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“How do you afford to be a nomad?” That is the single most common question I get. To answer it, I posted a financial review for my first year as a nomad. Now, a year later, it is time to revisit my finances for my second nomadic year.
Keep in mind that these are my finances, and useful as I hope them to be, they are still only an example of what it costs to live a nomadic lifestyle. Your mileage will vary!
The dates of what I now think of as my personal financial year is 1 August to 31 July.
Expenditures
My second year as a nomad was one of forced frugality, much like my first year.
I’ve spent a grand total of £8,517$13,37286 448 kr. That breaks down to £23$36233 kr per day or £710$1,1157 207 kr per month. This is everything that I’ve spent, including food, rent, travel and fun. (A lot of fun!)
Flights account for 11% of my total expenditures at £979$1,5379 937 kr. This number would be a lot higher if it wasn’t for my airline patron allowing me to fly on cheap stand-by tickets. (Thank you!)
This year, I haven’t spent anything on rent! I’ve purposefully travelled to places where I have friends with either guest rooms or empty apartments that were feeling lonely. I’ve also spent a fair bit of time ‘at home’ in Sweden, the UK and the US where I always have friends and family kind enough to offer me housing. I want to thank everyone who housed me this year! I hope you enjoyed my stay as much as I did!
My total expenditures last year was £12,135$19,052123 170 kr, so I’ve managed to get my costs down. Much of this is thanks to not paying rent (which last year was £2,363$3,71023 984 kr), but I’ve still managed to reduce my monthly costs, ignoring flights and rent, by £72$113731 kr.
Earnings
The purpose of these financial reviews is to help prospective nomads estimate their own finances. To that end, the expenditures section is useful but the earnings section is not. You know best what skills you have and how you can monetize them. Therefore, I will not publish concrete numbers of my earnings.
After my first year of living on savings, it was time to start working. My primary source of income this year has been my website design business. The work is fun and pays well, but it has been hard to find enough clients to make any serious money.
I also planned to start an online electronic-cigarette business, but my business partners pulled out. Thankfully, they did so before I had invested anything more than time and passion into the idea.
I tried to monetize this website by installing the donation buttons underneath each article. However, only five people have made a donation, so I’m not exactly rolling around in donation money. Perhaps it is time to look at advertisement as a way to monetize the hard work I put into this site.
The Bottom Line
I’ve earned roughly the same amount that I’ve spent, so I’m no longer bleeding money. However, considering that I haven’t paid any rent this year, I would not call my current nomadic life economically sustainable. I want to be able to rent a modest room wherever I go and free myself from the need to travel only where I have friends.
I’m also tired of living like a poor pauper. I’m tired of not being able to eat out, hire a car or go to some activity because of money issues. I want to be able to replace my iPod Nano for one where the volume buttons work. I want to afford taxis instead of walking hours to return home after a night out. I’m tired of nursing the same coffee for hours. In short, I want to raise my living standards.
I know I ended my first financial review with the same sentiment, but really, it is now time to establish a new profitable geo-independent career!
Wish me luck!
Hi Gustav,
I’ve just read your latest post and I’m wondering if you have heard of http://37signals.com ? They’re based in Chicago but mainly employ technical remote workers so you could be a perfect fit for them.
I don’t have any connection with them. I just follow their blog which I find interesting (not as much as yours of course! 😉 )
It looks like they’re looking for a designer HTML/CSS coder right now (“writing skills and clear communication skills are a major plus”):
http://37signals.com/join.php
The following posts might help you get an idea of their philosophy:
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3331-seeing-the-world-on-the-clock
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3064-stop-whining-and-start-hiring-remote-workers
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3457-its-not-a-meetup
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3455-its-easy-to-blame-minorities
Hope this helps!
Anthony.
Hi!
Thanks for the tip. Yes, I have heard about them. Looks like a great company, and perhaps I will check them out in time. Right now, I’ve got a few other irons in the fire however. Stay tuned!
Good Luck Gustav!!
Have no personal experience with financial control.. Money comes & goes as it pleases I think.. One minute your sitting pretty & next your wiping your arse with nettles.. Is the nature of life.. Birth, growth, death & decay.. We humans believe we have control but it is an illusion.. We are not meant to have the idealistic perfect life, just learn to draw the best from each experience we have.. Knowing that for all of us there will be a time of wealth.. But will it be the type of wealth we expect??
I respectfully disagree with you. Money doesn’t come and go as it pleases. We spend it. We save it. We go looking for it. We work for it. We sacrifice for it. Sure, there are external factors, but we are not adrift. I have made lots of sacrifices to prevent my savings from depleting too rapidly. Through my choices, I’ve controlled the way I spend my money, and through other choices, I’ve earned money along the way. Am I the omnipotent master of my destiny and economy? No, of course not. Am I an important factor? Hell yeah!
Where I do agree with you is that if we find ourselves in bad situations that we are unable to work our way out of, then remembering that the situation may change by itself gives hope, and learning from bad situations what we can earns you wisdom.
Can not believe how well your words resonate with me!!
I do not always follow in your beliefs I guess, but you give me perspectives I haven’t yet explored I think.. I feel your passion in your writing..
I do believe we can utilise & alter our existence through money..(it becomes by our use an energetic expression of who we are & follows the direction we place our focus).. You had me at adrift.. But that is perhaps not a money issue but instead in fact one on purpose.. I have sought it out in the past & had it on occasions, but even that changes.. It is a feeling that bubbles up within.. Go with it & it will stay with you for a lifetime, grasp it to tightly & you will choke the life out of it as it disappears & leaves you bereft..
I have learnt to be frugal.. It has seen me through many financially rough patches… I have also been blindsided by things I just never saw coming.. & like most people I have been affluent (or at least I have not wanted for anything as such.. For someone with great financial wealth, maybe I have always been a pauper..lol).. So I know what your saying & I hope you find the direction that will allow you the freedoms money can buy..
I liked your board game analogy.. But I think I might have sought out victory points before I had the finance to sustain myself to the end game..(haven’t ever played the euro game you referred to so sorry if that makes little sense..)..
Im surprised web design & other technological work is not seeing you through in this day & age.. Think you have the greatest chance of finding that which will work for you.. You seem to have a purpose & direction, I think once you have that, coupled with the passion of pursuit you will be victorious!! Don’t stop!! Not unless your heart tells you to 😉
Smile always 😀