How to Go Location-Independent and Become a Digital Nomad

If you’re interested in becoming a digital nomad or taking your business location independent then keep reading.

Since I moved abroad six months ago, I’ve been really fortunate to live the dream: I run my own small business and get to choose the projects I work on; I live in Thailand where there’s plenty of adventure to be had, gorgeous beaches, and the cost of living is low; I put in a lot of time partnering with other cool folks to work on projects that I’m passionate about but that don’t necessarily earn me income.

The way I prioritize work and live my lifestyle has allowed me to see a lot of the world: Paris, London, Spain, Bangkok, Laos, Phuket, Krabi, Cambodia and much more. The way I run my small company has allowed me to conduct business from Silicon Valley, Wyoming, and Missouri, to Canada, France, Australia, and Colombia. And just for fun, I get to take time out to do things like the Coachella music fest in the California desert with friends, and contribute to projects like Dwight Turner’s In Search of Sanuk mission (helping promote humanitarian causes and people who do good), Brooke Ferguson’s Business Backpacker site, and our new Bangkok Tweetups for Charity (bringing interesting expats and locals of all walks of life together).

I’m not telling you this to toot my own horn. Rather, my whole mission is about getting others to realize that anyone can have this lifestyle!

Location independence will become an increasingly mainstream way of life. As the economy continues to fail us, big companies continue to lay off thousands, job security disappears, and the traditional workplace fails to meet individuals’ needs, you will see more and more people choosing to take their careers into their own hands, and opting to leverage technology that allows them to work from where they choose.

You can live and work anywhere—whether you choose to travel and work abroad, work remotely in a small quiet town, or even simply work from home with your family—and you can cultivate more free time to spend on the things you care about, if you take actionable steps to make it happen.

I have been writing more frequently about my “location independent” lifestyle, and a growing community has quickly sprung up around the term in recent months. So what is Location Independence? It can mean many things depending on who you ask: the location independent community is made up of all kinds of different people:

  • Entrepreneurs who run their businesses remotely via the web
  • Location-Independent Professionals (LIPs) who may do freelance work for clients around the globe
  • “Digital Nomads” or work-from-home folks who might work remotely but still be employed by a company
  • Permanent Travelers (PTs), vagabonders, flashpackers, backpackers, and people who like to take Tim Ferriss-style mini-retirements

The release of Ferriss’ book The 4-Hour Workweek in 2007 was likely the first mainstream conversation piece that got people thinking about the world in these terms, but there are many individuals who’ve been doing it since long before Tim Ferriss made the work-anywhere lifestyle cool.

How Bending the Rules Lets Me Live Like James Bond

When I read Tim Ferriss’ 4HWW, I learned that all the rules have changed. Working 40- to 60-hour weeks and waiting until retirement to do what you really want to do isn’t the only option. The “deferred life plan” is for losers.

It doesn’t cost as much as you might think to live a rockstar lifestyle and jet set around the world, and it really isn’t all about money anyways! Ferriss pointed out that we don’t really want to be millionaires, we want to experience what we think only millions can buy.

By leveraging geo-arbitrage—earning in a strong currency while you live somewhere with a low cost-of-living—extended travel and living abroad can actually present some massive advantages if you choose the right location.

Creating a business I could operate from anywhere has given me the freedom to choose where I live, when I work, and it has enabled me to travel and free up more time to put into relationships, writing, volunteering, and other side projects that might not contribute to my income. Living this lifestyle teaches you that traveling is easier than you think: with a little resourcefulness, you’ll be amazed what sort of great experiences you can have for free or very cheap! You will see some incredible things that will change the way you think about the world.

