How to Make a Living as a Digital Nomad

Hearing the words digital nomad may bring to mind an image of a computer riding a camel. And you’d be half right.

Digital nomads are a new breed of freelancers and entrepreneurs that have risen to prominence over the last five years. Work has changed drastically in the last decade thanks to advances in tech and companies moving to remote workers. For many positions and jobs, you can work from anywhere in the world if you have a strong internet connection.

What is a Digital Nomad?

Digital nomads recognized this en masse a few years ago. People began telecommuting to work. Rather than commuting from their couch though, they took the opportunity to work from anywhere to really work from anywhere. Bali, Buenos Aires, Mexico City.

A digital nomad is someone who works for themselves or works remotely for a company and travels at the same time. They take their ability to work from anywhere in the world seriously and travel at least part time each year.

The definition of travel is different for each nomad. Some choose to live in vans and travel around the same country for longer periods of time. Some people hop flights every other week and work out of coffee shops around the globe.

How and Why Would You Become a Digital Nomad?

The allure of being a digital nomad is easy to see. Working from a beach in Bali sounds good to me! In order to make the dream a reality though, you need several things to align.

Remote Work: First and foremost, you need a job that allows you to work remotely. This could be freelancing or working for yourself, or you can find a job with a company that allows you to work remotely.

Flexibility: I mean this personally and professionally. The type of travel you can do will depend on how flexible you are on both ends. If you have a Monday morning meeting on Skype that you have to be at each week, you can’t disappear into the mountains of Peru for three weeks. (That internet connection will stink.) Travel is often overly glamorized on social media as well. Planes will delayed, trains will go slow, and hotels will be overbooked. Be flexible with yourself and your work.

Internet Access: Digital nomads depend on the internet for all their income and work. You’ll need to do lots of research for your destinations and make sure that they have strong internet access.

Stable Income: In order to keep traveling you need money to pay for your food, lodging, and transportation. Digital nomads should have savings built up as well as a pretty reliable source of income for this work, so that they don’t get trapped somewhere in the world.

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Jackie Cohen

Jackie Cohen is an award winning financial journalist turned turned financial advisor obsessed with climate change risk, data and business. Jackie holds a B.A. Degree from Macalester College and an M.A. in English from Claremont Graduate University.