I went full nomad and it almost broke me
hackernoon.com
hackernoon.com
I wonder if that is because the author is a founding member of digital nomad community/agency, honestly I have no idea exactly what it does because the website is super vauge, so to question the lifestyle is to question his livelihood.
Not nomad related but the name does conjure those images!
Your hook, “Super Global is a nonprofit tech advisory service for social impact organizations.”, makes me feel like you think I’m stupid and is personally a turn off.
You’re an IT consultant that specializes in the charity industry. Everything else is just buzzword bingo.
Your non-profit status is meaningless to anyone who understands corporate structures and social impact organization seems to be a new-age word for charity.
The charity industry is big business and people make a lot of money in it. While I really do appreciate their positive impact, the virtue signalling is tiresome.
If your hook works for you, great, don’t change a thing. But to me it’s cringe worthy and might not be helping you. Sometimes being more direct is better.
Care to clue the rest of us in?
For example, let’s say I have and s-Corp and it provides me with, let’s say, 100k of salary and my pass through income (profit) of 25k.
I could alternatively have created a nonprofit giving myself a 100k salary and bonus myself 25k - what would have been profit. In this way, I’d end up with 125k and the company ends up with no profit.
The details are different but the results are nearly the same.
One major difference is that the founder of a nonprofit can’t sell the organization.
Again though, the reality is that they can be given a do-nothing role in the company and receive what could be understood as compensation for the exchange.
Sadly, many nonprofits are set up for the benefit of their founders and cronies, thus nonprofits aren’t always as virtuous as you would be led to believe.
Also, I should note, incase anyone is unfamiliar, nonprofit != charity. A charity is a special type of non-profit.
> I set up my non-profit school-- and then I hire a profitable management company to run the school for me. The examples of this dodge are nearly endless, but let's consider a classic. There's the White Hat management company that was being dragged into court way back in 2011. This particular type of arrangement was known as a "sweeps contract,' in which the school turns over close to all of its public tax dollars and the company operates the school with that money-- and keeps whatever they don't spend. The White Hat story is particularly impressive, because the court decided that White Hat got to keep all of the materials and resources that it bought with the public tax dollars.
> Or consider North Carolina businessman Baker Mitchell, who set up some non-profit charter schools and promptly had them buy and lease everything-- from desks to computers to teacher training to the buildings and the land-- from companies belonging to Baker Mitchell. ...
So saying you are a non profit is a good way to fool some people. The rest know that a non profit still pays salaries in any capacity they'd like.
I'm absolutely loving it. I will never go back to full time 9-5 5 days a week. At this point, I don't even consider it life.
Previously I drove Alaska to Argentina - 16 countries over 2 years and 40,000 miles. I also loved every second of that! [2]
If you travel as a nomad and pass through places that serve as meeting points with nomads, you tend to find that while some blog their travels and recommend the lifestyle to everyone else, there are plenty of people quietly living the life, without any internet presence documenting it, and they might be very quiet and introverted people. It might be compared to vegetarianism/veganism, where some have the impression that “vegetarians/vegans always need to shout what they are doing”, but perhaps the majority of people with that diet are just quietly following it without making a big deal of it to others.
I’m a digital nomad, I work as translator. I’m currently traveling for the next several months in West Africa. I wouldn’t say that this life is any better than anyone else’s (I just know that it’s what works for me personally) and I’d consider it strange to try to advertise it to others who haven’t shown any inclination towards it. That said, if someone already feels wanderlust, then I’m always happy to give advice, as I have benefited greatly from that kind of travel skillsharing and I do my part to pay it forward.
"Look, I'm a founder! I put a web app up!"
"Sign up for my newletter, my blog, my instagram, my X, Y, Z so you can find out how to make the same ad revenue I do, off of people just like you! You don't have to be you forever..you can take advantage of the yous and become one of the mes!"
/s
.. sometimes telling people you’re vegan can help avoid awkward situations like when a friend got some cake they wanted to share.
When I have been in another place for a few months the differences I initially find refreshing soon melt away and I find some other stuff to get annoyed about.
