Just call yourself a writer or whatever you do instead of a "digital nomad" which sounds gay as fuck and you should only use if you're building some guru identity to sell ebooks to retards who want to "escape the rat race".

I live in Hawaii, work as a programmer and travel every 2-3 months.

>>1085063
>Locations with fairly low CoL ideal for working at home:
>>Bangkok, Thailand
>>Chiang Mai, Thailand
>>Philippines
>>Saigon/HCMC, Vietnam
>>Cambodia
Agreed re: good lifestyle possibilities in most of these places (I've lived moderately long-term in BKK, Chiang Mai, and for six months in Cambodia, and I've visited VN, although I like the North better than the south).

Note, though, that none of these places will let you stay more than six months per year without a local, real job, except maybe for Cambodia, where for now it's easy to sleaze a renewable business visa (though the government is the most corrupt in Southeast Asia and among the least functional, so who knows when this could change without warning). It may be easy to get long-term access to the PI, too, but I've never wanted to try.
Jobwise...
>freelance writing
>freelance programming/IT work
>freelance English teaching
>freelance copywriting
>selling on ebay/dropshipping
All are possible. Few pay worth a damn. I've done freelance writing, copywriting, editing, and translation, and found it difficult to make a decent living at any of them--you really need to hustle constantly to maintain enough clients, and work a lot to live.

I'm still a freelancer, mostly still writing and editing in practice, but I've since become very specialized, and cery technical in some respects, so it's a different kettle of fish.

I've also been an English teacher, but not freelance--that can also be a decent living in some countries, but it's another case of having to hustle for work a lot of the time, and for people who want a lot of mobility it's less than ideal, as most people want English tutoring fairly long-term.

I don't know anything about dropshipping... does that pay genuine money? If not, it seems like only freelance programming (or IT, or maybe web design/back-end stuff) on your list could be anything like a comfortable living. $10K/year in Southeast Asia is doable, but not at all luxurious.

>>1085068
TEACH ME YOUR WAYS
Do you work while traveling? I have about two years longer for a degree I software engineering and need to pick peoples ' brains about this stuff. The only people I have been able to talk to here about it are doing the usual family and long term stable employment with programming.

What island are you on? Are you a freelancer or did you get hired at a brick mortar place?

Most translation over here (t. Belgium) is still highly dependent on facial contact. The clients still want to know whom they're working with.

If they only see your text, they're only going to treat you like a text-producing robot.
It's sad, but it's true. Most loyal, long-term clients I have are the ones I drop in with every now and then. Talk with their relevant managers every once in a while.

Agency work has its own advantages and disadvantages, and essays can be written on that. It's 3am here, though, so I'm not gonna. If this thread is still on page 3 or so tomorrow, I just might myself.

>>1085086
I don't do real work when I travel. I have a laptop so if shit really goes down I can do something but my goal is to not work when I leave.

I'm on Maui right now. I've worked as a freelance since I was like 19. Have some clients on the mainland, met some property management people here and do some work for them. Also do regular web design/development shit if it's appropriate.

I'd suggest you start trying to find businesses to help. Revamping a website, observing their workflow, helping reduce inefficiency, think of ways to make them more money. Build systems for them. Most tech people can't market themselves or deal with people well so if you can get along with people decently you'll be in a good spot.

This kinda thing would be my dream... but I don't have any skills :(.

I'm making fairly consistant 15k a year doing freelance illustration work.

Been thinking of moving to one of the countries in the OP so I can spend a year or two absorbing the culture and benefiting from the low cost of living by spending more time studying/improving as opposed to doing client work.

Do you guys think 15k (tendency rising) would allow for a life above the 'anxiety' line? Also how difficult is it to find long term housing in these places? I've been doing some research on Bali, and it seems really hard to find a nice, clean safe apartment to rent for one person. (without a 2 year contract that you pay for in advance)

>>1085551
Yea thats heaps bro. Sell your shit and book a ticket already.

>>1085063
Strange choice of locations.
>>Bangkok, Thailand
OK.
>>Chiang Mai, Thailand
Just a big village, absolutely overrun by tourists. Better choose any other city in Northern Thailand.
>>Philippines
No infrastructure, awful food, poor transport, shitty internet.
>>Saigon/HCMC, Vietnam
Most depressing city I've seen in SEA. Hordes of motorbikes will drive you mad. Vietnam has so many better places though.

