There are endless people online working four hour workweeks, traveling the world and living the life of their dreams. Designing your ideal lifestyle and living an untemplated life is damn easy so you must be stupid for haven’t mastering it yet. Right?
If you are like most of the human race, you probably have obligations and responsibilities that are preventing you from quitting your job to join the “new rich” gallivanting the world. Yet, we keep reading about all these people living large by shunning the dreaded 9 to 5. What gives? How can it be so hard for you, when it is so easy for everyone else?
The big ugly secret is that it is not so easy for everyone else. Most of the authors of blogs selling the dream are doing exactly that, dreaming. I am no exception. I am still working in my business. I still haven’t left Japan. I still have my comfortable house with all my comfortable things.
I am living the life, well not quite yet...
In March of 2009, I committed to selling my business and leaving my adopted home of Japan to live a more nomadic lifestyle. It is imminent, I have managed to sell my business and I am definitely planning to leave Japan soon, but I haven’t done it yet. However, I have been talking about doing it for ten months.
That is exactly the stage that most people are at, the talking stage. Someday they plan to earn their income completely online. Someday they plan to live a nomadic lifestyle while working on their laptops from exotic beaches. Some will make it happen and some won’t. But one thing I guarantee is that it won’t be easy.
Unless you are rich, major life changes take work and sacrifice. Embrace that work. Cherish the sacrifices you need to make because those memories will stick with you for the rest of your life. I would even say that the harder you work and the more sacrifices you make now, the more you will enjoy the fruits of those efforts. Just don’t expect it to be easy.
Mom, Can I Get the Keys to the Cottage?
There are many successful long term travelers and lifestyle designers out there, so it definitely is not all hype. However, some of those success stories leave out details about how they got where they are. It is easy to travel if your parents paid all your student loans for you. There is not much challenge in staying in Mom and Dad’s villa in some exotic country. It isn’t too hard to work on your start up when your spouse is working full-time to pay the bills. Many of your favorite bloggers that are making it look so easy often have some major assistance.
I don’t mean to belittle anyone’s accomplishments. It still takes work and courage to chart your own path in life. There are many great role models out there living alternative lifestyles. I just think it is important to remember that sometimes luck and favorable conditions can make things much, much easier.
I did it all alone, almost
When I first came to Japan I only had about $1000. I didn’t have a work visa. I didn’t have a job. I really had nothing. That is the story I like to tell people. In reality, I had everything. I had a friend teaching English in Japan. I showed up on his door unannounced and he let me stay with him for my first week in Japan. After that, he introduced me to someone else who let me stay in his apartment for free for about 6 weeks. Without that assistance, I would have never survived in Japan.
Most people hide those stories of essential assistance. It is important to acknowledge that we seldom do it alone. And if you try to do it alone, you will find that it is a hell of a lot more work.
Many new freelancers and entrepreneurs often have similar advantages when starting. I know of many small companies that had their first clients directly from their old job. Either their previous employer continued to hire them on a contract basis or they took clients with them. The biggest success stories rarely start from zero. Most of us are not starting from that advantageous position so our lofty goals are much more difficult to obtain. Not impossible, but I think it is important to have a healthy dose of reality and plan for the hard work ahead.
It is easy to give up everything when you have nothing.
Most long term travelers and lifestyle designers are in their twenties, single, have little work experience and assets so they are not giving up much to sell all their possessions and see the world.
If you are a little older, married, have children or other obligations it can be more difficult, sometimes even impossible to give up a secure job for flights of fantasy. That is completely okay. You can’t measure the quality of a human by the stamps in their passport or how little hours they work each week.
Keep in mind that most of those travelers are only going to have that lifestyle for a few months or years at best. It is hard to be separated from family, living on hundreds of dollars a month and staying single because you can’t manage relationships on the road.
Traveling the world is fantastic. It will improve you as a person and a global citizen. However, the biggest lesson that you will likely learn is that there is no place like home. Family and friends are all there is at the end of the day. Life is all about relationships.
Forget Everything I Said, Now is the Best Time
Now after I have tried to scare you a little. Living abroad, entrepreneurship and long-term travel really are easier then ever. There has never been a better time to untemplate your life. Costs to start businesses and travel are incredibly inexpensive compared to just a decade ago. The Internet has opened up so many opportunities to do absolutely anything you want, anywhere you want. The best part is that there are dozens of communities of people that have done the exact same things you are planning. You don’t have to do it alone and you can learn from the mistakes of others.