In a way, it's great to know the grass is not always greener elsewhere and to accept that, yes, being a nomad doesn't suit everyone.
I don't plan on cutting back yet, but I'd like to know for the future, since I've never actually met a career professional doing so.
> Portugal is the member state with the fifth longest period of paternity leave, with a potential of 21 weeks to care for their newborns. However, this report paints a different picture when it comes to the division of domestic chores. Here, Portugal joins Estonia, India, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and Turkey as among the countries where women put in three times more time on such tasks than their male counterparts.
That sounds in Portugal fathers are more expected to work/be a career man, and mothers stay home, than in the Netherlands.
They do most of the chores despite having jobs. We're a very patriarchal society still.
That answers your own question, does it not? That is, fathers don't take time off to spend more time with their babies because they are too poor to risk losing that job?
(This assumes that men tend to be paid more than women.)
That is, if only 10% take time off, and you only know 5 middle-class people who could afford it, then odds are that even at the Dutch level you wouldn't know anyone who does that.
I suppose it's possi ... okay, that was too easy. A search for "how many Dutch fathers parental leave" comes up with http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2015/06/just-one-in-fo... which says "Just one in four Dutch fathers takes parental leave".
I also read that in some of the European countries (I'm from the US) there is a right to part-time employment while on leave. I figured that mosselman was from one of those countries.
Searching now I found http://cepr.net/documents/publications/parental_2008_09.pdf from 10 years ago which says:
> Of the 21 countries studied here, ten allow parental leave to be taken on a part-time basis: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden. Portugal is notable in that it gives parents an incentive to choose part-time over full-time leave: parents have three months of full-time parental leave or 12 months of part-time leave.
Based on mosselman's followup, my guess was correct.
I didn't say it was for everyone, I just said it is for me.
I have lived both lives, and I know what I like and don't like. I'm certain I am the most qualified person to decided what kind of life is right for me.
He retired early by having a high (but not sky high) income and saving like 50-70% of it.
Nothing he did is unbelievable, you can't apply everything but you can apply a lot and it really gives benefits, no matter if your goal is to retire early or not.
Plus he doesn't sell anything and doesn't fool anyone to earn money. :)
I read many things in that direction.
"I made millions with real estate! I simply bought a flat, refurbished it and then either became a landlord or sold it for much more money! It's so simple even you can do it. I started with getting like 50000€ after an car accident..."
"I retired with 40 and you can do it to, you just need a job that makes you 100k a year..."
But the nomad style isn't for everyone, and its challenges are as unusual as everything else about it. Since Hacker News is at least tangential to those sections of the tech entrepreneur thoughtsphere where nomadism is extolled as the best and only thing, I think this is a conversation worth having here.
I also have the problem that my hobby-job revolves around making and tinkering with electronics, Tesla coils, radios machines etc. I would simply get bored without access to a well equipped electronics lab and mechanical workshop. So until I can afford a super yacht it is 9 - 5 for me.
Could you not just use hackerspaces wherever you went? Also, if that's your hobby, why not live somewhere with great electronics markets? Living on a boat that could sail in and around the East China Sea (Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Seoul, Taipei, Tokyo, etc...) seems like it could be fun.
More importantly though, from the info he posted, it shows he spends about $1200 a month traveling mostly through South-America. Which isn't too crazy, gdp per capita in the continent is about $450, Africa is even 'easier', in that the gdp per capita is about $150 a month. So he's often spending a multiplier (2-7x) of the national average on a minimalistic 'sleep 500 days of my 650 day trip in a tent' lifestyle. Keeping this number low is key to everything, if you don't have kids it's doable to save for such a lifestyle.
He does mention he worked along the way, really curious as to what kind of jobs he landed and if that meant he stayed in any one place for longer periods of time!
I've got a few friends here and there who've got a few hundred thousand in equity sitting in their home and modest savings. At a 5% annual return, one could spend $15k a year of their $300k investment and live such lifestyle in perpetuity.
Gas is 5k.
The Africa trip is another jeep, the jeep itself didn't exist when he did his first 27k two year trip, and indeed he modified it a lot. Probably a lot more expensive but also not necessary. Where'd you find the 50k number?
