My Digital Nomad Journey. Was it Sustainable?

in #digital6 years ago (edited)


Hello everyone!

I wanted to share my digital nomad journey with you all. Specifically how i stumbled into it where i went and if i am still one now. I stayed in chiang mai for 3 months then for another 6 months and canggu for one month.

If you guys have any questions or want me to make a follow up video one anything in particular feel free to ask me below.

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Sounds like some very interesting experiences and a lot of moving. :)

hahas yes there's been a lot of moving on the last two years. I definitely appreciate having all my belonging in the one spot more now :P Thank you for watching! @ethanvanderbuilt

traveling is nice but moving houses not so fun :)

That you keep enjoying, then, I love it if you're happy!

This video was very inspiring. I already work from home and would love to travel more so I was thinking of doing something similar... also never knew there was a name for it and that it was actually a thing :)

Originally when I watched your video I was thinking to myself "She sounds like she truly enjoyed it so then why did she end up moving back?" but I guess you answered that at the end. That just leaves me with one question which my programmer mind refuses to allow to compute...

You said that you went to Thailand because the cost of living there was so cheap. You worked for yourself and eventually went back to Australia where, I presume, you continued to do the same work you did over there. Here is what I heard you saying:
We went to Thailand where the cost of living is very cheap and then worked for ourselves.
After we ran out of money we returned to Australia and did the same job but in Australia we were able to save up enough money to go again
We then went back there and continued to work for ourselves and eventually decided to settle in Australia and just keep doing the same job but from here.

The parts that confuse me is that your job stays constant but the country with the low cost of living makes you run out of cash while the one with the higher cost of living allowed you to save up enough to return. Also, it sounded like you really enjoyed it yet, instead of getting your own place with an office in the country with the cheap cost of living, you decided to return to Australia to have an office there. Am I to take away from that that you are saying being a digital nomad is a fun thing in the short term but not something you would recommend for the long term?

This video was so inspirational that when you mentioned the 4 hour work week I thought to myself "Who needs to read that book when they can just watch this video? Inspiration obtained!" ;) ...but, yeah, those two questions are giving me a headache trying to figure them out.

Can't wait to hear back from you

wow thank you so much Jansen for this message, great question too! I will try to go more depth about my whole experience.

When I first went to chiang mai thailand mid 2016. I had just digested all this new info of working for yourself and building a business that you can grow and then I also stumbled on videos of people living in chiang mai and sharing how cheap it was. So I put these two things together and took the leap and booked my ticket to thailand but with no real plan on how I will make money. I was also fueled by the fact I wasn't totally happy working for someone else when I knew I could use that time to grow my own business instead of someone elses. But not only that I was getting really really down and putting on weight and getting sick a lot. But I am TOTALLY grateful I was able to work there because It lead me to where I am today.

I had a good amount of saving (from my 9-5 job) enough to cover 3 months in a nice apartment in chiang mai, food and bills. I knew I wouldn't be making much because I was just dabbling in different ways to make money to see what I liked best. I was doing pretty low paying freelance jobs at that time nothing consistant.

When I returned back to Australia I was in a funk for like 3 months making more or less the same as I was in thailand but was also working digital products for my online etsy shop. At 5 months I was so DONE I knew I had to get back to thailand and pretty much get out of my parent's place because I hated being there and feeling like I was stuck. So within a month I was able to make enough to book tickets and for accommodation MUCH cheaper run down thai apartment. It happened so fast by upping my price I was creating pitch decks for businesses when I started which was when I landed back in Australia I was doing $40 per pitch deck but as I got better I was able to charge $250-$300 USD+ per pitch deck.

Back at Chaing Mai Round Two. I was staying in a tiny studio room this time (with my boyfriend he freelancing too now doing writing jobs) This time the money we were using for accommodation and food was all money we had made ourself so we were definately living a lot more cheaply. My first etsy shop grew but my vision for it changed so I started a second one which I could make better and higher priced products. All digital products so I could create something once and sell it over and over again so it was like passive income.

