15 Reasons You Shouldn’t Become a Digital Nomad
There are plenty of reasons to become a digital nomad. Everyone posting their smoothie bowls in Bali on Instagram, lounging poolside with their laptops and incredible adventures each weekend can leave you feeling like you’re missing out.
But is the digital nomad life everything people say? Here are 15 reasons why the digital nomad life might not be right for you.
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1. You Like Routine
2. You Don’t Like Planning
3. You Don’t Have a Financial Safety Net
4. You’re Close With Your Friends and Family
5. You Hate Feeling Lonely
6. You Need Accountability
7. You’re Not Comfortable With Other Cultures
8. You Don’t Have The Necessary Skills
9. You Love Owning Things
10. You Depend on a Stable Workspace
11. You Don’t Love Your Work
12. You Don’t Love Your Work
13. You Don’t Enjoy Making New Friends
14. You Love Having a “Home”
15. You Take Life Seriously
15 Reasons You Shouldn’t Become a Digital Nomad
1. You Like Routine
Routine is sometimes portrayed as a negative. It’s the daily grind of work, eat, sleep, repeat. But in reality, having a level of routine can make life easier.
For some people, it’s relaxing knowing that today is going to pan out the way you planned it. You don’t have to worry about what you’ll do after work or what’s for lunch.
If you like your routine and it makes you happy, then a digital nomad life where you’re constantly in a new place without familiar comforts may not make you happy.
You could consider travelling to just one spot rather than moving all the time. Or try van life where you’ve got more control over your routine.
2. You Don't Like Planning
This one got us. We moved a lot while we were first travelling. Sometimes every couple of days, but on average every two weeks for a year and a half.
That requires a chunk of time deciding where to go next, what the visa requirements are, what cities to consider, which suburbs in those cities, what the connections to the next destination from there are… The list goes on.
If you don’t get a kick out of researching destinations, activities and holidays then you might want to consider a slower digital nomad travel life.
If you live in one city, then you don’t need to be constantly looking for where you’re going next. Check out our post on visas and visa extensions in Southeast Asia for places you could be more settled in.
3. You Don't Have a Financial Safety Net
For us, having a financial safety net gave us freedom. We knew that if we lost our jobs, we needed to urgently travel home or there was an unexpected cost, we had it covered.
This isn’t to say that you need a lot of money to become a digital nomad. Generally, your outgoings each month are going to be a lot less living this way. We share our monthly cost of living for each location, which is far less than we’d spend back home.
There are plenty of ways to manage your money as a digital nomad. We ensure we have enough money in the bank to cover three months' living costs. It isn’t a huge sum but it means that we can take some risks and feel secure.
4. You're Close With Your Friends and Family
For some people, their connections with friends or family mean the world to them. Those special bonds are irreplaceable.
Choosing to travel or live overseas can put a strain on those relationships. You will miss the smaller moments in their lives, just like those at home will miss your milestones.
Consider travelling more locally, within your own country or region or focus on shorter trips and keep coming back to your home base.
Alternatively, plan a trip with your loved ones. Perhaps they’ll get the travel bug and be interested in joining you on your next adventure.
5. You Hate Feeling Lonely
Always being somewhere new, surrounded by new people who may not speak the same language as you can feel invigorating. Or it can feel like you’re isolated.
Whether you’re travelling alone, in a couple or with a friend, being able to connect to people around you will help you feel less lonely. For some people, this takes a lot of effort.
If you struggle to talk to strangers, this sometimes feels easier when you’re travelling than when you’re at home. However, it’s a great idea to practice before you pack up and leave.
Speak to someone while you’re waiting in a line, talk to your cashier at the grocery store or strike up a conversation with your neighbour on a flight.
Practising the skill of talking to strangers will help you feel less lonely wherever you are in the world.
6. You Need Accountability
Most digital nomads work while travelling. With that comes the responsibility to get your work done, no matter how enticing the adventures outside your window look.
Being able to get your work done on the road is something that you need to be able to manage. This is true whether you’re an entrepreneur or you have a boss.
For some people, having a job can give you more accountability than being an entrepreneur can. With the latter, it can be tempting to go surfing and promise yourself you’ll catch up on work in the evening.
For others, knowing that you are the master of your own destiny (and income) will drive you to work hard.
Whatever works for you, it’s a good idea to test yourself with shorter working vacations before taking the big leap.
7. You Don't Take Risks
Life is full of the unexpected. Even more so for digital nomads. Work could evaporate, you’re constantly in unfamiliar places, you’re always around new people.
This means that you’ll be presented with plenty of chances to take a risk. To book the trip, to get in the cab, to talk to the stranger.
This can be invigorating for some people, but terrifying for others. If you’re not a lover of risk-taking, treat it like spicy food. Build up your tolerance slowly.
Look for times in your days when you feel like there’s a risk and you want to walk away. Take a step forward instead. Do the thing that scares you.
Little by little, you’ll find your comfort zone expanding. With that comes more appetite for risk and a willingness to push further. It didn’t hurt last time, so maybe leap again?
8. You're Not Comfortable with Other Cultures'
Our world is filled with people who view the world differently from you. They live, worship, eat and make decisions differently.
