Hi guys, I'm Kristin,
and you're watching an episode of Digital Nomad TV,
which is my weekly show with tips and advice for
aspiring current and even expert veteran digital nomads.
I've been a nomad myself for over a decade and have helped
hundreds and thousands of people, um,
move to foreign countries in the past seven years alone,
and I've been working in this capacity for about the past 12 or 13 years.
So I've seen a lot of the highs and lows of the digital nomad lifestyle.
And today I'm gonna talk to you about how to avoid the lows.
So this is relevant whether you are just planning your journey or you're
starting out, or you've been doing this for many years. Um,
this is something that relates to everybody,
regardless of what your experience level is with a location,
independent lifestyle,
the good news is that humans have been nomadic for millennia,
for thousands, millions of years since the beginning of humanity. Um,
so the only new thing we have is the digital part.
So humans are always nomadic tribal people.
And now we have a digital part.
There's a lot of issues in modern day life that people deal with around the
world regardless. Uh, physical problems from sitting at a desk all day,
mental health issues, uh, uh, addictions to substances, cell phones,
devices, all sorts of things. Um,
health issues from processed food, alcohol,
and just overdoing it in general. Stress, you name it.
We all know the problems with modern day life.
And so a lot of people think that if they become a digital nomad,
they can escape that,
or that by traveling to some foreign place and working for themselves,
that all of their problems would be solved.
And it can in a way, but in another aspect,
nothing could be further from the truth. Um, of course,
working for yourself and being able to travel and have freedom is extremely
fulfilling, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. However,
it can also exacerbate the problems that you might already have
in your life at home. Um,
let's call it the standard modern day life or the standard American life,
especially. So because being a digital nomad is so new,
there's not enough of a structure in place to help people cope with these
things. There isn't enough anyway.
It's even more magnified when you are traveling around the world,
supporting yourself, living by yourself, running a business,
and doing all of these other things, dealing with foreign cultures and just the,
the stresses of travel and, and being ungrounded.
So all of that aside, uh,
the number one reason why people are unable to sustain this lifestyle is due to
lack of funds.
So you need to have money to be able to travel and live around the world. Sure,
you can have a low cost of living, but the responsible,
sustainable way to be a digital nomad is to make sure you have enough
savings upfront and make sure that you have a consistent income stream,
uh, or source of revenue before you leave your home. Um,
if you're going to be traveling, I've relocated thousands of people,
and I've seen people show up to a foreign country with enough money to last them
two weeks, and they just hope that they make it and,
and get a job or something in the first couple weeks or win a big tournament
online or whatever the case may be.
And then they have other people who have overly prepared and saved for a year or
more. And there's really no exact amount that you have to have,
but I think it's smart to have at least three or six months or more of
your living expenses saved up so that you can spend time on your business
without worrying about how you're going to eat.
So I've also polled hundreds of my clients who have
been doing this for 5, 10, 15 years.
And the number one reason that they suggested that their friends and colleagues
failed was due to running out of money. So make sure you have some cash.
The second is cultural differences and inflexibility on that level,
this is something that is very commonly overlooked.
But before being a digital nomad was a thing, there were expats.
So expatriates are people who live outside of their home country,
live and work outside of their home country.
Multinationals would relocate their employees all over the world. They still do.
It's called global mobility.
And they actually have an entire industry and career around helping
these people integrate with life in a new country and be able to do their job
effectively.
So companies could spend tens of thousands of dollars or hundreds of thousands
of dollars just to relocate one executive, for example.
And that typically comes with cultural training and a lot of support.
Digital nomads typically leave home without even thinking twice,
and they don't have that, that sort of training.
They're just basically trying to figure it out on their own.
So there's a very big disparity between what individual, uh,
nomads tend to do and what, um,
multinational companies do to ensure that their employees succeed.
So try to find a happy medium where you're educating yourself
on the places that you're going to be, um,
especially if you're going to be getting residency or changing your tax domicile
or running a business in another country,
and you need to deal with red tape language barriers, things like that.
But also just being flexible on a day-to-day, um,
level is going to be really helpful for you.
