What Does It Take To Be A Digital Nomad?

Digital nomads are growing in numbers and earning ever-increasing incomes not tied to a geographical area.

Co-work spaces are cropping up in cities around the world that cater to digital nomads.

So what is a digital nomad?

Digital nomads are people who use telecommunications technologies to earn a living and, more generally, conduct their lives in a nomadic manner.[1] Such workers typically work remotely—generally from foreign countries, coffee shops, public libraries, coworking spaces and even recreational vehicles—to accomplish tasks and goals that traditionally took place in a single, stationary workplace Wikipedia

What started as a small trend has turned into a lifestyle that gives us a glimpse into the future of work. According to Pieter Levels there will be 1 billion digital nomads by 2035

Many cities are seeing the trend and are actively competing to attract digital nomads to work in their cities. Some cities are offering a digital nomad tax to foreigners to legally live and work in their community. They are building fast internet services, digital work spaces, and internet cafes to attract this new type of worker.

Blending work with leisure, digital nomads tend to live happier lives and move around a lot.

We have fast, cheap internet, fast, cheap air travel, so many freelancers, everybody’s almost a freelancer, nobody’s marrying (or fewer people, at least), and everybody’s dating everyone. There’s no ownership, so I only have a laptop on my back … Like nomads, we’ll move around the world. We don’t own anything. Most of us, what we do is rent, use Airbnb, or stay in hotels, we buy food, that stuff. We don’t cook ourselves so much. Pieter Levels

As a traveler, I love making money that is not tied to a specific geographic location and is not based on a specific time schedule.

I work very well with deadlines and tasks that need to get done by a certain time but love the flexibility of choosing when I actually do the task, so working online is a good fit for me.

Here is a video of a group of digital nomads from around the world sharing their insights about this lifestyle.

Digital Nomads: The Documentary

One of the top hubs of the digital nomad movement is in Chang Mai, Thailand. Fast internet, cheap living expenses, and easy transportation to the world makes Thailand very attractive to digital nomads.

This video talks about How Thailand Perceives the Massive Influx of Digital Nomads