I bought it used for $22,500 CAD.
I have a van I'm modding out and a roof rack and reinforced bumper alone is 6k.
The point is you have income from somewhere that allows you to be carefree with your time and money.
It feels a little disingenuous when people say "I will never go back to full time 9-5 5 days a week."
Like it's a choice most people have.
It's like Donald Trump saying he's a great business man and you should take his advice...when he really inherited a ton of money.
This is all speculation on my part though and I really wish you the best no matter what your situation is.
Looks like an amazing trip! Stay safe!
And no, I don't have "income from somewhere".
I worked a 9-5 for 5 years and saved every penny I could, now I'm living on those savings. Yes, I'm trying to earn some money on the road, and it's currently covering about 25% of my monthly expenses.
> It feels a little disingenuous when people say "I will never go back to full time 9-5 5 days a week." Like it's a choice most people have.
I think it's sad you think like that. It is a choice, if you want it to be. It's hard work, and requires changing around your priorities, but it absolutely is a choice. I have met hundreds and hundreds of people doing it [1], including families with kids, including people from every walk of life you can image.
[1] I'm interviewing interesting people I meet living on the road - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNiCe5roBX1gdbLoAclKw...
I only drive about 60 miles on average per day. I have no electricity use. I don't buy "stuff" (clothes, TV, couch, furniture).
What made his mentor ask if he was okay? What does low energy mean for this guy? What came between the realization and the recovery?
For me it was burying myself in social media, reading books, and binging pirated TV shows. I had a pattern of beating myself up internally for not going out and making friends, taking on or finishing projects, or even doing basic tasks like laundry and cooking. When the voice of self abuse started - usually the moment after my partner left the room, but sometimes even before that - I'd whip out my phone instantly to quieten it. Many days I'd sit at the kitchen table for five or six hours, scrolling feeds and watching shows, waiting for my partner to come home and give me enough motivation to pretend to be human for a while.
I kept thinking, how can I be stressed? All I'm doing is sitting in the kitchen. There's no stress here.
But I was living in someone else's house in a country where I had few friends and didn't speak the language. I had just started a new, remote job which was mentally demanding, and had no one, not even co-workers, to talk to about it. I stopped stopped doing my two healthiest activities - writing and cycling - except on rare occasions.
I got to the point where I left the relationship, and went home- though I didn't want to- because I couldn't recognize myself at all anymore and didn't know how to get back to myself except by returning to the last place where I felt like a human. I'm two months into recovery now and have only just gotten to the point where I can sleep through the night, sometimes.
That's what it looked like for me. Hope it helps someone else realize what that feeling is. It took me way too long to recognize it, and by then it was too late.
It’s easy to make friends while traveling, but they are very surface level friendships and when you inevitably split up and go your separate ways, it’s sort of heartbreaking because you’re alone and have to start over again.
Not to mention that you’re essentially homeless, which has its own nagging feeling of insecurity.
Long term travel definitely worth doing, but I’m not sure I would want to do it again.
It's stressful because changing countries always turns out to be a lot more expensive than it seems, also changing companies as well is difficult; it's mostly contracting so sometimes they don't pay on time. Remote work is also draining because the boundary between your work and personal life is blurred.
Also, one time I had to leave a hotel without checking out because I knew that I couldn't afford the bill on a Sunday because my international payment was delayed and due to arrive during business hours on Monday; I had to check out over the phone the next day. The worst part was that in the process the client I was working for probably figured out that I was broke.
You need a really high income in order to do it and ideally if you have partner they should be able to find remote work as well (it's not always possible depending on the profession).
After 1 year, it's really not fun at all but I guess it builds your character; it pushes you to the edge of your abilities and gives you confidence that you can survive anything in any environment. Initially I did it because I wanted to travel but eventually it just became an effective career-optimization strategy. If you're willing to relocate absolutely anywhere, a lot of opportunities open up to you and you become better at identifying good ones.
If I plan to stay 6 months+, I will get a lease, but it's sometimes tricky depending on the country.
