Why I Left My Digital Nomad Life for a Stable Job
This is my podcast that discusses why I left the digital nomad lifestyle:
Is the freedom of self employment abroad everything is is all made out to be? In June of 2021, I decided to find out for myself, and quit my job and bought and one-way flight to Mexico. My next six months was full of wild and unexpected experiences from taking mushrooms in San Jose del Pacifico to hiking in Lapland in the Winter. After working remotely in Mexico, Curacao, and Finland, here is what I found out:
Not as Fun as a Vacation, Not as Fulfilling as Being an Expat
There are three basic categories of travelers and each have their own merits.
- Vacationers / Holiday Makers — This is by far the most fun. You can pack your days with excursions, drink on a boat, and go nightclubbing until 5 AM. The best part is you can disappear into nature without reception and not worry about missing an email. A whole world of travel opportunities opens up such as mountaineering expeditions and multi-day tours.
- Expats — Expats are similar to digital nomads, except they live permanently in one location abroad. I was an expat in Sydney, Australia for two years working as an architectural draftsperson, and those were the best two years of my life. I got all the benefits of traveling, while also building meaningful connections with locals due to the stability of having a job. I would sometimes take a vacation from a vacation and go out to the Blue Mountains, Great Barrier Reef, or New Zealand.
- Digital Nomads — I see being a digital nomad as a hybrid state between being on vacation and being an expat. Because you have work and clients to answer to, you do not have the freedom of being on a vacation. You cannot be more than an arms length from an internet connection when the clients ask for more revisions. Since locals still see you as a tourist, you are less likely to build community connections. In its best form, being a digital nomad allows you to try out different countries or cities without the commitment of a job offer. When I became a digital nomad, I was chasing an expat life without realizing that being an expat required more commitment and investment on my part.
There is More Camaraderie in a Brick & Mortar Office Job
I never thought I would miss long car rides with my boss talking about the clients. These conversations seemed trivial at the time, but bouncing ideas back and forth kept my mental state sharp. My friends back home never talk to me about work. Who am I supposed to talk about floor plans with? Who am I supposed to talk about the clients with? Who is saying good morning to me when I show up for work? I never got excited about working in cafes and co-working spaces by myself. Despite the inevitable drama of an office, seeing the same people every morning is an underrated aspect of a conventional job.
Too Much Freedom Equates to Lack of Commitment
If you can book a flight out whenever you want, you never really have boots on the ground. It feels like you are always living life one foot in the door, one foot out. I miss being grounded. Living out of a suitcase for six months felt like my life was always in limbo.
Purposely Keeping Workload Low to Avoid Hiring People
To grow a digital nomad business bigger than yourself means to hire local talent. The second you hire locals, you are effectively converting to an expat, which requires visas, bureaucracy, and commitment. For the first six months, I actively suppressed my workload, because I was not sure where I wanted to settle. Turning down clients so you can maintain an independent lifestyle is no way to conduct business. Some digital nomads have scaled successfully while maintaining the lifestyle.
Having One Gym, One Laundry, and Coffee Shop Rapport
At my last stable job, the barista knew my name and order every morning when I picked up my cappuccino. This little detail seemed trivial at the time, but humans are social creatures and we want to be remembered. I will not miss my clothes getting torn and stained from all the questionable laundry places I went in Mexico. When the laundromats closed for Christmas week in Tallinn, I had to wash my clothes in the hotel sink. I put on a lot of weight from stress eating and not having a stable gym location. Gyms take a lot more investigation than you would think, and many do not offer affordable daily rates. Planning around these little details every time you move takes mental energy.
I Miss Having a Commute (Strange I Know)
As a digital nomad, I always picked my cafes as close as possible to my hotel or AirBNB apartment. When I arrived at the coffee shop ten minutes after leaving the house, I was not ready to work. That separation from home to work helps me unwind my thoughts and mentally prepare to tackle the tasks at hand. Some people can wake up in their pajamas and jump to their laptop, but I need a clear delineation between work and living.
Lack of Social Consistency
The shelf life of a digital nomad is short. People go back home to visit family and friends, and realize what they missed and never come back. The perpetual nomads move from one country to the next. There are a lot of goodbye parties, and you are always scrambling to make new friends.
I Really Find Out My Weaknesses
Do you really want to know your weaknesses? As it turns out, I am not a disciplined person. My whole life, my employers had been providing me with structure, and it was a constant mental battle to get up in the morning sometimes. Being a sole proprietor digital nomad and being responsible for every facet of my life was stressful at times. You will come to terms with your weaknesses if you have not yet.
Arbitraging Low Cost of Living Made me Lazy
Every time I got a handful of new clients or made a few good crypto trades, I would earn enough cash to last me a few months. This security meant I was not prospecting as hard and my workload would slowly die off. When you are not broke, your hustler mentality dies. Then when my funds started becoming insufficient, I would prospect aggressively until I got new clients. The arbitrage of a high salary in a developing country is every digital nomad’s dream. But I found that I really did not work as hard without having high expenses to pay for. The hustle is what keeps you feeling alive on the inside, and I miss that about being in the US.
Future Plans
About four month in to my six month journey, I started looking for an alternative to the digital nomad lifestyle. This is a huge advantage of being a digital nomad. You can field many different opportunities over a long period of time while you decide your next move. You never have to accept a job offer you do not like, because you already have clients. I decided to accept a design drafting position in Manhattan, because I miss being in a power city. And I miss the camaraderie of a physical office. While I will definitely be working harder to maintain the New York standard of living, my future will be more grounded. But I know my wanderlust will come back again.
