneurial about that. Yet a lot of these digital nomads that I’ve met at all of these meetups talk as if they’re the next Steve Jobs or something. It’s very odd.
Cheers!
This was a really good post, bro. Making a living online is actually pretty damn hard. You need to make establishing cash flow a priority before you quit your day job.
FV,
Thanks, man. Appreciate that. I actually spent a great deal of time with this one.
Couldn’t agree more with you. Earning a significant income online is very, very difficult. A lot of these digital nomads vastly underestimate just how tough it is. I admire their willingness to put themselves out there and see where the road takes them. Unfortunately, the road almost always leads right back to where they started, quickly. Being a little more cautious and smart about it would offer a much greater degree of potential success.
They should just stay home. Or pick a spot, stay there, and fully commit to whatever it is they’re trying to build. Then travel around when it’s more sustainable.
Best regards.
This post was incredibly fascinating. I didn’t realize how many people were traveling abroad and then holding themselves to a frequent travel hopping experience. One does lose an incredible amount of productivity traveling that frequently.
Also, I’ve read a lot about mini retirements and I’ve taken one. Hence, I can attest that the reacclimation process to get & hold a 8-5 gig again, is incredibly arduous.
For those with non-career jobs, it’s probably not that bad..yet, in my humble opinion, if you have a career job—just stay until you can retire or completely down shift into something else.
Nicki,
Thanks for your thoughts. I agree totally with you.
A lot of these digital nomads are very young and naive, from everything I’ve seen. They never had much of a career in the first place. And maybe that’s their problem. There’s no real work ethic. They don’t know what it’s like on the other side of things, which skews their worldview and limits their perspective. But reality eventually sets in.
Maybe this piece gave a little perspective on things and helped improve some chances out there. 🙂
Best wishes.
Hey Jason, awesome post as always, and very timely. Some friends of mine who relocated to Ecuador recently have taken to posting about / monetizing their journey of becoming permanent expats / living an unconventional life so that others who are interested in doing the same can learn from their experience.
They just posted on youtube that they had to open a patreon site because the cost of being digital (no nomad part of the equation is involved, although they did say they were going to explore their area a bit more) turned out to be more than they originally anticipated. They need the extra support of their supporters, or ‘patrons’, to help keep this going. It not only has him working 40 hours / week just on editing their content, but is now forcing him to scale back his web development business, and thus curtailing his income, so that he can work on said video / youtube business to potentially be able to generate more money doing what ‘they love’. His wife is now shouldering most of the financial load of their reduced cost lifestyle (~$1900 / mo) so that this can happen.
I love them, and what they are doing, with plans to visit them in January. When I get there, I am going to ask them at what point does doing this become less of what ‘they love’, and more like the prison that they first tried to get themselves out of being a part of the rat race back in the US. That is the thing about this digital way of life, as you very well know, the never ending need for content creation, coupled with the ever escalating desire for (sensational) content consumption by the masses, literally creates the sense of always having to work and ‘up their game’ as more people come on line doing the exact same thing.
I think you have it spot on in that while becoming digital, or a digital nomad seems exciting and sexy, I think the reality of what is needed to do that is truly not understood by those who want to pack up their rucksacks and elephant pants, and hit the (dirt) road. Being a dividend expat seems like such a better idea / plan, for once it is set and forgot, it continues to provide the income necessary to do all the things that the idea of being a digital nomad entices many to try.
Following in your footsteps, I have taken the time / energy to do exactly what you have in setting up my business in advance, invested everything I could in undervalued dividend growth stocks (mostly), and am getting ready to sell everything and live off of the income from my business while my stocks / bonds / investments continue to grow as I approach retirement (age). I can’t imagine what it would be like to plan these amazing trips knowing that I have to film it, edit it, post it, interact with my audience, build websites and channels, etc etc etc while being in these amazing places. I am glad that people have the desire and willingness to try doing this, and I hope that they read messages like yours so that they have a higher likelihood of success once they finally do depart.
Keep em coming!
Andrew,
Thanks for the thoughtful comment.
Totally agree with you. Being beholden to some kind of online platform isn’t much better than being beholden to a job. Trading one master for another isn’t a major improvement if you’re still chained to something. I don’t want to be a cog in a machine, even if the new machine is prettier than the last one. That’s why the foundation of FIRE is so important.
That said, I can totally see how one could scale up something digitally at home, or in one particular place abroad, and then be relatively free to live on their terms (for the most part). That’s not a bad way to go at all. It’s just that these digital nomads barrel into things without any kind of plan or logic. I admire the courage. But I think it’s a terrible way to approach it.