How to Go Location Independent

I want to encourage others to pursue freedom—the freedom to live and work anywhere, and to live life beyond borders and limitations, so I’ve condensed a lot of ideas from The 4-Hour Workweek, along with tons of other resources I’ve found over the last few years, to put together a primer on how you can take your business on the road and go location-independent:

  1. Research your destination. Check out the current political affairs in the region and find out where the nearest US Embassy is in case of complications. You might also register your travel dates with the State Department in case of emergency or political turmoil. Check the Centers for Disease Control to determine if immunizations are required for your country of choice and get your hands on a copy of your immunization record (sometimes required at foreign customs).
  2. Make sure you have at least 6 months left on your valid passport or else renew your passport with the State Department. Apply for a visa for the duration of your stay in your target country and any other countries you may be traveling through for more than a layover. Check out Passport Visas Express to get your travel documents in 24 hours.
  3. Downsize your stuff. Use Pareto Principle to start eliminating everything you don’t need (give yourself 3 months for this). From The 4 Hour Workweek: “What is the 20% of my belongings that I use 80% of the time? Eliminate the other 80% in clothing, magazines, books, and all else. Be ruthless—you can always repurchase things you can’t live without. Which belongings create stress in my life?…” Sell what you don’t need on sites like Craigslist and eBay, and it might help finance your plane ticket outta here!
  4. Get an overseas travel health insurance plan and nix your current insurance when you leave. If you’ll be gone for a significant time, visit your doctor, dentist, eye doctor & so on and make sure to get prescriptions for the duration of your stay.
  5. Purchase your ticket, starting with a search on Kayak or Priceline. You’ll typically get the best rates when you book more than 3 months in advance, OR wait for the last 2 weeks before your departure. Look for a flight on a Tuesday or Wednesday (also typically the cheapest days of the week to fly) and then search up to 3 days in either direction to find the lowest price. If you plan on traveling for a year, consider purchasing a round-the-world (RTW) ticket.
  6. Automate your finances. Contact your banks, credit cards, and any companies that bill you regularly and let them know you’ll be abroad and need to set up automatic payments. Otherwise set up online banking and auto bill-pay to send scheduled payments (at least $15-20 more than you anticipate to cover the unexpected) to your vendors, utilities, or credit card companies, etc. Cancel your paper statements and have your banks & credit cards start sending you online statements to your email inbox.
  7. At least 2 months in advance, give a trusted family member and/or your CPA Power-Of-Attorney to sign important documents like tax filings and checks for you in your absence, for any business transactions where a fax or e-signature isn’t accepted.
  8. Forward your mail to a trusted friend or assistant who can sort through the junk, scan, and summarize the important mail for you. Or set up EarthClassMail to have all your mail scanned & forwarded to your email inbox.
  9. Take a technology dry run. If you need to be on the phone a lot, set up a Skype account to make voice calls around the world (free to other computer users and starting at just $0.03 a minute to any cell phone or hard line around the globe). Add a SkypeIn number if you want people to be able to reach you with a real-life phone number. If you need remote access to your computer, try out GoToMyPC. Otherwise, consider setting up a portable office on your USB thumb drive that you can pop into any computer at the local internet cafe.
  10. Prepare your financial accounts. Set up a PayPal account if you don’t already have one, to accept payments from around the globe via credit card or direct bank transfer. If people still send you paper checks, it’s convenient to have an account at a large bank with branches near the person assisting you with deposits. For international travel, most vagabonds recommend a reliable international bank like HSBC (which has locations in most major international cities around the globe) or a Charles Schwab checking account (reimburses all ATM transactions + no international fees).
  11. Consider hiring a virtual personal assistant (VA) if you don’t already have one. TimeSvr is a low-cost provider we use for many simple tasks during the month, such as phone calls, making reservations, quick travel searches, small research projects and article summaries. Also try sourcing projects on oDesk, or seeking a VA with AskSunday, Brickwork India, or GetFriday. Learn how to effectively break down your tasks and manage your assistants by reading David Walsh’s must-have ebook Source Control, and check John Jonas’ Replace Myself program to get quality trainings for your new VAs.
  12. Scan your passport, visas, identification, health insurance, credit & debit cards into a computer. Carry a few copies in separate bags with you and leave a few copies with a trusted family member. Email the scanned files to yourself so that you can access them from abroad if you lose the hard copies. If you plan on moving from country-to-country, it’s a wise idea to bring several photocopies of your passport and several 2×4 passport photos for your visa applications on the road.
  13. Downgrade to the cheapest cell phone plan or kill it altogether. Change your voicemail greeting to direct people to your email or Skype account. For instance, “Thanks for your call. I’m currently overseas on extended business travel. Please do not leave a voicemail message as I will not have access to check it while I am gone. If your message important, please contact me by email at ___@___.com. Thanks for your cooperation.” Then set up an email autoresponder to indicate your response could take several days (whatever your desired frequency) due to international travel.
  14. If you really feel the need to be reachable, then consider a quad-band or GSM-compatible cell phone with an international calling plan (most of these plans are horrible though). Alternatively, purchase a SkypeIn number so that your family and friends can dial a traditional phone number that will dial your Skype account or forward to your foreign cell phone. (Also look at Vonage and Google Voice.)
  15. Reserve a low cost hostel for your first few days abroad. For free accommodations check out Couchsurfing or GlobalFreeloaders. Hostel staff, fellow backpackers, and locals will be a helpful source of information for the best places to stay. Once you are in-country, check out the local Craigslist listings or do a Google search for apartments for rent (this is by far the most fun and cost-effective way to stay abroad). Additionally, Hospitality Club is a great site that lists locals who are willing to show you around, and Home Exchange is useful for those who want to swap homes with someone abroad for a few months!
  16. One week out, Tim Ferriss recommends setting a self-imposed schedule “for routine batched tasks such as email, online banking, etc. to eliminate excuses for senseless pseudo-work procrasterbating. I suggest Monday mornings for checking email and online banking. The first & third Mondays of the month can be used for checking credit cards and making other online payments such as affiliates.”
  17. Rent or sell your home, or end your apartment lease. If you don’t sell your car, follow Tim’s advice: “Put remaining automobiles into storage or a friend’s garage. Put fuel stabilizer in the gas tanks, disconnect the negative leads from batteries to prevent drain, and put the vehicles on jack stands to prevent tire and shock damage. Cancel all auto insurance except for theft coverage.”
  18. Put all the rest of your stuff you didn’t eliminate into storage. Pack a single backpack or carry-on bag and move in temporarily with family or friends for the last few days before departure. To pack light, it’s best to set aside a small “settling-in fund”—maybe $300 to purchase clothes and necessities at your destination. Here is Tim’s great pack-list from the 4 Hour Workweek blog.

