Pack Up and Ship Out: How to Realise Your Dream of Becoming a Digital Nomad!

Pack Up and Ship Out: How to Realise Your Dream of Becoming a Digital Nomad!

Over four million people are already working from home in the UK and Ireland, and for some, transitioning from home-based work to a location-independent career makes a lot of sense. The development of high-speed Wi-Fi and cloud connectivity tools has given rise to a new generation of workers now known as digital nomads.

Pack Up and Ship Out: How to Realise Your Dream of Becoming a Digital Nomad!

While the digital nomad lifestyle certainly isn’t for everyone, women who are daring and passionate about what they love can definitely build a life for themselves wherever their feet take them. So whether you’re in your office cubicle thinking about a sunny holiday in the distant future or actively making plans to pack up your life and start shipping out, here are some considerations you need to take to become a successful digital nomad.

Investing in experiences

Freelance journalist Anna Hart shares that it is common for digital nomads to leverage location independence to get their fill of travel and adventure. After all, being a digital nomad means having control not just of where, but how you live.

Before leaving your home country, trade in material possessions for more flexibility and easier mobility. Consider letting go of large possessions, which you can sell for some extra cash, and find storage for heirlooms and other things you might want to keep without lugging them with you.

Financial considerations

Technology is making the 9-5 work week less appealing to a lot of people, but it doesn’t mean a digital nomadic lifestyle is all fun, games, and wanderlust. It’s about loving what you do and being in control of how you do it. Like life in the city, you still have to finance your everyday needs.

Start by identifying your skills and what kind of work you would like to do. If you’re already a freelancer or working a remote or home-based job, you might have a small advantage coming into a digital nomad lifestyle. However, it is also possible to keep a corporate job or be an entrepreneur. This means that digitally nomadic lifestyles aren’t limited to traditionally portable work like writing, design, and web development. The Evening Standard reports that co-working spaces across the globe serve as temporary homes to CEOs, consultants, educators, and even doctors, as well, freed from an otherwise desk-bound existence by technology.

Before embarking on your journey, make sure to have enough savings in case the worst happens. Because you’ll be travelling a lot, Lottoland recommends getting yourself and your possessions insured. Having adequate insurance can save you from potential disaster should you rack up a hefty hospital bill or find that someone has stolen your laptop. This can help you bounce back from any setbacks and make sure that you can continue having a stable source of income.

Where to next?

Once you’ve got all that covered, the only thing left to consider is where to go. One of the many perks of the digital nomad lifestyle is that you can earn first-world income and have developing-world cost of living standards. The BBC enumerates some of the best cities for digital nomads, such as Puerto Viejo in Costa Rica and Florianópolis in Brazil. Anywhere with great internet connectivity, a thriving expat community, and flexible visa requirements is a great place for you to call home… at least for a few weeks!

For some, it can be a little daunting to leave (almost) everything behind to pursue a digital nomad lifestyle. However, a previous Karen Strunks post stressed to never let fear win – and you’d be surprised at just how far you can go.

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