Another benefit is that if you see a company you like, you know that you can just go work for them at their HQ wherever they might be. Really good companies are often the ones which attract talent from all over the world. If other talented people are prepared to fly half-way across the world and leave behind all their friends and families on a short notice to work for a company, then you know that this company is almost certainly doing something special.
I thought that most countries give a six month visa. I would think that it would take me a couple of weeks to get settled: finding a place to stay, getting used to foraging for food and getting used to new types of food. Arranging good Internet connectivity. Also, moving every month would be expensive.
EDIT: also, staying places 4-6 months would provide more opportunity for longer lasting friendships.
The greatest benefit to being a nomad is moving when you want, and where you want.
First time I "went rogue" and left everything behind was more a rejection and "overdose" of normality. Repeating the same day over and over and little to no variation beside the name of the source code file.
I didn't know what I was doing, but I became good at it quickly enough.
> Nomadic life is hugely variable and it’s difficult to see patterns emerging.
That's his issue. The patterns are important too. You don't press the reset button everytime you move. It sucks, but a new city is just another city. A country side Airbnb is just another one, a language barrier is just another one. It removes some of the "explorator" fun, but you have to treat this as a cycle.
Another tip I learn the hard way, but early enough, was not to plan ahead. Murphy laws is part of the fun. You have to be more flexible than randomness itself. Not knowing what's ahead remove the stress about the future. The 70's punks might have been on something after all. With smartphone, you can book [planes/hotels/buses] last minute and get discounts. Not as big as planing months ahead, but enough to keep going (compared to full tourist rate).
Be yourself (for whatever that means). Don't try to follow a recipe for success or happyness. Freedom is about not following a path. That alone is the most rewarding aspect.
Also, "it's just a job" is important to accept. It's a job to and for yourself. The Nomad is your "job", not yourself. It's better to take a step back and just float above it all. If you take the Nomad thing too seriously and use it to define yourself, you are doomed.
One last thing thing that has to go is any sense of pride or ideological ideals about the whole Nomad thing. If you see it more about a meta joke about not liking normality, not knowing how to fix it, but trying nevertheless, then you will be fine.
This year I only spent ~2 months on the road so there is no problems. From now on, that probably will be the way to go. A real home base all year long with a big (or 2) big Digital Nomad trips. Being "homeless" and full Nomad is a little too much (unless you got a VR or something, but that restrict you to North/South America)
You also have to take into account who pay the value added taxes, that's the complicated part. When in Canada, depending on the province, one of the tax is paid by the customer and I charge the customer the other one. When clients are outside of the country, but I am legally working from Canada, then it's export and it's their problem. Some there is a lot of gotcha and product categories and trade deals. Thankfully I only work in a single field, so I don't have to learn them all.
Growing numbers of people are leaving their homes to pursue a nomadic life. Exotic Instagram posts betray the challenging reality of travelling while working. We need an honest discussion about staying physically and mentally healthy while chasing our ambitions across the globe.
TL;DR —The upshot
Going nomad changes the rules and you need to look after yourself differently and more. Nomads need to talk about their mental health experiences and smash the stigma.
So you think you can skate?
By January 2017 I knew I was going to do it. I’d spent the past five years dreaming about travelling with a mission. I was about to launch a new impact-driven business. Money in the bank. No attachments. This was it. Time to hit the road.
By May I was bounding up and down the hills of Lisbon in Portugal. Sun shining and smile beaming I was in my element. I’d been practicing for this; blending work and play on short trips to ten countries in 2016.
Fast forward seven countries in seven months and I’m writing this from a courtyard in Bogotá, Colombia. Smiling again but with a very different view of myself and newfound empathy for people suffering from stress and anxiety issues.
I’m somewhere on the long slow road of recovery from a major burnout. I’d had burnouts before. I was even proud of them. They were battle scars from working my ass off for years.
Figure skaters in training are taught to ‘skate to fall’; pushing the angles so far that they crash out. It’s how they learn their limits. I thought I’d learnt mine and I wasn’t scared of falling.
