Becoming Nomadic AF – Intro

Who are we, and what makes us experts on living as digital nomads? We’ve been living the nomadic lifestyle successfully and non-stop for over ten years. We know how to prepare for this lifestyle, and we know how to live it. 

Our goal for this blog is to let people know this isn’t a dream life that’s out of reach, a lifestyle just for wealthy people, or something only people with remote jobs can do. 

Anyone, including you, can do this.

A Formal Introduction

Before we get too far into this, let us introduce ourselves; we’re Paul and Natasha. We’ve been traveling internationally and living as digital nomads since 2013. 

We actually started our nomadic journey in 2011, when we sold off all of our assets (for a whopping $4,000) and moved to Jamaica. That was an epic failure. 

After six months of living in Negril, we had to return to the US to work the jobs we hated…again. At the time, we lacked the skills, knowledge, or experience to live as digital nomads. We had no clue what we were doing.

Now, though, we’re experts at it. And we want to share the knowledge we’ve accumulated over the past 12 years with those of you who dream of living overseas but aren’t quite sure how to go about it.

There’s nothing for sale in this blog, and there are no courses we’re trying to pitch. We love the nomadic life we live, and we want people with the same dream to know that it’s not out of reach.

Is it Really Possible to Live as a Digital Nomad?

100% yes, and almost anyone can do it. 

Before we became digital nomads, we lived the stereotypical American lifestyle; 

• we worked too many hours, 
• we made too little money, and 
• we weren’t so much living life as we were surviving it. 

But we figured it out.

If a bartender (Natasha) and a cook (Paul) can uproot their boring, overworked lives in the US and become full-time digital nomads, anyone can. And in this blog, we’ll tell you the exact steps we took to get on the road and, more importantly, live there.

You Don’t Have to be Rich to Live Life as a Digital Nomad

We hear it all the time, “Oh man, I wish I had the money to travel full-time and be a digital nomad”. We tell anyone who will listen, “living life as a digital nomad is considerably less expensive than living the normal 9-5 life in the US”.

“How can that be?” you’re asking. Let’s take a quick look:

• Housing Expenses – We have no mortgage or regular rent payments (more on housing expenses later in this blog).

• Vehicle Expenses – We have no car payments, insurance payments, repair bills, or expensive gas to pay for. Living overseas, there’s no need for a car or its related expenses and headaches.

• No Monthly Bills – We don’t have a place we call home, so we have no electric bills, gas bills, internet bills, or any monthly payments that typical Americans are responsible for.

• Miscellaneous Expenditures – Unless you decide to live in Australia or certain parts of Europe, everything overseas is less expensive. Food, transportation, entertainment, and basically everything else are a fraction of the cost of living in the States.

If you’re not living out your dream of non-stop travel because you think it’s out of reach monetarily, that’s just not the case. 

We spend way less in a day, month, and year than we ever would living back in the States. Living as a digital nomad isn’t just possible on any budget, it’s actually cheaper than how you’re probably living now.

What are the Benefits of Living as a Digital Nomad?

As far as we’re concerned, the benefits are endless. Here are just a few big ones that pop to mind:

• Location Independence – We live wherever we want, for however long we want. If we’re bored with one city, we just hop on a cheap bus or flight to the next one.

• Affordability – We chose to live in counties based mostly on the cost of living—this way, we can afford to do things that were out of reach living in the States.

• Work/Life Balance – We’re our own bosses now. We work when we want for as long as we want. If we want to take a few days/weeks off, we just do so.

• Quality of Life – We have a better quality of life than we did in the States. We don’t deal with rush hour traffic, unreasonable bosses, or living the daily grind that seems endless when living in the States.

• Culture – We get to live in cool places, around different cultures that we would have never encountered living in the States. 

None of these benefits were available to us living back in the States. We slept, we worked, and we paid our bills. As far as we knew, as Americans, that was how we were supposed to be living our lives. Worn out and constantly broke.

Preparing for A Nomadic Lifestyle

Unless you’re rich or already have a fully-remote job, chances are you can’t just pick up tomorrow and start living nomadically. You can start planning for it, though. 

No matter where you are in life, you’re a year or less away from living a nomadic life. And we’re going to let you know, exactly, how to get there.

In this blog, we’re going to cover:

• Our Nomadic Journey – We’ll get into exactly how we were able to go from being overworked and miserable in the US to living life as digital nomads.

• Getting in the Right Mindset – Living as a digital nomad goes against everything most people living in the US were taught. You don’t need the 9-5 job, you don’t need a home or car, and you don’t need to work 50 weeks a year to enjoy two weeks of freedom. Getting in the right mindset will speed up this process, considerably.

• Choosing your Initial Destination – Too many people are caught up on one specific place to live, which may be out of reach right now. As a result, they put off becoming a digital nomad. Choosing a location closer to home, even if it isn’t your first choice, will speed this process up.

• How to Live Nomadically – Here’s a hint; it’s a hell of a lot different than the typical 9-5 lifestyle in the States. We’ll cover everything you need to know so there are no unwanted surprises when you start living nomadically.

• How to Earn Money – We’ve met hundreds of digital nomads on our travels. Few, if any, were rich. They were all able to live out their dream life, though. We’ll tell you how and encourage you to use the skills you have to fund your travels.

• How to Get Started – We’ll tell you the exact steps you need to take over the next 3, 6, and 12 months to get started on a successful nomadic lifestyle.

• How to Save for your Initial Trip – While living in the States, we went from completely broke to being able to fund our first year as digital nomads in about 12 months. We’ll let you know exactly how we did it, working jobs that made us next to nothing.

• Encouragement – Living this way seems impossible to most people. We promise you, not only is it possible, it’s easier than the typical 9-5 life. No matter how you’re living now, a life as a digital nomad is both possible and within your reach.

If you’ve always wanted to live overseas but weren’t quite sure how to get there, we’re sure that the info in this blog will help you get started.