This situation you bring up kind of reminds me of where I was at back in the middle of 2015, with Dividend Mantra. I felt kind of tied to a certain set of expectations with the content. I felt beholden. And I was doing a lot of ancillary tasks that I didn’t enjoy at all. Running a massive blog that has all of these other things going on is a job. Better than the dealership job I had, no doubt. But a job, nonetheless. This very article is a great example of what wouldn’t have fit in that narrow niche. Being more free to express myself as a writer and delve into some different concepts has kept the writing spark alive for a lot longer than it otherwise would have lasted. I’m sure I’ll wake up some day in the future and feel that spark start to die off. And that’s OK. But I still really love what I do. I don’t think I’d feel that way if I were chained down, beholden, and funneled into a very narrow directive, though. And that’s what a lot of these people get themselves into. They underestimate how difficult it is to make money online, which trips some people up into committing to this unsustainable vicious circle of a lifestyle.
Hope it works out for your friends over there in Ecuador. YouTube involves a hell of a lot more ancillary work than what I’ve got going on. I feel for them.
Best regards!
Loved this post! So spot on! Everyone thinks they can live this glamorous travel life making YouTube videos or travel blogging until they realize how many others are trying the same thing!
Become FI first! You only need 300-500k and it can be enough for several different amazing countries! Also if you have a college degree, teach on the side to supplement your income.
For the love of God, dont just show up in Thailand thinking you’re going to start a hit new travel blog or create “courses”
Matt,
Glad you enjoyed this one! 🙂
Agree with you across the board. The naivety among these digital nomads is pretty shocking. I couldn’t imagine heading over to somewhere all the way across the world without any kind of plan or very much money. I admire the courage. I honestly do. But it strikes me as very unintelligent. Bouncing around every 60-90 days only compounds the problem.
The “courses” people over here are the worst. Really. I mean, if you have valuable skills, I’m all for it. But 99% of these people are total shysters. I already recounted the story before about a guy over here who was building a set of courses on Udemy about how to build a six-figure online business from scratch – even though he’d never built a single business in his life (the courses WERE his business).
At any rate, I hope this helps a few people out there and gives them perspective. There’s an amazing lifestyle to be had out here. But you have to approach it correctly.
Best wishes.
Nice post, Jason. And I agree with you. Moving around is stressful — and adding pressure to make money on top of that? Another layer of stress. However, my guess is people often move around for visa issues. I’m based in Vietnam and for digital expats (I love this) there are limited options for long stay visas (i.e. past 90 days) unless you want to “fly under the radar” (i.e. work illegally) and I don’t recommend that for obvious reasons (blacklisting, deportation, huge fines etc.). Many governments are grappling with this issue, not just Vietnam. So while not moving around is advantageous, the reality may be a little different. Just wanted to share another take on it.
Diane,
Hmm. Perhaps so. The visas may be an impetus for some people. But I haven’t heard it come up much in all of my conversations with digital nomads. It’s usually instead this kind of competitive/exciting thing where Joe or Jane is going to go off and visit Countries X, Y, and Z while working online. I haven’t gotten a lot of, “I wish I could stay and just be productive, but I have to leave for a bit due to my visa.” Besides, if it really is a visa situation, there are many long-term visas in the region that cater to specific purposes. You just have to do your research and have your ducks in a row (including some cash). I wouldn’t have been able to stay here in Thailand for so long if that weren’t the case. Moreover, doing a visa run to extend your stay somewhere doesn’t require one to go off and bounce around to Budapest, Bucharest, and Belgrade over the course of six months. You do your visa stuff, then come right back. But they don’t do that. They want that nomadic life they’ve seen on YouTube, even if it’s not realistic or even a very good idea.
The visa situation is more of a problem for people looking to live in one country for the rest of their life. It’s not terribly difficult to kind of finagle it for a few years or so. Getting up past five years, however, can be tough. And a lot of long-term expats over here are starting to struggle with that (including myself) as these governments (rightly so) clamp down on their policies. But there’s a hell of a wide spectrum here. There’s a big gap between staying for 60 days and then going past five years. And even long-term stays have their options. The Elite Visa here in Thailand being one example. Again, it just requires research and getting your life in order. And by research, I don’t mean watching YouTube videos showing drone shots over Croatia. And by getting your life in order, I don’t mean booking a flight to SE Asia with no money or plan.