For a 1-3 month stay I would definitely choose some place with decent climate which means as far from the sea as possible in the hills: Dalat (Vietnam), Banlung (Cambodia), Chiang Rai (Thailand), Tanah Rata (Malaysia).
Among big cities my choice is Kuala Lumpur hands down - best price/quality ratio. Don't forget china too, it's slightly more expensive than SEA, but the quality of life is much higher.

Latin America can be a decent option. You won't have to worry about overstaying so much because you have 90 days in all counties compared to 15-30 in Asia.

Only programming can give you enough income to live decently.

>>1085063
dropshipping is pretty dead though

>>1085551
What you should do is move somewhere you can live on the 15k and use the extra time you have to grow your business to the next level.

>>1085561
The benefit of Chiang Mai is that it is a hub for digital nomads, giving lots of networks and collaboration opportunities.

>>1085063
Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek + Issyk-Kul) is a place you could live this way
pretty cheap and decent internet and not SEA

negative: fucking cold in winter

summer are hot but really dry and there is this huge lake Issyk-Kul on 1500 m height where u can swim in summer

This is the info I'm looking for. I work freelance on TV commercials doing pretty vis. I work from home most of the time. I am interested in finding cheap places to live where I can get short term housing leases and that have good Internet eccess.

South east Asia sounds good but also looking at South america.

Also interested in finding a hot young wife. I'm 38 american dude,

Best way to handle your finances while abroad? I was thinking about having an account back home that would process my pay checks, pay bills ect. It would be great if my clients would not even know I was over seas.

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How viable would something like that be in Europe? Is living in Eastern Europe much more expensive than in SEA?

>>1086115
>short term housing leases and that have good Internet eccess.
>South east Asia/South america.
Parts of Southeast Asia would suit you well, I think, although Internet access varies a lot. It's absolutely everywhere in the region, but not especially fast, and can even be punishingly slow in the poorest/most autocratic bits (Laos and VN in particular--luckily, these are also about the hardest places to live, bureaucracywise). Internet is OK but not great in Thailand, similar in the Philippines, slightly better [but maybe more censored? Don't remember] in Malaysia. But access in some form is always available everywhere. Short-term leases are a bit trickier--they are obviously available, but the most flexible don't tend to be cheap. They're most often furnished, "serviced apartment" types of place, which in major cities can be really steep. Cheaper apartments or rental houses generally expect longer leases. But money is a motivator--if you can pay a few months in advance there is no apartment in Southeast Asia that will refuse you, even if you're an obvious vagrant.

As far as getting married is concerned, if you like brown Asian girls (I certainly do), and you're OK with the fact that a big part of your appeal will be money and/or emigration opportunities, you will be well taken care of anywhere in SEA.

>(No, of course they're not all gold diggers. But the small number of Asian women looking to marry foreigners have complicated motivations that are often financial.)

I don't know the Americas as well as I know Asia; I know that Ecuador has a great reputation as an expat destination, Costa Rica is beautiful and widely regarded as the most liveable Central American country, Mexico is like a Latin American US in its size and diversity, and people in Bolivia are really friendly if a bit shy. I would live in La Paz, Mexico City, and a city other than San Jose without hesitation.

>I know you said South America, and that most of these places are not there...

>>1086565
Thanks for the info. SEA is definitely on my list. I have a friend that rented a great furnished place in VN for 300 use per month, I don't remember what city it was. It looked like a smaller community. They would only rent for 3 months at a time because of the tourist visa.

I heard something on here that the tourist visas in SEA are 15-30 day instead of 90. Is that true?

I plan to steer clear of Mexico. I have been looking at Argentina/ Buenos Aires. I don't know much about it which is part of the appeal for me.

As far as wives are concerned, I'm not too worried about being used for money/immigration. That's an advantage I don't mind utilizing. Also I'm only 37 and have enough redeeming qualities that I think I could find something meaningful relationship wise.

It would be great to find someone hot and educated that speaks english. I know in a lot of countries have a ton of college graduates but not enough jobs to support them.