There are unlimited opportunities to earn an income online from anywhere. It is likely that your ancestors relocated to a new country in a time with zero access to information or any modern conveniences. There really are no excuses for not pursuing your dreams. Some may have it easier than you, but overall you can do anything you want, anywhere you want. These are amazing times!
Thanks for the encouragement. I resigned from my job about 6 months ago to pursue the life of a mobile freelancer. I’m in New Orleans for the next 2 months then I make my first jump to Honolulu where I’ll be working on a 12 month contract. From there who knows and that’s the exciting part, not knowing. The more I let go and surrender to the moment, the better the outcome seems to be. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to make plans, but they should always be weighed within the moment, and in that moment you have to flexible enough to toss everything you thought you knew and follow your true path. Always See Everything. Thanks John.
Hi Freel,
I definitely agree about surrendering to the moment. When you truly give yourself to the moment, the world has a way of opening up in ways that no planning could have accomplished.
Thanks for the comment.
Dreaming is the first step to doing. You can’t beat yourself up for not having done it yet, so long as you know in your heart you WILL do it. I don’t care if it takes me till I’m 60. It took 7 years of planning, dreaming, questioning, problem solving and just a little luck to take my first step. 1.5 years in and it’s all starting to come together. My eye is on the prize and each step forward is a confirmation that I am still on the right track. My initial goals are small, my final destination: freedom!
Great Attitude Jessica.
Celebrate every short victory. I find that the final destination is not so important if you are working toward what you believe in every day.
As absolutely cheesy as it sounds, making that jump takes work – especially if you’ll be working from the road. It’s fun to have the idea but so many steps along the way that can discourage you and you’ve got to fight through the harder moments to make it a reality.
Hi Anil,
It is a lot of hard work. My secret is that I don’t plan so much so that I don’t think about all the steps required. 🙂
I too can really relate especially to the “older” comment. I traveled the world right out of college and everyone said to me “Do it now when you are young.” I thought those people were nuts because ANYONE could do it at ANYTIME. But then I came back, got married, got 2 cats, bought a house and 10 years slipped by.
I am now living in China and having the time of my life but it took us 2 years to make it happen. Two years of really hard work. I would like to add that I still have debt (student loans and others) and a mortgage to pay yet I am still able to follow my dream (and pay off my debt). So yes, while anyone can do it, it is definitely work the older you get!
Hi Becky,
Thanks for sharing your story. I have found that there is a huge difference between 40 and 25. Your body aches more, you are more worried about health and security is more important because you can feel in your bones that you are not going to live forever.
However, as we have both proved, anything is possible if we work hard enough.
I know this is relatively outdated, but I agree with a lot of what you are saying. The realities of the location independent lifestyle are not as a lot of people think them to be, from what I can tell. For the past two years and a half years, I haven’t lived in one place longer than three months and it’s been exhausting – and I’m only 20.
Penelope Trunk and Ryan Paugh touched on this briefly during a webinar I watched a couple of days ago (summary: http://bit.ly/azHMAp) in that location independence is not easy for a lot of people to do because what they desire to carry into the LI lifestyle doesn’t fit.
Oh, life.
Greetings Emily,
Thanks for the comment!
First of all, I think we are all dependent on location regardless where that is or for how long it is. We are dependent on visas, living costs, internet connections, taxes, banking, food, culture, laws, etc. In fact, I would say that the more dependent you are on a location the more you can truly experience it.
For example, working in a local company in a foreign country is best way to truly integrate yourself into a new society. Temporary tourists will never gain that level of understanding.
However, I do understand and agree with your point. Most facets of our lives do not lend themselves to a nomadic or anywhere lifestyle. You can’t endlessly travel if you have a band, are a high level athlete or are starting a real world business. Even if you are lucky enough to be able to work and travel your productivity will definitely take a hit versus staying stationary. Most professionals need access to books, colleagues, ideas, meeting places that are impossible to duplicate on the road.
Nomadic workers have to make sacrifices. I personally feel that those sacrifices are worthwhile because travel enriches in our lives so much, but I am not going to be hopping from hostel to hostel every few days. That would quickly become too tiring.
