The Digital Nomad Lifestyle isn’t exactly new, yet has really shot onto the radar in recent years. The Pandemic was the major cause of that, as companies and employees began to realize that working from home, and indeed, from remote locations, was actually a viable option. Most were forced into it, and others embraced it as a permanent change to their lifestyle. Like everything though there are remote work Pros and cons, and in this article I will take a look at some of them.
This article may contain affiliate links. If you click on those links and make a purchase, at no extra cost to you I will get a small commission. This will go a long way toward keeping this website running. As always, thank you for your support! Click HERE for more information.
Table of Contents
Who can be a Digital Nomad?
Let’s first take a look at the question of who can be a Digital Nomad.
I remember when I first told my workmates back in Australia that I was taking my life on the road. I didn’t have a job that I could do anywhere else but in my office, so I was met by a lot of confusion. How was I going to sustain myself? What would I do for a living?
The answer was simple for me. I was a writer, even if I wasn’t currently employed as one. I had done my research, and in my spare time was learning everything I could about building a Travel Website. By the time 2019 came around, I was ready to go. I quit my job and hit the road.
Then the pandemic hit.
I could say that it was a bad thing for me, but in reality, I don’t think it was. As a Travel Writer it was devastating, but as a Digital Nomad and Freelancer, it allowed me to slow down and not hit the ground running at a full sprint! I settled in Bali, and was able to take a long, slow breath and assess all of the Freelancing advantages and disadvantages, then be better prepared to swing into action once the world opened up again.
The point is, if I could become a Digital Nomad when everything was against me, then anyone can. I didn’t even have a job that I could take remote!
Do you work in a job that doesn’t require you to be in the office? Then why not think about taking it on the road?
I have a friend that recently assessed his own job. He worked out of an office in Australia, using a laptop and phone to coordinate employees in his local city. It didn’t take long for him to realize that he could actually be doing it anywhere in the world! He now lives part time in Bali, and works out of his Villa beside the pool.
Anyone can be a Digital Nomad, experiencing the beautiful Digital Nomad Lifestyle. You just have to have the right job. If you don’t, then be like me and find one that IS the right job!
Health and Wellbeing on the Road
Before we get into Remote work pros and cons, and whether the Digital Nomad Lifestyle is for you, let’s take a look at your health and well being on the road.
We all know about Travel Insurance, and how important it is to any traveler. No one wants to deal with lost luggage or canceled flights when they are traveling. Imagine how much that multiplies when your entire life is spent on the road!
Now think about medical expenses. Most good travel insurance will provide basic emergency coverage. But what if you need more than that? If you are living and working on the road, pursuing the Digital Nomad Lifestyle, then you seriously need to think about it.
So what’s the answer?
For me, it’s simple. SafetyWing!
SafetyWing is a Travel Medical Insurance created for nomads BY nomads. It combines everything you need into one easy package, and is payable by the month. No long 12 month contracts. You can buy it when you are already on the road, and cancel it whenever you like. It works on a simple monthly subscription basis. How good is that!
Another great benefit of SafetyWing is that they provide coverage in 185 countries, and you don’t even have to know where you are going when you take out the policy. I live and work on the road, and don’t know from one month to the next where I might be heading, so this set up is perfect for me, and for ANY Digital Nomad!
It’s simple to check out SafetyWing. Just click the button below to find out all about their amazing policies!
Remote Work Pros and Cons
Like everything, the Digital Nomad Lifestyle isn’t all rainbows and sunshine. There are many Remote Work Pros and Cons, but don’t let that put you off. I personally find (and so do most other Digital Nomads) that the Pros far outweigh the cons. Plus, the cons are usually very easy to overcome.
Digital Nomad Benefits – The Pros of working remotely
When making the choice to take your job on the road, it’s only human nature to try and find all of the positives. No one wants to be negative, and when trying to make a decision for something that you really want to do, you try and only see the positives. So let’s first take a look at the Digital Nomad Benefits, or basically the things that will help you decide that maybe the Digital Nomad Lifestyle is for you.
You get to Travel!
Probably the biggest benefit and the major reason that most make the decision to adopt the Digital Nomad Lifestyle, is the chance to travel. And it’s not just the travel, but the fact that you can pretty much do it whenever you want!
Since the Pandemic and the rapid rise of Remote workers, many countries have come on board with Digital Nomad Visas, allowing you to go and work in those countries for up to 12 months at a time. Along with that, Digital Nomad Hubs and Remote Work Spaces have been springing up everywhere, making living and working on the road even easier.