>>1087239
>I heard something on here that the tourist visas in SEA are 15-30 day instead of 90. Is that true?
It varies, but the standard issue purchased tourist visa is usually either 30 days or 60, but that can usually be extended in-country. The fifteen days isn't familiar to me--I've never had a tourist visa less than a month, and I've been everywhere in Southeast Asia--but that could be a Thai visa exemption when entering overland. If you arrive by plane in Bangkok you get an automatic 30 days in country with no visa, but if you enter over a land border from Laos or Cambodia or somewhere, you only get fifteen days. But those aren't visas, they're exemptions--Thai tourist visas, purchased in advance from embassies, are usually 60 days, and can be extended by another 30 before you have to leave the country and buy another. I can't remember the VN tourist visa length (I was last in Vietnam just under a year ago, but I was on a one-month business visa), but if 90 days is the max landlords will rent to you, that's probably the length of an available tourist visa.
>Argentina
Only visited once, a long time ago. Often likened to Europe, more like America in my experience. Until recently, relatively rich--much more expensive than most of the continent as a result. Still somewhat cheaper than the US, but you won't feel rich unless you're actually rich. Less indigenous than most of South America. Beef and red wine.

Wherever you wind up, do be careful about keeping up with the paperwork--to be "out of status" (that is, an immigration violator) in Southeast Asia is expensive at best (per-day fines for overstays), a real hassle at worst (potential for nasty-prison-arrest and deportation, near-certain blacklisting for future reentry). People always make the mistake of thinking that Southeast Asia is a really mellow, anything-goes sort of region, but it's really not true--both the people, and especially the governments, are A LOT more uptight than their reputation.

>>1087253
Need to educate myself on this visa business. Know of any good resources online for a layman?

Also a question for anyone, what are people using for global portable WiFi hot spots? I know they usually have very limited and expensive data but I would need stop gap Internet access between broadband Hotspots

Always wanted to do this. The only thing I see myself doing is trading. Either stocks, forex or any other equites. I can see it will be difficult and if I ever see I'am not making it I can just come back. Having a good minimum amount of money to trade with you can actually make decent money if you know what you are doing. The only problem is that you will be using all your profits where it would be better if you grow your account. Anybody here who trades as a living and lives abroad?

>>1087265
>Need to educate myself on this visa business. Know of any good resources online for a layman?
Single best source of information will be the websites of embassies or consulates.

Law firms and some general websites do publish lots of info, but reliability is generally poor... Thai-visa dot com, or something like that, has very active forums and a lot of anecdotes related to low-end expat life in Thailand, but it's also largely very angry and at least a little bit crazy--I wouldn't call it helpful for most people, or very trustworthy, and I say that as a former long-term Thai expat.

Good luck!

>>1087282
>but it's also largely very angry and at least a little bit crazy--I wouldn't call it helpful for most people, or very trustworthy
So it's basically better than /trv/ then?

>>1087347
>but it's also largely very angry and at least a little bit crazy--I wouldn't call it helpful for most people, or very trustworthy
>So it's basically better than /trv/ then?
LOL. I consider /trv/ to be among the least 4chan of 4chan's boards; I've found the "trolling:honest attempts to provide information" and "interest in other cultures:racism" ratios favorable most of the time, at least.

But yes, thaivisa does read a bit like 4chan some of the time--expats in Thailand seem to spend an absurd amount of energy complaining vitriolically about Thailand. Both online, as is to be expected, and even in person--it seemed like one out of three people I talked to when I lived there seemed to hate it. I always wondered why they didn't leave.

The only advantage that thaivisa might have over /trv/ for people seeking information about Thailand is that most participants in its forums are actually current expats. So the information, while sourced mostly from socially dysfunctional, angry, middle-aged sexpats, and frequently inaccurate, is at least fresh.

>>1087418
>socially dysfunctional, angry, middle-aged sexpats, and frequently inaccurate
So we're really talking about 4chan then.

But not as stale.

Do they discuss ladyboys?

>>1087418
>LOL. I consider /trv/ to be among the least 4chan of 4chan's boards; I've found the "trolling:honest attempts to provide information" and "interest in other cultures:racism" ratios favorable most of the time, at least.
I'm sort of with you there.