Travel is fantastic but it is not everything.
Thanks Kathryn,
I appreciate you taking the time to comment. Good luck on creating your own perfect lifestyle.
Greatly appreciate your honesty in what you say. So many make the nomadic lifestyle appear to be as simple as saying goodbye, but indeed life is never so simple. That said, you have inspired me to continue to find the right steps toward a more place independent lifestyle… and never forgetting to use those who are willing to give, balance being the key – many thanks
Fabulous post John & it’s great to see more honesty on this subject! I’ve been amazed at how many ” authors of blogs selling the dream are doing exactly that, dreaming” with little or no real experience.
It HAS been easy for us to live this dream lifestyle of open ended, non-stop family world travel since 2006, but only because we put in TONS of research and prep BEFORE we took off, that allows us to live large on little (even in expensive countries) . If you prepare well and go slow, it IS easy, MUCH easier , cheaper and more rewarding than we expected.
We live on MUCH less traveling the world than we lived on at home & are enjoying building our nest egg as we roam. The smart way is to always live well under your means and without debt. We do make sacrifices, but could live on MUCH less, except we love luxury too. There are smart ways to have your cake & eat it too.
Most forget to learn about coming trends, currency trends & financial investments (preferably by out-of-the-box thinkers). These things helped us a LOT by selling our house at peak and getting mostly out of the ever declining debased dollar because we knew that the economic reset was coming long before most. If you’re saving in dollars you should be aware that the dollar in your wallet is only worth 18 cents!
http://www.caseyresearch.com/library/articles/3021/the-dollar-in-your-wallet-is-only-worth-18%C2%A2/
Part of our motivation was to give our child the best possible education as a global citizen of the 21st century & we have been astounded by the opportunities! ( We’re a featured Case Study in Tim Ferriss’s 4HWW & talk about some of it there & on our blog).
I so agree that “living abroad, entrepreneurship and long-term travel really are easier then ever.” and I think it is a trend that will continue to grow leaps and bounds due to technology and the economic reset. Not only is more work going virtual, but 60% of schools will all be virtual by the end of the decade.
Is there any reason to do this if one is working themselves to the bone? Instead of enjoying Fiji, Buenos Aires or Cinque Terra does one really want to be locked in their room working the whole time? Doesn’t sound logical to me as the whole benefit of new rich. new nomad lifestyle design is to have MORE freedom, time and adventures/rich experiences.
The hard work is in the planning and prep, but if you’re not working much less once you take off, what’s the point? TIME is the most valuable currency in life and THE most important asset of a digital nomad life is time to ENJOY your life and relationships in deeper ways.
Thanks for the comment and kind words.
You three are definitely path finders. It is great that you have been able to create such a fantastic lifestyle and rich experiences.
I think there is value in working hard. Becoming great at something is a worthy life goal in my opinion. I don’t want to ONLY travel and enjoy free time. It takes many years of concentrated effort to get good at anything. I personally don’t want excess leisure time. That just makes me mentally and physically lazy. I want to put in long hours to challenge myself to new levels. That is the price of excellence.
Thanks John. I appreciate your kind words too & all that you do to help others find ways towards their dreams. You bring up great points.
I’m not sure hard work is as necessary as “smart work” and I’m sure you’d agree with that. I love this quote by Tim Ferriss:
“Being busy is a form of laziness – lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.”
I’m not one to just vegetate and do nothing, but if one is just going to be working endless hours holed up (like the cases Audrey mentions above) and never seeing anything, then what is the point of travel? You can do that in rural America on little without cultural/language challenges.
The whole point of lifestyle design is to have MORE freedom and avoid the “soul-crushing” over work pattern, or as Tim says in the 4HWW:
“The objective is to create freedom of time and space and use both however YOU want.”
I’m all for being the best that one can be & giving your all to what you do. We’re the king & queen of “over deliver” in our work & all that we do. That is how we’ve gotten to where we are today.
That being said, our society today promotes working oneself to death (or a phenomenon called “karooshi” in Japan where it is very popular) and I think that is the antithesis of lifestyle design.
True excellence incorporates freedom, “breath”, play, balance and more. All work and no play not only makes Jack a dull boy, but wastes a life because there is much more to life than just long hours of hard work.
