Anything that is worth doing requires planning ahead and patience. When you take the time to put things in place ahead of time, you are able to achieve just about anything. If you are thinking of traveling the world and still making money while doing it then you can certainly do that. Being a digital nomad has become a very popular way of dropping out of the corporate rat race and living life on your own terms.
The thing to remember, however, is that although working as a digital nomad is a wonderful experience, it will only give back what you put in. Working remotely has challenges so the better prepared you are the better you are able to overcome those challenges. In this article, we will go over what you need to know before you set out on your digital nomad adventure so you can get the most out of the experience.
1 – Get your papers in order
The first thing to do before anything else is to make sure that you have a valid passport that isn’t going to expire at any point in your travels. The next thing is to secure visas. Since many countries require that a passport be valid past six months from when the visa is issued, you can see how important it is to have your passport sorted out before anything.
You’ll also need to have some form of expatriate health insurance. Traveling can mean that you get sick from being tired or from the exposure to different viruses that you don’t have immunity from already. Getting sick abroad without insurance can be very stressful so having coverage is a great idea. Not only that, but many countries will require you to prove that you have insurance before issuing you a visa.
You may need to have vaccinations to enter certain countries, especially developing ones, so look into what is required and then check with your doctor about your vaccine history.
2 – Work on your skills
The most important thing to have to be able to travel as a digital nomad is a stable income. Some people will be lucky enough to have a job that can be worked remotely so they don’t have to worry about getting paid. The rest will need to make sure that they have what it takes to make enough money to travel and set money aside.
Long before you buy your first ticket to go, you have to start building your skillset to make enough money. Getting really good at a particular skill ahead of time will allow you to build up a business or steady stream of clients to make sure that you are able to support yourself.
Take the time to take courses or do some projects to hone your skills and build a network of connections that will help you grow your career or freelance business.
3 – Understand your needs
There are so many ways to travel and everybody has their own idea of what works for them. You need to either think of your past travels and consider what worked and what didn’t, or do a type of self audit. This is so you can figure out how to travel and what will work for you so you can plan things out.
For instance, will you be comfortable staying in hostels and working in coffee shops? Or, do you need more privacy and need to have an apartment with a work area so you can work in peace and on your own schedule.
You’ll also have to factor in how you will get around since you can choose to go by bus, rail, or plane and each has its pluses and minuses. Your budget will probably be the biggest factor in this followed by your comfort level.
4 – Find your people
It will be very lonely on the road as you will likely be going alone. When you are in a foreign country where you don’t speak the language then making friends with locals is difficult.
Try to look for meetups in the places where you plan to go. You may find that there is a vibrant community of fellow digital nomads that you can socialize with. There may even be groups of expats that have regular meetings that you could end up becoming a part of while you are in their area.
Without some kind of community it may end up being depressing and not as fun an adventure as you had hoped for. While you are on the road you can easily keep in touch with the people you’ve met to be able to continue the connection and maybe even ,meet up again somewhere down the line.
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