Lastly, if the visa is a massive roadblock that you can’t seem to figure out, just stay in your home country. Then go nomadic when your digital business scales up. My underlying point here is that going from nothing to digital nomad in 24 hours is a very poor idea.
Cheers!
Hi Jason,
yes, I agree that travelling around will cost you too much energy to focus on your online business. But it is also the skills you have: If you are young, unexperienced and have the dream everything is easy, most of the times you will fail. OK, you get the advantage to make a lot of experiences in different countries, but you also learn on the hard way that you have not many chances to win this game.
On the other side: If I travel in beautiful sorroundings and always have the stress to earn a bit money to afford the accomodation or get some food I don´t think this will help you to enjoy the travelling. If you are forced to create content and you have to look the whole day to get good content I don´t think this is a dream. The real question is: What is your dream and is it really a dream or only a projection of your mind? If we have reached something, we get further on to other goals, so I would say you have a longterm ongoing dream of new things.
In the meantime I´m conviced that the place you are is not that important, if you have everything around you to have a confortable live. And there are many places existing in the world where you can have this. If you have more income, you will have more places. Simple but true.
I stumbled over Mark Wiens for example in Youtube. He is very succesful, has million of people following him, some companies supporting him and so he travels around the world now for some years. He writes about himself how difficult it was to get successful, how much work and even more, how much sacrifices he had to do. Living in Bangkok with no money and a budget below 300 $/month isn´t funny in my perspective. On the other side: Nowadays he surely has more money, a small familiy and he is travelling the world showing original local food. I doubt that he will do this the next 40 years. If he is earning enough money for the living but not more this is a mid-time project, nothing more. It´s normal that you get tired on things and if you get older you don´t see why you should do every day stressful activities.
In my opinion it is better to earn your money in a western country like you or I did and save as much as possible. The obvious reason why it is so cheap for a western peron in a lot of countries is, that the people in these countries are not earning that much money. For them the prices are high and they have the same situation like we have, when we live in USA or Western Europe. Our advantage is only the geo arbitrage. But if you are a poor digital nomad, you can´t use it. And if you are travelling regularly it´s not that cheap as it seems. So the strategy to earn money at home, invest it and get passive income is much better. If you have enough passive income you really can enjoy all the nice places. Otherwise it is only streeful.
Regards Oliver
Oliver,
Thanks for dropping by.
There are certainly some people out there on digital platforms who are very successful and making a lot of money from it. I’ve been successfully doing this for years. But for every Mark Wiens (or whomever you want to use as an example) out there, there are 10,000 Joe Schmoes making $0 online. Now, that shouldn’t stop you from trying to make it. But you have to be smart about it. The way most (but not all) of these digital nomads go about it is not very smart at all. Look, it doesn’t behoove me to see them succeed or move over here. I don’t get some kind of reward from that. If anything, it works against me. I’m just telling it like it is and trying to help/inspire a few people out there.
I think your last paragraph sums it up well. Geographic arbitrage is a very powerful lever to pull. But as I’ve noted time and time again, you have to pull it correctly. If you’re not earning a good income from where you come from, you’re not going to be able to take advantage of it. Rent is cheaper over here, sure. But it’s not free. It’s generally better to stay where you’re at, scale some businesses and/or passive income, then set your sights on the horizon. If you’re not willing to plan and do that hard work upfront, you’ll get what you get. It’s as simple as that. A lot of these 22-year-old digital nomads have a serious entitlement issue where they think they deserve money and a successful business just for showing up to SE Asia. It’s honestly bewildering.
I remain convinced that achieving FIRE first (which isn’t that difficult) is the best way to go about it. Then you’re free to live your life how you want, enjoy what’s out here, and properly take advantage of geo arb. Meanwhile, FIRE can, and often does, run concurrently with a successful digital platform of some kind. They’re not mutually exclusive. Again, however, this all requires some hard work upfront for a few years. If you’re not willing to plan and put that work in, that’s OK. But don’t be surprised when you find that you have to go back home after six months.
Best regards.
Hi Jason,
didn´t look the video before from the Bali Coworking space. I did a lot of things for Intel and it looked nearly similar to it. You can get the same capucchino as well (the difference is that you don´t have to pay for it) and the office is from the look not far away from the video. Only difference is, that you are in Bali instead of Munich and can go to the sea. But what do I see there: A lot of happy shiny people working in a leisure office, often changing because the people tending to travel regular. So I also can sit with a snake or a rat there, it doesn´t make a big difference because in 3 months I have new happy shiny people sitting next to me. May be I´m too negative, but where is the difference to a normal job sitting in a cubicle? Despite this I have more risk because I need to get income on my own and have higher costs for the working space, because I have to pay for such a environment. So you lose a lot of geo arbitrage, because the standard is not similar to an Indonesian citizen, it´s western standard. Nothing against the owner of the coworking space: He is smart, because he offers a dream for digital nomads and will earn good money.
