For those who don’t know: a digital nomad earns money online, lives location-independently, and can work from anywhere an internet connection can be found. For years, Frank and I have followed multiple digital nomads through YouTube and blogs. Our favorites include: Chris the Freelancer, Chase for Adventure, Raising Our Roots, and Traveling with Kristin. These individuals and couples/families have inspired us to wholeheartedly seek this lifestyle. I encourage anyone reading this to check them out! You’ll learn what goes into living this way, ways to make enough money to travel full-time, etc.

As for us: at the start of this year, Frank got another contract that allows him to continue working remotely. His previous contract, which he Loved, had instituted a hiring freeze because of Covid. Thus, even though they also loved him, when his contract expired, they could not keep him on. He quickly found another remote job as a medical device quality engineer, and it changed everything for us. We had accumulated a decent amount of debt from moving so frequently, having double rent sometimes, and breaking leases. This new job provided a salary that, coupled with relatively little travel, has enabled us to blast through our debt! This joyous circumstance has led to us needing less money to maintain our cost of living. Which, therefore, has led to much more dreaming, and planning.

Preparation

Obviously, as stated above, our first step of preparation involved putting ourselves in a better financial position to pursue this. To some, yes, it may seem Frank has jumped jobs. Yet, almost every single new job/contract has boosted Frank’s earning potential. The latest one has been instrumental in getting us to where we want to be. We can finally look at our situation and see how digital nomad-ism can help us achieve our financial goals sooner, rather than fear for our well-being should things go wrong.

Things to consider before embarking on a digital nomad lifestyle include: how much one should have saved, having debt vs. eliminating debt first, and starting a business vs. simply having a remote job. Almost all digital nomads disagree, and precious little conventional wisdom exists, as everyone’s situation differs. Many say that at the absolute least, one should have enough saved for a plane ticket home. For our particular situation, we have decimated a great deal of our debt (WOOO) but are still working through it. Also, Frank works his contracts fully remotely, so for now, we don’t have to worry about starting a business. We would save for plane tickets, but presently (because of the dog), we drive from place to place. Although, we will keep that wisdom in mind for the distant future!

Taking Care of Business

We have also begun the process of taking inventory of our things and categorizing them! Our categories include things we are donating, selling, storing, and bringing with us, as well as the specific people we will give/leave items with. To be honest, it sort of felt like we were creating a will…which we really should do that too, eventually. Anyway, our little apartment briefly exploded into piles of “donate,” “trash,” and “sell.” Then, Frank gathered all relevant things and stored them in our office/workout room. He’s already sold several items on Facebook Marketplace! We will continue to do so until we either sell everything we can, and then we will donate the leftovers + the general donation pile. 

Now, I am a sentimental person, and I am having a harder time than Frank letting some things go. Nevertheless, I constantly remind myself that we will keep and store that which cannot be replaced, bring absolute necessities with us, and the rest are just things that might benefit someone else. Furthermore, as I say in all of our Instagram posts, we want to Collect Memories, Not Things. (Though, honestly, my sentimentality dictates that I snag a souvenir from time to time. We do intend to collect Christmas ornaments for if/when we might settle down some day!)

Spreading the News

Telling people, “We are becoming digital nomads and are going to travel the world with our child!” seems to stir up a lot of emotions. Almost all digital nomads who have trod this path before us have shared that most friends and family tend to think this plan is “crazy,” “dangerous,” “brave,” “impossible,” or in a sense, unthinkable. This part takes a lot of tact and sensitivity, perhaps more than we may have expressed to some people so far. We all struggle with attachments, as well as believing life should look and be a particular way. As for us, we know that leaving so many people we love will hurt. Naturally, we will deeply miss them and the convenience of seeing them regularly. We will also miss an awful lot of general conveniences that come with living here in the United States.

Yet, we want to see the WORLD. Though the world seems small due to technology and the relative ease of travel and sharing information, guess what: The world is HUGE. We have nearly 2500 things we want to do and see around the world, and we know we will need our whole lifetime to accomplish this goal! “No day is guaranteed,” “On your deathbed, you regret the things you didn’t do more than the things you did,” [Insert whichever travel cliche you choose.] What better time than now?

Final Thoughts

This preparation process has already yielded intense emotions in ourselves as well. We feel immensely excited, nervous, curious, and inspired! This next chapter for us promises to be like nothing we have ever experienced before. Though we have technically done slow travel our entire marriage (we have never lived anywhere longer than two years!), we hope and expect to move around a lot more frequently. We have no idea where we will be or what our life will look like a year from now!

We do have the next 11-12 months planned out, however. The rest of this year involves several trips to keep up with family and other loved ones, as well as adventures local to the Midwest. More on that to come! In November, we officially leave Ohio for our first quick nomadic stop!

Drumroll, please…

Playa del Carmen, Mexico!

We will spend four months in Playa, located in the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico, close to other Mexican tourist spots including Cancun and Tulum. Many digital nomads favor Playa above most other destinations for a wide variety of reasons. The plethora of co-working spaces, fast internet, relatively inexpensive cost of living, and easy access to beaches, cultural/historic sites, cenotes (sinkholes), and reefs provide the vast majority of what digital nomads tend to seek. With four whole months, we will get to really explore the peninsula, practice our Spanish, and meet so many lovely people! 

We would love to hear from anyone who has any questions/thoughts/feelings about this whole digital nomad concept! Drop a comment below!

Next week, I expect to recap how the first half of 2021 has gone for us.