So even if you don't have formal training in that,
try to keep that in perspective and integrate that some way,
and don't just take it for granted and with a grain of salt that you'll figure
it out as you go,
because that is one of the most commonly reported reasons why
digital nomads can't hack it long term.
The third reason that I think people give up in this lifestyle is loneliness.
A pervasive,
very isolating feeling of loneliness where you literally and
figuratively feel like you're alone in the world because you typically
physically are, um,
especially if you're traveling by yourself and working by yourself.
This aspect of being a digital nomad,
I don't think has been completely solved.
It's something that is going to be a challenge in some way, shape,
or form to a degree no matter what.
But loneliness is also a challenge when you're not a digital
nomad. So you don't necessarily have to be by yourself to feel lonely.
You could feel lonely, um, in a relationship, in a marriage, in a job,
in your hometown. You can feel lonely with roommates. Um,
you can just feel lonely in life in general. So again,
loneliness can be magnified and exacerbated when you become a digital nomad
because you are physically more alone most of the time.
So I do see a lot of people overcompensate for this by traveling in groups
where they tend to lose themselves over time. Um, they,
their business may suffer because they're spending more time trying to have fun
and not be lonely versus, uh, focusing on their work.
And this is something that each person just needs to find a balance with.
And some people have different personalities that are more, um, introverted,
some are more extroverted,
but you need to find what works for you and think about the long-term game,
not if you're feeling lonely just on one day or one week or one month.
You need to think about how are you gonna cope with this for years to come,
should you want to continue in this lifestyle?
There are a lot of ways to meet people online and in real life,
and you just need to be honest with yourself and and admit when you find
your tribe or when you find people that you're not really getting along with.
So while it's really,
it can be really easy to meet people while you're traveling,
it's also hard to say goodbye.
And this is something that I've had to do again over 15 years,
so I know how it feels. But on the plus side,
you can end up making lifelong friendships, um,
partnerships and relationships with people all around the world.
And the last reason that I think most digital nomads fail is because they have a
lack of clarity. So if you don't know why you're doing this,
where you're going, you'll never know when you get there.
And a lot of people are just looking at the short term,
and they're using fear or unhappiness to
motivate their transition into this lifestyle.
And that's only gonna get you so far.
So you might see a lot of examples online of people who came into the lifestyle
with a lot of enthusiasm and then ran out of steam,
like a year in or two years in. And so if you wanna think about the,
the long-term aspects of this lifestyle,
you need to know what's important for you,
what type of lifestyle you wanna have, uh,
what you want your day-to-day to be like,
and how you're going to deal with things that come up. So, um,
I talk about this in another video on the main reasons why digital nomads
succeed.
And I map out like a step-by-step action plan that you can take on either a
daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly,
even yearly basis to just kind of keep yourself on track
and keep yourself centered,
especially when you're in a lot of different locations.
So I also have a list here from a poll that I did
with some of my friends, clients and colleagues. And I asked the,
the people who had the most experience,
at least five or 10 years of experience living abroad,
what were some of the reasons that they felt they struggled or what were some of
the things that they observed in other people as to why they failed and had to
move home against their wishes?
And some of the quotes from this poll were taking the leap or buying a ticket
without a plan. Too much emphasis on travel, not enough emphasis on working,
uh, too influenced by others, lack of preparation, uh,
lack of a budget or tracking expenses.
I know a few people who've been doing,
actually myself and another girl who's been doing this for I think over 10
years. We both track our expenses every day. So that's a good thing.
You can do two spontaneous inconsistent revenue,
inconsistent savings issues with time management and productivity.
And I also like to add being stuck in, I don't know,
which is when you have too many choices and you end up, um,
not making a conscious decision to pursue any one of them,
you could just kind of go with the flow and get swayed by people that you're
around or you hear a tip and you go somewhere.
And I think that if you aren't clear on what
you're looking for, then again, you won't know when you find it. So in some,
those are the main reasons why digital nomads fail.
So make sure you're planning, you know yourself really well,
you're budgeting and you're sticking to that budget,
and you're clear on why you're doing this in the first place.
I hope you guys like this video. And if you want more weekly digital nomad tips,
make sure to subscribe below. Give this video a like,
and share it with one of your digital nomad friends, and I'll see you next time.