Ever wondered about living a free lifestyle, travelling and exploring the wonders around the world, and meeting new people. All this while working whenever you want and wherever you want. We call this lifestyle a Digital Nomadic life. Digital nomads travel to different places, explore different cultures, and work remotely as long as they have a laptop and a stable internet connection.
Digital nomads intentionally choose not to live in the same place and have a 9 to 5 job. They prefer living borderless and enjoy their life.
Living a nomadic lifestyle is a dream of many of us. But take a deep breath and consider both the pros and cons of being a digital nomad before packing your bags and setting up for a never-ending adventure.
In this video, we are sharing with you 7 pros and cons of being a digital nomad. Stay tuned with us till the end of this video because we have some tips for you to turn the cons to your advantage.
Leading a digital nomadic lifestyle is sure very exciting. Though the pros of living as a digital nomad outweigh its cons, we have to consider both. Ignoring the cost of cons may lead you to a dead-end.
Without further ado, let’s jump right into the 7 pros of living as a digital nomad.
Pros
7- Being your own boss
Living as a digital nomad gives you the opportunity of being your own boss. You don’t have to be accountable to anyone but yourself. You choose the scope and timing of the work you want to do compared to a 9 to 5 job, where you are given a workload based on the workload of your company. You get to decide when you take breaks and have vacations.
Another perk of being your own boss is that you get to work wherever you want, whether it’s a beach, a mountain, or while riding a yacht. All you need is just a laptop and a good internet connection.
6- Travelling around the world
Being a digital nomad allows you to travel around the globe. You get to explore different and exotic cultures of the world. The more you discover, the more you want to learn about others. You get inspired by the stories of the locals of the culture. It makes you more humble and grateful for life.
Along with that, there is no restriction for you to travel to places and the duration of your stay. Living as a digital nomad allows you to live your life to the fullest, from spending a week on the beaches of Hawaii to living a month near Mount Kirkjufell in Iceland.
5-Minimized Cost Of Living
While living digitally nomadic, the cost of living is reduced. You don’t have to worry about paying utility bills and property taxes. When managed effectively, your financial conditions improve.
Digital nomads get to take advantage of a term we call Geoarbitrage, which is living and travelling to those cities and parts of the world where the cost of living is low. This allows you to improve your quality of life without spending a lot. Just as you can live lavishly in Thailand after paying a small sum instead of living lavishly in London, which would cost you a fortune.
4- Exposure to Different Cultures
Travelling around the world as a digital nomad gives you exposure to different and diverse cultures. You meet new and strange people every day and get to know their values and traditions. This makes you a humble and respectful human being. Life stories of other people inspire you.
Digital nomadism shapes you into a global citizen. When you live at a place, you are compelled to adopt its good cultural values.
3- Creativity and Productivity
Going from one place to another also exposes you to different unique environments. The world is full of interesting things. Many small and beautiful things help you find inspiration wherever you go. This inspiration enhances your creativity, and you can admire every single thing.
Finding inspiration from your surroundings make you more productive. You can work more effectively and efficiently. This gives you more chances to grow as a digital nomad.
2- Personal Growth
Living life as a digital nomad, you are exposed to different situations, challenges and strange people. Travelling across places, you have to navigate through their transport system, grocery stores, meeting like-minded people, or suffering a setback to your life as a digital nomadic. Going through these things help your personal growth.
You gain confidence, become good at organizing and are open-minded to situations new to you.
These traits help you throughout your life. Whether you are living digitally nomadic or permanently at someplace.
1- Freedom
Digital nomadism gives you freedom. You have the freedom to live independently at any place and in any condition you like. You have the freedom to choose to work or not, the freedom to decide your working hours, and your work burden. You are free to go anywhere you want. The freedom to take your home wherever you go is actually freedom.
Having known the benefits of being a digital nomad, you might have already packed your bags and are ready to go. But wait. You have to see the whole picture. Here are 7 Cons you might face while living as a digital nomad.
Cons
7- No Home
Digital nomads choose to live travelling around the world while having no homes. They never get to have the feeling of ”back home”. When you live as a digital nomad, you find it more interesting and exciting to travel and explore. While being at home in a fixed place is never exciting.
Even when you feel exhausted from living at random places, Airbnb and hotels, you have nothing to get back to.
6- Isolation
As a digital nomad, you have to say goodbye to everything, the new friends you make, the places you like. All this leaves you isolated. You have no one to rely on but only yourself when you need someone. Digital nomadism comes at the cost of getting isolated from your family relations too. Since you are always travelling, you are unable to attend family events, small gatherings, and joyful moments. You miss out on memories of your loved ones.
When travelling alone, you also feel lonely in new places with a life of almost no social connection. We can say that the excitement and adventures of digital nomadism come with a life full of loneliness and isolation.
5- Financial Instability
Most digital nomads don’t have a permanent job. They either do freelancing or random gigs. This type of work does not guarantee a stable income. Also, their expenses may vary from month to month.
When travelling, they also have almost zero savings. This causes them to have financial instability, which can be very dangerous when travelling in countries you know nothing about.
4- Long and Extended Work Hours
Life as a digital nomad seems exciting on the outside. But when you live as a digital nomad, you have to work hard and even for longer hours to keep your finances running. Travelling around and working from any place doesn’t mean that your source of income will pay for your expenses. Starting fresh means you have to work a lot. Weekends, public holidays and vacations are nothing to you. You may even have to work much longer than standard job hours.
3- Self-discipline and Motivation
When you are alone and accountable to only yourself, you lack self-discipline and often the motivation to work too. As a digital nomad, you don’t have fixed working hours and fixed working places, it is hard to focus. This gets more difficult when you are travelling to beautiful and calm places. You don’t feel like working and often end up taking days off. But taking these occasional vacations and lacking self-discipline costs a lot to your financial condition.
2- Borders of The World
You might be a borderless and global citizen, but the world is not. Every country has its own travelling rules for non-citizens. You have to comply with all those rules to be able to enter and explore a country.
Further, since being a digital nomad, you work remotely to earn. There are also legal requirements in different countries to be complied with if you want to make a living there.
1- Starting Afresh Every time
Living digitally nomadic means that you have to move from one place to another continuously. This also means that you also have to start afresh every time you move. You have to find a new place every time for your stay. Finding and meeting new friends will also be necessary to maintain a social circle, so you don’t end up alone.
If you are a person who gets attached to people and places easily, it will be difficult for you to adjust to a new environment every time you move.
Conclusion
And as promised, here are the tips you can use to make these cons, your pros.
- Get yourself a house in your hometown. You can also make similar arrangements with your family and relatives, so whenever you want to return ”home” you can easily do that.
- Maintain a strong relationship with your family and friends. Ask them to tell you the dates of family events beforehand, so you can make it on time there.
- Before starting a new lifestyle as a digital nomad, maintain enough savings and make a detailed financial plan of your income and expenses. By doing this, you will be able to tackle unexpected situations you might face.
- Manage your time and work accordingly. Try to set your routine according to ” The 40 Hour Week” technique. It might be difficult at the start, but you will eventually get used to it.
- Use simple to-do lists and calendars to plan your week ahead if you get easily distracted and often lose focus.
- Make a list of every country and place you want to visit. And complete your documentation to comply with the regulatory requirements of those countries. Also, consult with a specialist to guide you better on legal matters.
- Don’t be in a hurry from one place to another. Give yourself time to adjust to the new environment. Live and meet with like-minded people.
So, what do you think about living as a digital nomad? Are you willing to live as a digital nomad? Let us know in the comment section below.
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