I don’t really think we disagree here, but I just wanted to point out that if one wants to live a lifetime of lifestyle design (as we have, long before the word was popular and before Tim wrote 4HWW) then time, balance, fun, bliss, freedom etc better be added to the mobility element. Otherwise, burnout is sure to happen.
Hi Tyler,
I definitely agree that our current nomenclature is a little clumsy. I have written several blog posts saying similar things to what you have written. Everybody is trying to invent buzz words because there are huge domain name benefits if they become popular.
Most trendy terminology is not particularly descriptive nor novel. Most of our ancestors took much greater risks and made much bigger sacrifices to design their lifestyles then we ever will. I used the phrase ‘lifestyle design’ because of its notoriety, not because it is a comprehensive definition.
I certainly don’t think of lifestyle design only in a digital nomad sense. I am sorry if that didn’t come across in the post. Choosing to be an entrepreneur, freelancer, parent, professor, musician, traveler or virtually anything are all ‘lifestyle design’ in my view. The choosing is important not the choice. Lifestyle design should be a verb not a noun.
I have travel for 3 years up to now. I have same experience, i was stay friends places for 2 months. And have no money to buy food. But i insist doing what i am doing. i believe i can success. Today i don’t need worry about places to live and the food to eat.
Eveytime i met travelers, i always lovely to help them how to make money online. Deep and profound changes and blessings await you as you freely give your energy to help others.
Congratulations on your traveling lifestyle. It is definitely nice to have family and friends. 🙂
Part of the reason we can live untemplated lives is because our parents worked so hard to provide a good life for us. Every time my wife and I return to Canada it is great to have a free place to stay and there is no shortage of food or drinks either. 🙂 That probably saves us five to ten thousand dollars a year. That is a huge help.
Great article John! A blast of honesty is a refreshing change, people should be told both sides of the story and read this before embarking on ‘umtemplating’ themselves.
I dived into travel wanting to continue it but never really gave thought on how to continue it until I got going, now I know the work required I’m still going for it, just with lower expectations on time frames. People throw around ‘6 months’ as the time required to get things going (mainly reference to a online business picking up customers/advertisers/visitors). But 6 months could mean 96 hours of work to some people (4 hour work week) or 1920 hours work to others (a 80 hour week). That’s a huge difference by anyones scale.
Thanks Rob,
It is hard work and the world is getting more competitive every second. It is not impossible but not easy either.
John, absolutely a fantastic post that punches some reality into some dreamers. Thank you for not shying around the subject that’s it’s hard, and easier to do if you’re younger, and don’t have something full-time at home.
You bring a good point about how long these “untemplaters” will actually be abroad. Anything more than 5 years and I’d be impressed.
Do you think we’re going on a dangerous path of encouraging our youth to give up the traditional job path for an adventure which may end with uh oh, and what’s next?
I think this movement definitely has legs given how difficult the job market is. Keep up the good work in telling it how it is!
Thanks for the comment.
(I still don’t know your name.) 🙂
We are undergoing a revolution in work, life and play. Everything we consider to be a normal way of life is going to drastically change. “Untemplated” lives are here to stay.
What I was trying to point out is that even the most exotic sounding lifestyle is not so much fun after you have been doing it for a while. When my wife and I return to Canada or Hungary we just hang around with family, go to cafes and book stores and essentially do nothing. I hate being a tourist, traveling to a new country every few days. That gets old very quickly.
I hate being a tourist as well. That’s why it’s good to make contacts before you go to a country on websites like couchsurfing.com. Then, you can “make yourself at home.” When you get to a new country. I’ve never been about seeing all the old buildings and museums when I visit a country. I’ve always been about meeting new people and trying new things so this process has worked best for me.
Hi Lis,
I have never tried couchsurfing but maybe I will give it a try. It would be great to get local assistance in a new country.
Most couchsurfers are travel-holics so they love hosting people, and it’s easy to find people with your interests, get questions answered before you go on a trip, and plan events with the locals before you even get there. It’s awesome.
Awesome in-depth look at a rarely visited topic from what I have seen around the LD community.
“Most people hide those stories of essential assistance. It is important to acknowledge that we seldom do it alone. And if you try to do it alone, you will find that it is a hell of a lot more work.”