It took me months to realise that this burnout was a different order of magnitude to those I’d experienced before. Adopting a nomadic lifestyle had changed the laws of physics and I was an amateur skater again. Except I didn’t know it.
Everything’s fine
The term ‘burn out’ is dangerously misleading. It suggests visible fire and smoke. In reality the Big Bang when you realise the situation you’re in comes much too late. Burning out is like being the proverbial lobster in hot water. As the temperature rises your self-awareness and ability to save yourself erodes.
Physically my experience of burnout meant poor quality sleep, rock bottom energy levels and leaning progressively on stimulants like coffee, sugar and alcohol. Which of course exacerbated the psychological swings between elated hyper-motivation and crushing depression, punctuated by anxiety.
In retrospect these were huge red flags. But I didn’t spot them for three reasons:
Nomadic life is hugely variable and it’s difficult to see patterns emerging.
The experience isn’t constant but cyclical, the cycles increasing in frequency and intensity over time.
I didn’t have anyone around me close enough to recognise the difference between Settled Sam and Nomad Sam.
Burnt out
I’d just finished a business meeting with a person I consider a role model. After taking a long pause to examine me he simply asked “but seriously, are you ok?” Suddenly the charade of my self deception became glaringly obvious. He could see what I was ignoring: I was a wreck. It hit me like a ten foot wave.
In the following weeks whatever effects I’d been managing to suppress rushed in. I could no longer recognise myself. I’m known as the happiest, most energetic person in the room. Cool under pressure. Always up for a laugh. That’s who I am. Who I know myself to be. So who the hell was this guy?
Rewriting the formula
My formula of the past had never really let me down: Eat properly. Get enough sleep. Exercise regularly. Have some fun. Work hard. Success follows.
It’s a great formula. Why wasn’t it working?
It turns out there’s a bunch of things I was taking for granted in ‘normal’ life that are really important to any person’s psychological wellbeing. They’re the fundamental constants which we tend to forget about because they’re always there. But change them just a little bit and all our calculations are thrown out.
Eat properly + sleep enough+ exercise regularly + have fun + work hard ≠ success as a nomad
Not having a fixed location disrupts the bottom three layers of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
The old formula works as long as you have a stable home and income with close friends or relatives around you. Expecting it to work without those things is like trying to circumnavigate the globe with a map drawn by the Flat Earth Society.
Nomads need a new formula for staying happy and healthy across cities and countries. It’s something we need to develop from the sum of our experiences, but here’s what’s keeping me sane.
What’s keeping me sane
I’m hardly an expert on occupational burnout but here’s what’s working for me. Doing the following consistently seems to counteract the stresses of life on the road:
Doubling down on the basics
The absolute baseline has been doubling my attention to the fundamentals of eating well, getting enough sleep, exercising regularly and allowing myself downtime.
Deep connection with family and friends
I’ve had to get over the male ego complex and force myself to talk about feelings and emotions regularly. Phone calls suck but they’re better than nothing. New friends are poor substitutes for longstanding relationships.
Practising creativity in any form
When I have a home I play guitar and DJ on vinyl turntables. Unfortunately this stuff doesn’t fit in a backpack. Instead I‘m doing things that don’t need any special kit: singing, writing, and curating a street art blog on Insta.
Disconnected time for reflection
Taking a moment to just be conscious of what’s happening in my life and how I’m feeling has been crucial. I’ve banned myself from reading the news or answering emails on my phone during breakfast to create space to reflect.
Time to quit?
So here I am in Bogotá. In recovery mode but still on the road and growing. I’m unsure whether it’s the promise of unexplored lands or the dread of confinement to one place that’s driving me. But it’s definitely not time to quit. This is just the beginning.
In 7 short months I’ve met more than 500 people working to make the world a better place through technology and entrepreneurship. I’ve hiked 100km+ over mountains and through jungles. I’ve made friends from all over the world and learnt so much about their cultures.
The incredibly rich experiences nomads have, both at work and play, makes nomadism a cause worth fighting for. It’s time to have the essential conversation about the physical and mental health of people living as nomads. Let’s start it together.
Peace and love️ global adventurers