This is a good thing! The diversity makes our world interesting and leads to all sorts of wonderful things.
But if you feel overwhelmed when surrounded by new cultures, you might want to ease yourself into this side of things. This will help you build an open mind and see the benefits of those who think differently from you.
You can travel within your own country or try cultures that are similar to yours. Continue to push yourself out of your comfort zone and you’ll learn so much more about the world and yourself.
9. You Don't Have the Necessary Skills
This is more a reason to delay, rather than avoid, the digital nomad life. A lot of proponents of the digital nomad life will tell you to leap and build your parachute on the way down. Which can work for some.
But for us, we knew we had a way of earning money when we left. We also had our safety net and some additional ideas of how we want to earn money. With all this, we felt super secure and didn’t have to head home at the first bump in the road.
Retraining and getting experience in a new industry can be hard and not all industries or companies are open to remote work. So getting started while you’re still somewhere stable can give you a headstart that’s invaluable for when you throw in the additional challenges of full-time travel.
10. You Love Owning Things
Beautiful items can bring us such joy. It could be clothes, items for your kitchen or tools for the shed. People often have a guilty pleasure in acquiring new things.
When you’re living on the road, it simply doesn’t make sense to collect things. Everything needs to fit in your luggage and hauling around more than you need is simply a hassle.
Instead, we focus on purchasing a few things that are special to us. I’ll buy a piece of jewellery to remember a location or we collect photographs!
Minimalism and the digital nomad life are natural partners to a certain extent so you’ll need to give up your love of owning things or find a way to scale it down to items that travel well.
11. You Depend on a Stable Workspace
Some people can work from a small laptop almost anywhere. Other people require multiple screens, a quiet room and chairs with ergonomic support to get through their daily work.
Being open and flexible to work in different scenarios has meant that we’ve got work done from bus stations, airports and once from a moving train. But that won’t work for everyone.
If you have certain requirements for work make sure you plan. This could mean checking out the co-working spaces, requesting office furniture in your room or booking into co-living spaces that are specifically designed to meet your needs.
This one isn’t a make or break to your digital nomad dreams but does require some preplanning (and perhaps purchasing of additional screen once you land in your new home).
12. You Don't Love Your Work
Living on the road is filled with the most wonderful and exotic distractions. Mountains to climb, beaches to explore, oceans to dive into.
If you hate your work, and you have to choose between another day tied to your laptop, slowly filling with resentment, or heading out to live your best life, you can imagine which path you’re going to take.
We all know that looking for a new work can be a full-time job too. So if you add that into the schedule, you can see how thinly stretched you’re suddenly going to end up.
If at all possible, get yourself trained and with experience in an industry that you at least like. Then you’ll have removed some of the challenges from your day-to-day and will have more energy for those mountains, beaches and oceans.
13. You Don't Enjoy Making New Friends
This is basically your new job.
Whether you’re travelling alone or with a partner/friend/lover, you’ll want to interact with other people. Travelling can be a lonely experience otherwise.
Striking up a conversation with a stranger almost anywhere, especially if they look like they’re travelling alone, is a tough but learnable skill.
The goal of each interaction isn’t to make a new best friend. It’s to have someone to eat dinner with, head to the beach with or just find out the best noodle shop nearby.
If you’re very shy, you might be better on a more organised trip where you have instant, ready-made friends on the bus with you. Or bring along an outgoing friend. Don’t let them do all the talking but follow their lead and learn from them!
14. You Love Having a "Home"
This doesn’t necessarily mean a home that you own. But a place that feels like home, whether that’s an apartment, house, town or city.
When we first left our apartment, it felt like home to me. A small part of me thought we’d live back there again. I’ve since realised that that way of life is not what I’m interested in any more and I probably won’t ever return to that apartment.
I do still have the village where I grew up that will always feel like home. And I’m lucky enough that my parents still live there so I get to visit. But that will end eventually too.
Instead, wherever I am, with my backpack, laptop and partner, is where I call home now. That can feel ungrounded for some, but now I’m adjusted to that way of thinking, it’s very freeing.
I don’t need to rely on a specific place or building to give me that sense. I carry it with me.
15. You Take Life Seriously
How serious is too serious? I guess it depends on your definition. However, being able to go with the flow is a key characteristic for thriving as a digital nomad.
If your luggage got lost, how would you feel? If a lightning storm came out of nowhere on your boat trip, would you laugh? If you had to change plans last minute, could you shrug and make a new plan?
Rolling with the punches teaches you to enjoy life, no matter what. And it’s a key life skill whether you’re travelling or not.
Start to check yourself when you feel yourself taking life seriously and see if you can let go a little. Maybe a little bit of laughter would help the situation.
Travelling will also force you to understand that things are not as serious as you think they are.
Final Note
If you’re thinking of being a digital nomad, there are plenty of reasons to take the leap and a few reasons to test the waters slowly to ensure it’s the life you want. If you’re considering stepping into the digital nomad life but still have some concerns about whether it's for you or not, why not book a free digital nomad consultation? We’re here to help you understand the lifestyle. The good bits and the challenges.