I would like to believe that they aren’t actively trying to hide such experiences. More-so trying to keep people from feeling discouraged by a potential lack of a perceived necessity (i.e. John had a friend in Japan… I can’t do what he did because I don’t know anyone in the country I want to move to). Like Gary Vaynerchuk alludes to in CRUSH IT, if they are intentionally being deceptive they will be found out and suffer the consequences.
I can’t say whether its better to lay the whole ugly truth out on the table or to glaze over some of the potentially demoralizing details. I think it highly depends on the target message. If your focusing on a how-to perspective and getting down to the nuts and bolts then in my opinion everything needs to be visible. If your primary goal is motivation, then choosing to focus on the “bigger picture” outcome and omitting certain aspects of the journey may net a more desirable reaction.
Good point on the motivation Ben.
I hope I am not discouraging anyone from trying. I was hoping to convey that we all encounter setbacks, so expect that and don’t give up before your efforts start to be rewarded.
Your article didn’t have the teeth to scare away anyone seriously considering making these kinds of changes to their lifestyle. If the realistic growl sent them running then they probably didn’t have the chops to see something through anyway.
The article does a great job conveying your intended message.
I am not a fan of this article. This feels more like pity part for all of the people who have tried and failed. Sorry.
I am sorry I disappointed you Joseph. Give me time and I will improve.
I don’t mean to make excuses for those too lazy or chicken to try. My only dispute is with those people peddling misinformation on how easy it is to build your dream lifestyle on low hour workweeks.
I am NOT saying that it is too difficult so don’t try. I am saying that it is easier then ever but it still requires hard work. I apologize for not communicating that well.
We live in amazing times! I’m not giving up on anything.
John, thanks for your honesty. That little bit of help being included in the story makes you more relatable and your advice more credible.
Thanks Lise.
I wish I were an amazingly talented genius, but I just got lucky. It is nice to have a little help from your friends.
One of the hardest things for me to learn in my path to lifestyle independence is patience…so this post was perfect for me! I sometimes get it in my head that people got really lucky and saw overnight success. But then, I find, if you dig a little deeper – they usually failed many times on their way to freedom. I have been developing better focus and reminding myself that everything takes time. You can’t, contrary to what some would have you believe, become location or financially independent overnight or in a week or in a month! It can take years.
Hi Lauren,
Anyone good has failed countless times. The biggest danger is being hugely successful early on. Then you get an over-sized ego and you feel you can never fail. There are many ‘one-hit wonders’ that quickly fade away online and off.
My philosophy is that I expect my dreams to take years to accomplish but I just do the best I can each day.
I very much appreciate the honesty! I don’t want to say it’s nice to hear that it is difficult to chuck it and follow your dreams because you never want to find enjoyment in something negative. But it’s good to know that what seems so easy for some, actually really isn’t. Otherwise it can feel kinda discouraging to those of us who have the whole “thirtysomething, married, two kids, and a mortgage” thing going on.
We can see the major obstacles before we even walk out the door to go to the airport: namely a couple of munchkins who wouldn’t mind traveling for awhile, but really need some stability that regular friends and family provide. Luckily, that doesn’t stop us from learning how to take a more active role in producing income outside of the 9-to-5 so that when those munchkins grow up, we’ll be ready!
Great post!
Thanks Brian.
I hope I didn’t discourage anyone from trying. That is not my intention. I really feel that there are more opportunities now then ever in history. A $9 domain name and a cheap internet host are all that is needed to build something huge. Opportunities are fantastic now to do anything you want, as long as it entails working hard.
What I disagree with is all the people who say that it is easy. You can’t just put up a niche site in a weekend and expect to make thousands of dollars per month. Look at someone like Adam Baker of ManVsDebt.com (a founder of untemplater as well). He is working 60 to 80 hours a week on a variety of projects with many big name people. That is the type of effort required for success. He is putting in his ‘10,000 hours’, like Malcolm Gladwell said.
There is no doubt that Baker is going to ‘crush it.” The problem is that I am sure he will become part of all the products selling how to ‘build a six figure income in a couple hours a day.’ That is the lie I am hoping to dispel.
This is a really great piece, thanks! 🙂
I’ve felt so lost about the whole thing for a while, but it’s refreshing to see people say that they didn’t do it entirely alone. 😉 Gives me more hope that I’ll figure it out here eventually and make the connections I need to to pull it off myself. (And yeah, it’s nice to have a spouse who works full-time paying the bills while you scheme to do crazy, untemplater-type things…. Heh. I know I’m lucky!)