Anyways why I wanted to get back to Australia was because my lifestyle in thailand although good for the amount of money I was making it wasn't my dream lifestyle. I was working pretty much 7 days not intense work. I had no friends here to do social things so It just felt right to keep working, I missed being able to go for nice walks around town (thailand too hot humid and a little stressful from the traffic around you) I missed being able to have a kitchen and groceries (in thailand it's SO much cheaper to eat out every meal than to buy a bunch of groceries and cook plus didn't have a kitchen in my studio room) I wanted a place again where I could put my own furniture having an address I could get mail sent to. Having a little more than small suitcase full of clothes. I know It sounds sooooooooo dumb and first world :P

I also knew living back in Australia it would raise my standards and It would push myself to make more money and grow my business because as you know Australia is freaking expensive :P. Being in thailand my mindset was different it was just about make enough to get by which you didn't need that much anyways. But in Australia you have to step up and get serious about your work because rent and just living here is so much more. So other than loving living in Australia and the lifestyle it was a really good challenge for me too. Work and traveling is great but it's also mentally exhausting when you don't have your shit together, you haven't gotten your money right and you're just scrapping by and working more than getting out there and exploring your destination.

I also still love travelling I want to go to Japan and Greece and America but I want to go there and enjoy myself and not be there to find cafes and co-working places to work at. And knowing I can go back to my own home after my trip.

THAT all being said this is just my case and what my goals were but there are a LOT of Digital Nomads that enjoy this lifestyle and keep going to new place to new place and are there to network with other people doing similar things. I would NEVER take back my experience and would highly recommend it to anyone that wants to. I just changed my goals, not because being a digital nomad isn't fun because I know it can be but I wanted something different.

Oh and to add when I started in 2016 what I was doing to earn money kept changing so i wasn't earning the same so that why I went from okay to broke to okay again :P But since you are already a freelance video game developer you can skip so much of that 'figuring money stuff out' part and go straight a head to the going overseas and working and traveling It's a big weight off your chest when you know how you're making your money and have been doing it for a while. Then what I did and going through it blindly and making it up while being super super frugal.

I hope that rumbling and jumbled sentences makes some sense :P Thank you sooo much again for taking your time to watch my video and write your comment. I appreciate it so so much!

Hey again

Thanks for that lengthy reply. My own mail and letters go insanely overboard because I am passionate about what I'm saying and I want to get my message across. People get so mad at me sometimes because what I post doesn't fit inside a tweet. :P Nice to get a reply from someone who also puts the message first! 👍 (Side note... Usually I would have asked "Now where is that thumbs up emote when you really need it?" but ever since I discovered the Win+. shortcut I have been using that to death 😅)

Anyway, I can see where you are coming from, now. I can also see why $40 jobs and $300+ jobs can make a difference to how much time you spend trying to scrape by ;) Ultimately it boiled down to lifestyle for you and life in Australia was just more along the lines of what you wanted. I can respect that.

Me, though, I am so isolated from the world that the only people who know me are the cashiers at KFC and the one or two people I chat with online. My ideal life would be to live up in the mountains of Japan, all alone (with my wife), completely isolated from the entire planet (but with internet access and close enough to a town to have my groceries delivered. Still need my KFC, after all 😅). I would gladly pack up my life and go live digital in Japan... would do so in a second... if not for two things...

First, our neighbour's house was completely plundered (I mean they even stole the electricity supply to the house by ripping the cable out from under the pavement) by day 2 after they moved out. Leaving my house to the mercy of renters and hoping history doesn't repeat itself (I had to sell my first house because the law protects illegal occupants from being evicted so after legal fees I only got $60 for my entire property) that is not really an option... If they move out and I have to take 2 days for new people to move in I will be returning to nothing (literally).

Secondly, Japan only grants me a 3 month visa so I would have to go work in the mountains, not see much of Japan and then come home after 3 months. :( Japan really is the only place I would want to go to... In fact, my wife and I even have an understanding that no matter how much I love her, if a Japanese woman asks me to marry her and move to Japan I'm packing my bags the second I finished reading the email 👍🐱‍👤

Anyway, your post was very inspirational and got me thinking about changing my own lifestyle (that I am actually pretty happy with). You now have one more follower. Apart from your posts on food (I am FINALLY loosing some weight 😁) I want to hear more about what you have to say...

I love hearing about other people's lives and their personal journey and goals so I'm more than happy to read long comments like yours.

Ahh I see, Japan is like your ultimate location. I'm not too familiar with Japan Visa Hacks if it is similar in any way to Thailand. But for Thailand you can get a month free and can extend it for another month or if you're prepared you can purchase a 60 day visa before you land and extend that for another 30 days. Then if you want to stay even longer you can do a 'visa run' where you leave the country either by flying out or you book a service that is specifically for people that want to stay longer but there visa is about to run out. So you fly/drive to another country close by and then come back in so you can get another 30 days free and then rinse and repeat. A lot of Nomad do that to stay in thailand for as long as they would like.