So if Travel is high on your list of priorities, then Living the Digital Nomad Lifestyle could be a winner for you.
You can be your own boss
Are you sick of answering to someone that has no idea what you even do, and certainly doesn’t appreciate it? You’re not alone.
Many people choose to pursue the Digital Nomad Lifestyle just to be their own boss. Choose your own hours and work when you want to. Do you surf? Then start work at 10am! The world, and choices, are yours.
If you are lucky enough to have a job that you can take remote, then just getting away from the office, and not having the boss with smelly breath hanging over your shoulder could be incentive enough.
When it comes to Freelancing advantages and disadvantages, being your own boss is definitely a big tick in the plus column, and one of the major reasons that people choose this lifestyle.
Live (and work) anywhere you want
This goes along with Travel, but basically you CAN work wherever you want. If there is WIFI, and a workspace for you, then it can instantly become your office.
Personally, I live in Bali. There are so many places here that you can work these days that I have literally lost count. Hubs are springing up all over the place, and it seems that every new Hostel is now a co-working space. Freelancers have descended upon the island in recent times, and all over local social media there are constant posts about Freelancing advantages and disadvantages. The word is well and truly out!
Forget the images of sitting on a beach, the water lapping at your feet while you work on a laptop. That simply doesn’t happen. Pull back a bit though to the little restaurant on the beach head, with strong WIFI and a view of palm trees, sand and blue water stretching to the horizon.
THAT can be a reality when you are living the Digital Nomad Lifesytle.
Personal Growth
This was one of the biggest Digital Nomad Benefits for me. And to be truly honest, I didn’t even take it into account before starting my life on the road.
Before I became a Digital Nomad, I thought I pretty much had my life together. Sure, I suffered anxiety, but show me a person that has worked shift work for 30 years that doesn’t! My life and health seemed ok to me, and hitting the road was going to solve a lot of the issues I thought I had.
Personal Growth though, was not on the agenda.
Fast forward to when I was traveling through Europe solo for nearly 5 months. Moving to a new Air BNB every week or so, spending an entire month in Plovdiv, Bulgaria over Christmas and New Year, and missing out on major occasions back home takes its toll mentally. You have to learn to come to terms with all of that.
For me though, it was my anxiety hitting me like a freight train!
I remember that the major turning point for me came in an underground Metro Station in Budapest. I had done my homework, and knew exactly what train to catch from the Bus Terminal to get close to my Air BNB. I had it all figured out. That was, until I hit the ground.
In reality, no one in that station spoke English, or seemed even willing to help me. All that I had at my disposal were Metro maps on the wall in Hungarian, signs that were not in English, and ticket machines that I had no idea how to use. The ticket counter was no use – no one spoke English.
My anxiety began to peak, until I had a realisation.
This was just a puzzle. And like every puzzle, there was a solution. I just had to find it.
From then on, I actually began to look forward to, and enjoy “puzzle day”. Whenever I moved from one location to another, it became a game. The personal growth I had experienced with that one realization in Budapest has helped me ever since.
This is just one example, and you will find many more as you experience your own personal growth on the road living the Digital Nomad Lifestyle.
Save money!
Yes. You actually CAN save money by traveling and working on the road. It sounds strange, but it’s true.
Let’s take a look at just a few reasons how this is possible.
Firstly, you have no commitments anymore. There is no mortgage. No car loan. You aren’t paying exorbitant rent in your home country. All of this no longer exists as a Digital Nomad.
I know people that are traveling the world full time that live on around $20,000 a year. This sounds impossible to anyone living the “normal” life in a big city, but it’s true. When you take away all of those loans, and things that you “need” in your normal life, how much do you really live on?
You can live in many countries in the world for less than $1000 a month for an Air BNB. In those same countries you get cheap food, and it becomes even cheaper if you buy groceries. Travel by bus and say goodbye to all those expensive flights. Stick to countries that you get visa free entry into.
There are many ways to save money on the road, and then once you are earning more than you spend, you are actually saving!
Digital Nomad Cons
So that’s a look at the Digital Nomad Benefits, but what about work from anywhere drawbacks? As with anything, there are plenty. The good news is that I have not found many that can’t be easily overcome.
Perception
One of the main work from anywhere drawbacks is the perception that others have of what you do.
From personal experience, it comes in two ways.