Thanks Meg.
I am glad you liked it.
The thing about entrepreneurship, travel and creating an untemplated life path is that we are all making it up as we go. Nobody knows the best way because there is no single best way. Also, the world is changing so fast that what worked before likely had so much competition that it can’t be done the same way again.
It is all trial and error. Anyone who tells you they know all the answers is probably an egomaniac or they are lying. 🙂
@Monique Johnson – My wife and I are currently a college students, so our loans are still growing. We have plan A and B.
Plan A – start a business after hours, pay off loans and live the life we want
Plan B – if our entrepreneurial efforts don’t work out, we will both get jobs and one complete income will be dedicated to paying off loans. If we’re working for $10/hour each, that’s still an upgrade from our current income, as well as enabling us to pay off our estimated loans in less than 2 years.
I know we have an advantage, being teamed up. One of us can hold our current part-time jobs while the other starts a side gig, and two incomes after graduation. However, one person can do it as well. Build a dream board (somewhere you see every day, post pictures of where you’re going once you’re financially free) to keep you motivated. Then focus fiercely on paying down that debt. Keep freelancing, cut back on costs, etc. Once you’re out from under the debt, keep working just as much and build a nest egg to start traveling on.
I have to keep asking myself, “Is this game of solitaire/coffee/movie” worth delaying my real life? Sometimes it is, and often it’s not. You can do it!
The dream board idea is very good advice. In developed countries it is quite possible for a couple to save several thousand dollars a month if you work extra jobs and keep your costs low. New immigrants do it all the time on low salary jobs.
Keep your expenses down and work your asses off. A lot can be accomplished with an extra 20 to 50 thousand dollars a year. My wife and I did it for about 5 years, now we can afford to semi-retire. It is all about focus and commitment.
Thanks for the comment Mike.
Cody McKibben is the real deal. I also appreciate genuine people like him. That is what being authentic is about. I am aspiring to his levels of transparency.
People who pretend are pretentious.
I can’t stand posers, although I have a little bit of it in me to flush out. But there is something to be said for people who are genuine. Kudos to you guys!
The point you made about certain bloggers and I’m going to say authors too; about having certain advantages to their success is all to true. Some people leave out details so it looks like they are a major success. It’s my only one gripe, is that some people make it look like they are living the dream and living rich lifestyles and you too can be rich, when really they’re living on someone’s couch in a crappy neighborhood in a foreign country. And that 90% of the time they are broke. Or like you said, someone else is paying the bills or they where loaded when they started out to begin with.
That’s why I like Cody over at ThrillingHeroics. He’s been honest about how it is, and how he lives. He’s genuine.
And it does take a lot of hard work. And a lot of belief in yourself. Personally I like hearing about people who weren’t Princeton grads from money, but those like the rest of us, who had to break the cycle of the template lifestyle, undo the brainwashing and work to achieve our lifestyles.
Wow, thanks for the props guys! I try to be transparent. I’m not one to talk about money too much, but I’ll say this: I did start out with upwards of $20K in student loans and debt, and I make no claims to being rich! I certainly flirt with being broke at times 🙂 but nobody ever said you had to make millions to live the way you want.
“Money can’t buy life.” —Bob Marley
I agree, it’s tough, hard work! I think there are many people, myself included, that are pursuing this goal. I do love that you brought it back in the end to “it’s easier now than ever before” I think that is very true, PLUS if you never start, you never get there!
Great article!
Thank you for taking the time to comment.
Agreed! There is a 100% failure rate for those that don’t try.
Thanks Cody! I appreciate the kind words.
It is work and takes sacrifice, but these are amazing times. You folks and Untemplater are the perfect example. A talented team of people with a little focus and hard work can accomplish amazing things.
This is a very unique time we are living in and I am ecstatic to have the freedom to work on the projects that I am excited about.
Amazing Times!
I also very much appreciate the honesty here. I think the more interesting story is not how awesome someone’s international freelance life is, but the challenges that someone overcame to enjoy that life. And too many people don’t talk enough about that. And @Audrey: I totally agree that for many, the focus is on avoiding “hard work” when it should either be avoiding the deadening aspects of a 9-to-5 or on the great aspects of the very hard work international freelancers do.