Most of the boards outside of /b/ are like that, even /hc/ has some pretty mature discussion about the porn industry, /ck/ has some really good cooks on it as well as just people daring each other to make the megaburger. /n/ is pretty mature and a genuinely good place to ask for bike advice or discuss transport. Hell, I've gotten useful answers to questions about guns in /k/. They have a bad rep but if you want to know what gun somebody uses in some film and whether it can really do that, they know the answer and are happy to give it to you in pretty polite language.

/g/ is occasionally good if you're within narrowly constrained topics.

/v/ is less useful, I grant you.

These threads are always a bit agitating with how out of touch they are. Unless you are a lawyer drafting legal documents from abroad (dubious way to make a living) the chances of you making a living income from writing, even in the lowest CoL places on earth, is slim.

Being a digital nomad is a waste of time. You're trying to translate your highly developed western economic skills to low CoL countries that dont have much use for those skills. Can you fix a diesel engine? Drive a truck? Do electrical work? Weld? Carpentry? Those are the skills that will get you paid, and if you are good enough to do them well in western economies you will be an all star in SEA or wherever else you go.

>>1087465

with all due respect hombre you don't know wtf you are talking about.

>>1087465
>Can you fix a diesel engine? Drive a truck? Do electrical work? Weld? Carpentry? Those are the skills that will get you paid, and if you are good enough to do them well in western economies you will be an all star in SEA or wherever else you go.
You forgot the 'digital' in digital nomad senpai. In no way is anyne suggesting that a person look for a job in a less economically developed country.

The whole point is to participate in the digital economy charging western customesr, western prices for goods/services/software/skills whilst having the freedom to live and work wherever you please.

As >>1087478 says, you have no idea.

>>1085113
Interesting. But is there any downside of them thinking of you as a text producing robot? I mean financial?

Also, what are the downsides of agency work?

I'm a pretty successful software engineer (was making 200k/yr at a top company) that left everything to travel for a while. Now that I'm gone I really don't want to go back to the same restrictive life- I want to do the digital nomad thing for a bit.

My question is- is there a high end for digital nomad software engineers? I've heard of people making enough to get by, but is anyone making 100k+/yr working for an established company in the US, remotely?

>>1087511
I knew a guy writing code related too DNA sequencing for a US company that would have cleared 100k, but from what I understand he got the job in the US before transitioning to telecommuting.

>>1087503
>>1087503
>downside of them thinking of you as a text producing robot
Well, if they can find someone who is cheaper than you (no matter if they're as competent as you are), many will prefer to have the other guy translate their texts. Translators' wages have been going down steadily over the past 10 years or so, and show no sign of stopping.

>downsides of agency work
Shitty projects (hard, boring, long as fuck, unreasonable deadlines, a combination of any of the above) which you can't really refuse taking because otherwise they might not consider you for the cool stuff. Having to do things unrelated to translation: proofreading, copywriting (which I loathe passionately). I can probably think of some more, but why do that when it's Friday afternoon and you can hit the bars?

>>1087465
Sorry dude. You don't know what you're talking about. Good luck with diesel mechanic school tho

>>1087418
>I always wondered why they didn't leave.
>socially dysfunctional, angry, middle-aged sexpats
They have nothing going for them at home. So they just stay there.And in all honesty maybe living a better life than where they came from. It's one of those slippery slope situations. The longer you stay the bigger of a loser you become.

>>1087544
I see. Thanks for the reply. I might get some translation work for captions, mostly TV stuff. Don't know yet how much it will pay.

>Translators' wages have been going down steadily over the past 10 years or so, and show no sign of stopping.

Well, so much for that.

Word has it that most digitial nomads in SEA are scraping by; they barely make enough to make ends meet.

Can anybody confirm? Those of you in Thailand especially, where there's a huge nomad scene in Bangkok and Chiang Mai.

From what I've seen on digital nomad friendly websites where you can find part-time work and gigs, work is hard to come by and doesn't pay well, and is definitely not reliable.

>>1085082
>I don't know anything about dropshipping... does that pay genuine money?
It can. I have a friend uses drop ship domination and can afford to live in an apartment in Sydney. He sells shit off Amazon through Ebay to America and America only. And I mean A LOT of shit. I met him working 5 days in an ice creamery and when I visited his apartment he was living like a king on his own. No one who works in an ice creamery could afford to live like he did unless they own the franchise.