Click here to learn more about location independent lifestyle design or read on for more recommended resources and tools for living the mobile lifestyle.

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UPDATE: I Want to Make You A Rockstar Contest Winner!

I recently clarified my mission to help as many people take their business online, or go location-independent as I can this year. To help people take back control of their careers in this poor economy, I am offering special social media consulting for new clients this month, as well as discounted blog development services for non-profits and do-gooders. And I asked you guys to help me promote my mission by offering a free Introductory Blog & Social Media Consultation to one lucky participant.

Well, the promotion has been a great success! I’ve had more people requesting services than I know how to handle, and I will probably have to bring in an extra web designer/developer to help all these folks establish their personal brands online or promote their organizations.

I want to thank everyone who took the time to help me spread the word about my mission, whether you told your friends, Tweeted about it, or submitted an entry to the competition. Here are the final five blog post entries I got:

Announcing the Rockstar Winner:

I put all five people’s names into a hat to draw at random, and the winning pick was reader Daniel Hoang—Investor, Lifehacker, Technologist, Analyst, Careerist! Daniel, I’ll be in touch with you via Twitter/email soon and we can arrange a time for your free 1-on-1 consulting call.

I only wish I could help all five of you, but you can feel free to enroll in my free support forums and stay tuned for future tips. Thanks go out to all of you guys!