From my side I would not do that. If I work in an online business I would do this in a normal cafe or at home. But most from my home, because it is silent there and this is better for my concentration. And cheaper. Simple as it is. In this coworking environment there are too many things which is not that good for my work.
But this is the dream of a lot of mostly younger people: Working 2 hours/day in such a coworking space with nice looking, friendly people, making a lot of networking with a lot of unsucessful persons where you can´t benefit too much. The reality for a lot of people is, that they spend 10 hours in this office if they seriously try to suceed or the 2 hours if they simple don´t find anything to do. To have a bit living difference for yourself you change your place regularly. After some months spending your money you will travel at home and starting to work there. This is about 95% what happens.
But it is what it is. Everyone has to do his own experience.
Regards
Oliver
I mostly agree with your comments Jason and thanks for the article. There are thousands of YouTubers making consistent income from content production, some of these are not that unique and very boring (i.e drone shots and etc). I think the risk in this is most people will copy these successful entrepreneurs without a back up plan and with no savings, that’s my main issue with this, they’re setting themselves up for failure. I think for unique content, there is untapped market out there on YouTube. It’s definitely not easy and it’s not ‘passive income’. I currently invest in dividend paying stocks here in Australia and get about $500 per month in passive income, which I consider the best and the easiest way to make income without doing much work (except researching stocks and etc). I am considering travelling and posting some content on YT, to just test the waters and see if it can generate income over the medium to long term. I’ve analysed about 20-30 successful YT channels and I believe consistent content production which is unique can be turned into a business, albeit it takes time. The channels I’ve analysed are (Kara and Nate, they have a blog showing their YT income), Harald Baldr (Norwegian bloke, he had a blog but doesn’t anymore, given views on his channel, he makes good passive income) and also Indigo Traveller (NZ guy). I haven’t mentioned Mark Wiens and The Food Ranger, they’re very successful too and it took them years. There are 20 others I haven’t mentioned but very similar story.
These people turned what they love doing into business, it took them long time (6 months to 12 months, sometimes 2 years). They work very hard. You have to be passionate about it, addicted, hard working, dedicated and with a back up plan. But that’s if you want to create a long term business based on content production, it’s not passive income, it’s business income and you work very hard for it (at the beginning) and it’s not for everybody. Just my two cents. (P.S, I’ve commented before on your old blog and I had a blog too, but gave up on it as a business idea, very, very hard to make passive income!).
Sam,
No doubt. Don’t get me wrong. One can make money online. This article isn’t in any way saying that you can’t make money online. This is instead making a point regarding the nomadic aspect of being a digital nomad, which is somewhat related to the fad/Instagram nature of this whole lifestyle. I’ve been at it for years with the online stuff. But people tend to vastly underestimate how difficult it is, how unlikely you are to succeed, and how long it takes to scale it. Constantly traveling around only compounds the difficulties, while simultaneously adding costs. Hence, what I’m writing about (which is based on meeting so many of these digital nomads). I think Chris, who I linked to in the article, sums it up well.
Like I noted, you don’t need to go abroad to build something digitally. In fact, you probably shouldn’t. Not until you’re fully ready. If you do go abroad before you’re financially ready, go somewhere and stay there for a while.
By the way, YouTube is just one of thousands of different ways to make money online. But the barriers to entry are low and the visibility is quite high. That’s why it’s an obvious point of reference. Of course, low barriers to entry and high visibility create more competition, too. For every YouTube star, there are thousands making dirt. It’s the same with blogging, frankly, which you’ve already experienced firsthand.
Cheers.
Hi Jason,
Excellent analysis to the Digital Nomad life-style , I heard about few you-tubers who eventually return back after a year of exploring the nomad life style, Given that I personally lived in 5 countries across three continents, I agree with you been an expats has most of the advantages of Nomad lifestyle and less of the cons of the continuous travel.
ATM,
We’re very much on the same page. Becoming an expat (instead of a nomad) is simply more advantageous. 🙂
Travel is cool. When it’s on your terms and something you can really sit back and enjoy.
Best regards.