Hi Meg,
I definitely agree. There is much more to learn from the challenges. Many people I interview try to sugarcoat everything and focus on the glamor of their lifestyles. The problem is that life is not always 100% exciting and exotic. We always hear about the gourmet meal but rarely the visit to the toilet the next day.
I’ve got to agree with Cody here, this is a fantastic article. Due to some poor choices in my early 20’s, the chance of me leaving the country and being a ‘digital nomad’ were slim to none. And since I’m now married with a kid, so slim went right out the door. But I was still able to build a freelance business and eventually leave my 9 to 5 and work from home. But it took over a year to build, very little sleep, and and mistakes along the way. But the point was that I could still do it. I didn’t have to leave home (which is Florida, so I get the beach / paradise thing built-in) and now I’m able to do what I want to.
Congratulations on creating a lifestyle of your own choosing.
I am willing to bet that you are much prouder of your accomplishments because you worked so hard than if it was just handed to you by a rich relative. I don’t think we place enough value on the satisfaction that comes from working hard and overcoming obstacles.
Also, don’t give up your dream of a nomadic lifestyle. It is still possible, even with children. In fact, http://www.mayafrost.com/ has proven that there are huge advantages to your child’s education by living abroad.
You can cut out several years of schooling and tens of thousands of dollars of education expenses by creatively maneuvering through international schools. A couple of Maya’s daughters graduated university before they were 20 and they all speak multiple languages.
Oh, the kid(s) aren’t what is holding me back (although pulling them away from my and my wife’s parents would be heartbreaking for them, since they both live within an hour of where we are). But rather some of those ‘poor choices’ were enough to limit what countries I can legally go to. So there’s that. And all things being equal, I’m a homebody. I like being at home, where I am most comfortable. If things work out the way I plan, I’ll be able to have my ‘nomad’ friends stay with me for spots as needed.
Thanks for writing this article!!! I felt like it spoke directly to me. Unfortunately, I am not one of the “lucky” ones and have student loans to pay. However, I am in my twenties, single, and do not have any kids. I am currently in a 9 to 5 gig, but I am pursuing a lifestyle change in which I can travel the world. I am also being proactive by going through the process of setting up my own blog and I just landed my first freelance job (on the side)! I hope one day I can give a pink slip and head out to another continent. Thanks again.
Thanks for commenting Monique!
It is entirely likely that you can save more money abroad than you can at home. I often write about how teaching English can easily give you an extra $1000 per month of savings in countries like Japan, Korea and Taiwan. With your freelancing work, you could potentially save a lot more.
Don’t wait too long to leave because lifestyle inflation will start to catch up to you and your life will be too comfy to uproot.
John, this is the best article I’ve seen yet on Untemplater! Thanks for bringing us back to reality, and reminding us how some fortunate souls have a little advantage over others. But, you’re right to encourage people, because regardless of all the challenges and setbacks, I think the mobile lifestyle truly is a lot more attainable now than ever before. Great article buddy!
John, great piece. It’s like you were a fly on the wall at one of our conversations last night. We met a two guys doing freelance work for US clients while staying in Buenos Aires for a few months. They mentioned how they hadn’t been out much because they’ve been working so much. It was very refreshing to hear that honesty – as you wrote, many people are not that open with how much they do work to maintain their lifestyle. Hard work should not be a bad word.
We talked about our rtw trip for at least a year before we actually took the plunge. Handing in our resignation letters – and what that signified with breaking from our previous lifestyle – was the hardest we’ve had to do on this journey. Once we got on the road, the journey took on a life of its own as we – and our professional goals – evolved. That’s the beauty of life – it’s not static.
Congrats on selling your business and good luck with the next step!
Exactly! Hard work is not to be feared, it should be embraced.
It is always difficult to make big lifestyle decisions. That is what makes it ‘big.’
I am just getting tired of people selling expensive products and training, while saying it is easy. Anything worthwhile is never easy.
I second that!
I won’t be the last to say it– you look awesome in that photo. I need to get me one of those outfits. This stuff is really tough, but worth it. I haven’t yet anyone who’s done something remarkable on cruise control. Great article.
Thanks! The material for that yukata is Sumo cloth that was given as a gift. The sewing was done by my mother-in-law.
I definitely agree! Great things are difficult but definitely worth the effort and sacrifice.