If Japan is your big goal, I would totally go for it because it sounds like this something you would never regret. Even if it is just for 3 months at first. But I can see how your housing situation poses some challenges and I haven't been in a situation like that before so I can't relate on that end. But I will say that if this is something you want, don't close the idea of living in japan because it seems impossible at this moment. Keep researching, see how other people made there way to japan and the steps they took and keep weighing up options, if this is what you want you don't stop till you get there even if it takes a few years of preparing. Baby steps!

You probably know this but I only found out that recently many japanese families celebrate christmas with KFC 😝I thought was interesting.

Out of curiosity because you mentioned that your ideal life would be alone with your wife away from the world, have you ever done/heard of the myers briggs personality test? I would love to know what your personatlity type is. You can do it here if you are bothered https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test but if you are familiar with it, I'm a ISFJ (naturally introverted). After moving so many times and losing touch with almost all my friend I too don't have many people at the moment who know me and who I can hang out with. Well now that i'm living in the sunshine coast a new territory for me I only know my boyfriend here hahas.

Anyways... I should wrap it up other wise i will keep going on and on. Thank you again for your kind feedback and I am inspired to make more videos 😁

mypersonality.JPG

lol @ this. I am a programmer so my job involves finding problems, figuring out solutions, predicting all possible problems with each of my solutions, solutions to each predicted problem and so on and so forth until I reach a point where I can pick a solution and preemptively fix any and all problems that might arise from each possible part of the solution. As such, having a personality type of "Debater" is actually quite relevant. lol 😱

I never knew these kinds of tests existed until I saw the episode of "Adam ruins everything" where he explained the origins of these tests being (literally) two bored housewives just sitting down and creating it as a fun pass time and that was that. Every learned individual will tell you that these tests are absolutely pointless and thus I said to myself "Well, good thing I didn't know about it and now I will never care" ... and here you got me taking one. lol 😅

As for Japan, unfortunately South African's don't qualify for "Land and get entry" visas. We need to apply in advance of travelling. That is the case with most countries for us 😪 Unfortunately my mother gave birth to me on the wrong side of the ocean so I need to spend my life paying for that greatest of sins

fortunately, though, I have found a way to move to Japan and live there permanently! I can just start a business and then issue myself a visa to work at my business. This is actually allowed! Yeay! 😁😁😁 All I need to do is invest $50,000 into my business and prove that I have a monthly income of 10 times what I earn now. 😱😵 If I can do that then they will welcome me with open arms...

I am still investigating but so far it seems that is the best option for me. That or I must learn German, go to University in Germany, live and work there till I get citizenship and once I am a citizen of a developed nation then I can do what you suggested...

Nevertheless, I am working towards my goal and if I must pay $50,000 to get entry into Japan then at least I now have a definite goal to work towards! 😎🐱‍👤

Hahas I never thought too much about personality tests but this one I found really describe me to the T and I love learning why I do things and why I react to certain situations the way I do and I just being more self aware so I can improve my short comings. I've tried a few other test after this one but none of them really made sense to me as much as this one.

That is very interesting thanks so much for screenshoting i love seeing the percentages on each spectrum.

So happy to hear your japan plan!! That's awesome now you have a blueprint you know it is very much possible for you to get there. Can I ask what got you so into Japan? Have you always interested in japan growing up? and Have you been to Japan previously?

My obsession began in the 90s. At that point I thought samurai were cool but didn't think about Japan any more than that. Then I discovered anime and I loved how not everyone always spoke with a smile on their face, the entire town doesn't join in song every time someone has had 5 seconds of silence in their life... and in the case of Fist Of the North Star, people actually blew up :)

Actually the first anime I ever saw was an episode of Captain Harlock where a young, abused orphan was sent into the forest alone, saved from a wolf by the captain and received a flute from him. Later the flute was thrown onto the roof of the church and while she tried to fetch this prised possession of hers she got blown off the roof and died. Coming from a background where everybody always smiles and sings for no reason at all to see an orphan being abused and dying in a cartoon I just thought "What the heck is this?" ...but I was 8 at the time and only discovered anime for real 9 years later.

Akira gave me respect for the medium and got me interested in having an authentic experience, not the badly dubbed "Sir, he is here, sir. Hmmm? What was that? Is he here? Is that what you said? Well alright then." dialogue. That got me interested in the language and from there I got interested in the religion... then the samurai in detail as I looked into bushido... that got me real interested in the culture back then and now...

Basically, I started looking at Japan because of anime but since then I discovered that I love absolutely everything about the place from their culture, their values, their language, their architecture, Hello Kitty and even Piccachu painted on their airplanes. The more I learn the more I fall in love.

