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The concept of a digital nomad lifestyle is one which has gained significant momentum in recent years, as people re-evaluate what their priorities are. While the idea used to be a pipe dream for anyone who wasn’t between 18 and 25, in a position to take on seasonal work and sleep on any floor that presented itself, now it’s a versatile concept. If you’ve spent much of the last three years working from your sofa with a laptop, a headset and your employer’s permission to work remotely, it may have crossed your mind that you could be doing the same job from a more exotic setting.
Digital nomads are more plentiful at present than they have been at any other time, and the basic concept of it may have led more than a few of us to imagine that it’s a blissfully uncomplicated lifestyle. There are endless resources that make it more practical, from sites that help you find accommodation to overall guides like Digital Nomad World. The good news is that if you have the kind of job where you don’t need to be physically “on the scene”, it is possible for you to become a digital nomad, but it’s not easy. There are things you have to be ready for, and we’ll list and explain the main ones below.
You need to budget well
The idea of the lifestyle is certainly an attractive one – after years of seeing the same streets, shopping in the same shops and hearing the same sounds, a change-up is always nice. But the impermanence of a digital nomad lifestyle can mean you treat it as an extended holiday, albeit one where you have to work. You need to be careful not to spend like you’re on holiday. Yes, the occasional beach day is fine, but as with working in your home country, you’ll still have costs to meet, and you need to make sure you’ve covered them before you enjoy the delights of your new surroundings.
You need to know the technicalities of what you’re doing
If your job entails being in contact with a local office in a specific destination, there may well be a need to ensure that communications are encrypted or secured in some way. Your employer may have a digital mainframe that you sign into. In an office, this can usually be done safely due to internal servers and firewalls and a whole lot of stuff that someone else takes care of. If it’s just you, your laptop and a headset, the same level of security may be tricky to achieve. It’s not impossible, but you need to make sure you can securely do from a catered apartment in your new destination what you could do at home. A chat with your employer’s IT department might be helpful before you go.
You need to know the legal and tax implications
If your permanent residence and employer is in Toronto, but you’re living in Lisbon and planning to move on to Dubrovnik, can you still do the same job? Probably. What about the tax you’re required to pay? Do you need to have a specific visa? In some cases, yes. The point is that there are a lot of variations to bear in mind, and you will need to know what the implications of a move are before you make it. For every country that you move to, you’ll need to know in advance what is required of you if you are working in that country and renting accommodation there. You might not need to do very much at all, but you’ll need to know everything in advance, because contesting it later on won’t get you very far.