>>1087511
Yes. American programmers can do this easily. In fact, making less than 100k full time means you're doing it wrong.

But you need to go back to the US and find your clients. Build up your relationship, do lots of face to face meetings, then finally leave the country when you talk them into meeting every few months at most. Also I'd recommend south/central america to stay in the same timezone.

But honestly, 100k is plenty of money to just live in the US. So you have to really want to leave the US. Which I did, for a while, but eventually I got kind of lonely. I never really made close friends with any of the locals. I don't know. Maybe it was the wrong countries. Maybe I'm just the wrong person. Now I just work short term contracts and travel in between.

>>1087870
>Can anybody confirm? Those of you in Thailand especially, where there's a huge nomad scene in Bangkok and Chiang Mai.
SEAsia is the bootstrapping capital, its where the people who haven't made it yet go to stretch what they do have. So yes, a lot of nomads in Asia are the poor ass ones. I was in Chiang Mai for about 4 years and know some people who really hit it big, but there are others who are still there doing the same thing for mediocre money.

When you are your own boss, you only have yourself to blame for not making money though.

>>1087925
Good point. Is there anywhere people still like Americans. Seriously tho

>>1087961
People not liking Americans is a /trv/ meme, except in France, it seems. A lot of Americans feel disliked because many foreigners may engage you in political discourse in casual conversation, which Americans don't do are taught that this is rude behavior/bad etiquette.

>>1087961
>>1087972
No, it wasn't that. People were nice enough everywhere I went. We just never became close friends. Of course, it's been a while since I made friends outside work in the US.

So you know, your experience may differ. Having a local job, where you meet local people might be key.

>>1085063

Full time (as in US W-4 Employee) software consultant here. Most people I see in the DN community tend to have some bullshit travel blogs or some BS like that, lol. They might pay enough to survive in SEA but that's it. Get a job in IT, I don't even know how to code.

How I did it: studied hard in uni, got a finance degree, started consulting for companies that needed software that essentially manages their finances. Besides when I actually have to be on the client site, I'm free to work from wherever I want.

MARS, or somewhere in ALPHA CentARI

>>1088057
alpha centauri dumbass

>>1087991
People wont become close friends with you unless you really get along and have made good memories together. It's just that a person can only have so many real friends and there's million of people out there.

How easy is it to connect with somebody on a freelance website as a programmer? I just want do to something to feel productive. I want to work one single project at a huge discount, I would do it for free but I'd like a client to take it seriously. I can make websites or andriod apps flawlessly.

>>1085063
learn backend dev and stat 101 and call yourself a data scientist
>https://www.upwork.com/hire/data-science-freelancers/
only 2 of these people have any skills related to data science.

>>1088214
REAL FRIENDS
HOW MANY OF US

Planning on becoming a digital nomad in a travel trailer. Anyone else doing this?

>>1088438
Thought about this. I wondered if you could attach a trailer to a nice car or suv. Then drive cross country as an uber driver. Just park your trailer and pick up fares whenever you settle down. I don't know if uber let's you do that.

>>1088222
what do you even do as a "data scientist"?

>>1088564
Pick loads of data and process them.
Crunch numbers, find patterns, make predictions, build models.

>>1088564
fudge numbers for grants

>>1088573
I think you just mean "scientist".

>>1088564
>what do you even do as a "data scientist"?
I'm sort of one, or I have been on some projects anyway.

I basically just did a combination of complicated database stuff and statistical analysis, trying to find useful information out of lots of numbers.

Sometimes it was designing database schema and writing queries, usually it was just trying to think of useful questions to find answers for.

Like a client has all this data, now what can we do with it that will convince them to pay us for more work.

>>1085063
>learn to program kind of
>learn teach others how to program kind of
>offer programing lessons

I travel everywhere now. I give these little 2 month boot camps where people go from 0 to Fairly Competent at Web Dev.

The way I do this is I basically have a list of people in different cities who have helped me organize these events i.e. local marketing teams who take a cut of signup profits.

I normally have these advertising / marketing agencies get me a nice business class seat on their companies' frequent flyer miles .

I find any sort of "workshop" type classes that get signups will let you hop around like this.