As a child I hated cheese but I loved the Turtles so I started eating pizza and now love cheese. The only thing I don't like about Japan at all (apart from them not wanting me there because my mother gave birth to me in the wrong country) is their love of fish. Bathing naked with strangers outdoors, that I'm okay with. Eating fish... I am trying really hard to condition myself to not hate all fish as much as I do... ;) :P

A country where everyone is taught basically from birth "Don't be a nuisance to other people" and where shop assistants have the motto "Customer is god"... Heck, where we have the habit of saying "Hey" or "Excuse me" to attract attention, in Japan the common say-thing is more along the lines of "Excuse me for causing you effort but...". To quote Sean Connery in Rising Sun: "Their way is better". I apply that to basically everything Japanese...

Anyway, from anime to language to history to religion to culture... the more I learned the more I wish for reincarnation to be true so I can return to this life as a Japanese girl one day so I too can wear that cute sailor suit uniform ;)

THIS, though, is just wrong on so many levels and why I wish for reincarnation to be real! :P

So yeah, it STARTED with anime but my love grew over the course of decades. I have never been, though, and unless I make a fortune with one of my games I doubt I will ever get to go. :(

...but that just gives me motivation to try my best! :D (As they love to say! 😅)

hahahas that video you linked :P Yeahh not the best way to live out your sailor suit uniform fantasy better off being reincarnated.

wow! That's so interesting that your affinity with japan goes wayyyy back, I've haven't had any sort of fascination with a hobby or culture that has surpassed years. I usually get obsessed with something (past obsessions: crocheting, filofaxing, knitting, sticker making, korean/taiwanese/hk the list goes on..) and I usually go really hard out at it for a few months till I burn myself out and I get over it. You must of been japanese in another life time for sure.

I have yet to read your other message because I'm planning on watching Walter Mitty tonight. I've heard the title of that movie ages ago and a few times too but never felt inclined to watch it because I just don't like Ben Stiller :P but I think it's time.

How is your Japanese? Can you speak it enough to get by in japan? I was lucky enough to have learnt a little in high school, it was the only language that was taught at my school but I really enjoyed learning it. Unfortunately I only remember the hiragana now not much else hahas.

I tried to get into anime but I don't think it's my calling. The only ones I watched were Chobits, Fruits Basket, Love Hina, Ichigo Mashimaro and in eng dubbed too (eekkk.) I of course adore all the Studio Ghibli movies but everyone and their mother's do so doesn't really count.

Ahh yeahh I'm not the biggest fan of fish either but I didn't mind salmon sashimi only with a good helping of wasabi and soy sauce. Have you tried natto yet? if so are you a fan of it? Have you been to japan before for a holiday?

I really enjoy your long messages it's like a penpals letters a really good read :D Anyways I'll let you know how I find the movie!

Saludos, como viajan y conocen mundo, yo tengo 40 y lo mas lejos que he ido es al trabajo que me queda a unos 500 metros... quisiera salir y me enseñen a liberarme...

keep going and enjoy

thank you!!

Good video. I have aspirations of being a digital nomad as well. I have been living in China for 4 years and want to earn my income online so that I can travel wherever I want when I want.

Seems like you got that working by doing graphic design. Do you have any idea on how I could earn more money online? I already make money with Steem and crypto and have a website with an eBook, but do you have any advice for making regular income online?

Thanks

Thank you taking your time to watch my video Kenan 😄 What brought you to China?

There are many ways to make money online, it's just about finding what you resinate with most. Here are just a few things I know people do kindle publishing, amazon fba, affiliate marketing, freelancing gigs on various marketplaces such as upwork, guru.com and fiverr, selling digital products such as ebooks on your own site or other marketplaces like etsy or creative market. If you knowledgable in a particular hobby/topic/niche/field you can create a course and build a business around that.

You can easily find a course on any of those topics above from people have created a great money from doing them. You can also check out some of my favourite youtuber that talk about earning money online: 'Project Life Mastery' 'Clark Kegley' 'Chris the freelancer'

Hope that gives you a little idea. Thank you again for your comment!! 😌

I came to China to change up my lifestyle. I definitely made the right decision. I am quite happy here.

I did Amazon FBA but didn't succeed as well as I wanted. I started affiliate marketing with Amazon but I haven't really pursued it. I just post my links in my youtube video descriptions and websites. I have made around $20 so far.

I'm gonna need to look into freelancing more. I just don't know what skill I can offer. Perhaps browsing through sites like upwork will give me ideas.

Thank you!

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