Firstly, people think that you are a bum that doesn’t work for a living. Especially when, like me, you live in a place such as Bali. This is probably true if you choose your base to be Thailand, Mexico or the Bahamas as well. People picture you laying on a beach with a cocktail, and maybe sometimes checking the odd email or two. This is a very unfair way to look at it, but it is 100% true.
Secondly, they think that you must be raking in the money if you can afford to travel and work for a living. Nothing could be further from the truth, however I do concede that there are many that live the Digital Nomad Lifestyle that make very good money.
For the majority of us though, we don’t. We earn just enough to stay on the road, and keep moving from visa to visa. We take the Digital Nomad Benefits, and just learn to roll with the punches that come from the work from anywhere drawbacks.
Perception is just one of them.
The need to Budget
Yes, one of the Digital Nomad Benefits is being able to save money. But you can’t do that if you aren’t constantly watching your budget.
This is an every day occurrence. Sometimes, you may be able to let your hair down and splurge, but even this only comes as a result of keeping an eagle eye on your spending every single other day. Money doesn’t not grow on trees, and you learn this very quickly when you take your life on the road.
This may come as a shock to many that choose this lifestyle, but it is a reality. Do it properly though, and you will find that you are also a lot happier.
Here in Bali, I don’t live anywhere near the same life that I did when I was coming here as a tourist. I spend days holed up in my room typing articles such as this, and sometimes hardly see that tropical sunshine! When I do, I head to the cheapest Warungs (local restaurants) and enjoy some of the best cooking on the island. Being on a budget caused me to eat cheap, and therefore discover places that I would never have found before.
It turned a negative into a positive!
Living at the whim of WIFI
This has to be one of the biggest downsides, especially when it comes to Freelancing advantages and disadvantages.
Finding good WIFI is not as hard as it once was, but is still an issue at times. Countries that are actively trying to attract Digital Nomads are upgrading their networks, and at the same time making WIFI more accessible and affordable. This is all a step in the right direction.
Combine that with the rise of co-working spaces that usually boast blindingly fast WIFI speeds, as well as Hostels that cater to remote workers, and life just gets easier.
When you are on the road though, sometimes you run into issues, which happened to me twice when I was hopping between Air BNB’s in Europe. Once in Italy, and another time in England, I accidentally booked in places that had NO WIFI. On both occasions I was able to get around it, but that didn’t make it any easier.
When you live life on the road, and your job relies on WIFI, you live by it or die by it!
Logistics!
This is one thing that takes up a LOT of your time. Especially for me as a travel blogger when I am constantly moving around.
I spend nights up late in bed, skipping between Skyscanner, bus apps, Google, Air BNB and Booking.com. And I guarantee that YOU will too!
Why?
Because if you find the cheapest flight, it has to link up with public transport. Then you need to find an Air BNB or hotel that is close to the bus services, or the train station. Is it worthwhile taking a cheap flight in Italy, if the train fare costs half that price again? So instead you find yourself Googling the option for catching the bus instead of flying. THEN you need to know where the Bus Terminal is in relation to the Air BNB you were just about to book.
It’s a vicious circle, and can have you up burning the midnight oil more times than you care to think about.
Loneliness
A very big one on the road, and one of the big downsides to the Digital Nomad Lifestyle is being alone. This will hit you hard, especially at the beginning.
The key here is networking and finding a community. You can find these anywhere in the modern age. It’s nowhere near as hard as it was 10 or 20 years ago.
Just head to facebook and find Digital Nomad Community pages. They are everywhere, and people are always willing to help. Join some groups and get active online before you head to the country. Chances are strong you will have friends before you even arrive.
When in country, seek out co-working spaces and hubs. Even larger coffee shops where Digital Nomads always hang out. Life on the road doesn’t have to be lonely.
All of this doesn’t bring you any closer to your family and friends back home though. Use Facebook Messenger, WhapsApp, Zoom and Skype to stay in contact. You will need it when life gets hard, because trust me, it will.
It’s then that you need your family, friends, and something familiar close by.
Summary
Living the Digital Nomad Lifestyle is not for everyone, but is an option that is open to nearly anyone. Find a way to do it and make it work, and you will not be sorry. Trust me. I’m loving it!
The nomad lifestyle is definitely for me, I’ve been living in RVs, Airbnb’s and hotels all over the world since 2014. But, the digital nomad lifestyle is not for me. I’m retired. 😁
Ha ha! I guess there comes a time that you just want to settle down and not be constantly dealing with packing and unpacking, visas, security at airports and visits to Immigration offices!