The Ultimate Guide to Becoming a Digital Nomad

What's up guys, Trevor here, and I want to talk to you about what is being a digital nomad and how to become one. And if you ever thought about it, maybe you're searching videos and you're trying to figure out how to start being a digital nomad. And you found this video. It's kind of good because I've been doing this for the last 10 years or so. And what I've learned since I started is definitely a lot.

And it's been good and bad, but I've learned a lot. And I've learned that the most important thing in life is that you are happy with what you're doing, whether it be career wise or whether it just be, you know, hobby wise. You just got to be happy and stay happy, which means being healthy. And it also means, you know, travel and having a good partner and doing the things that you want to do on a daily basis. Now, we all have to work. We often make money. So making money is a big part of that.

And being a digital nomad means that you're going to want to look for location independent, business models and streams of income streams of income that are more passive that you don't need to be in an office every single day to make happen or you know you don't have to be like at a work site or a job site or whatever now i'm here in raja empat which is in west papua. Indonesia it's a great place for scuba diving it's one of my favorite scuba

diving places now Now is my first trip. I've been here for the past week. And during this week, I made quite a bit of money just through selling dropship products and online courses and affiliate marketing commissions and some options trading. I've done a lot of different things while I'm out here. And a lot of it's passive.

And so, you know, it's just important that you start with the end in mind when you're getting into digital nomad lifestyle stuff, because when you first jump into it, it's probably going to be a bit stressful. You are probably trying to decide like where you should start, you know, how much money you're going to need, where you're going to stay. You know, where the communities are at, what kind of people you're going to meet along the way, and what kind of things you'll do on a daily basis.

A lot of people, when they start becoming a digital nomad, the first place they go is Southeast Asia or Central America, South America. Those are two of the most popular. Also, some places in Europe and Eastern Europe as well. The place I chose was Southeast Asia, just because generally speaking, I'm a really chill and relaxed person. And I want to be in a safe environment where I don't have to always be, you know, watching my back so that I don't get robbed or something like that.

And Southeast Asia really appealed to me because even just a long time ago, I found that it's a really safe place. And no matter where I'm at, I don't feel, you know, sketched out or scared or anything like that. Like I'm on a little remote island in Raja Empire right now. But I don't feel like anybody's going to come up behind me and, you know, steal something or try to rob me of my iPhone.

Whereas you know, depending on where I was at, I might be a little bit sketched out and have to be careful. Okay. So, um, different places in the world have different, you know, amounts of safety. And I found that the places in Southeast Asia that I liked the most were Thailand and Indonesia, um, as well as Malaysia and, uh, Singapore, but Singapore is a bit expensive.

So to live cheap and still have a great experience, I found that Thailand and Indonesia were some of the, the two that I liked, and Malaysia was also great as well. Now, I have to warn you, when you first start traveling outside of your home country, whether it be the US or UK or Europe or wherever your home country happens to be.

You're probably gonna be in a bit of culture shock, and the culture shock usually comes just because cultures are completely different in the developing world as opposed to in the developed, oftentimes you'll find the infrastructure isn't very well planned out or built, and you kind of have to adapt to it.

In the western world, oftentimes we can just like take a bicycle and ride wherever we want really easily, stress-free, you know, but yeah, and then we have like nice wide roads, you know, strict safety standards, things like that. In the developed world, it's not so much. You often won't find traffic lights, or if you do, people aren't really obeying them very much.

You know, the police aren't really stopping people for speeding or little infringements like not obeying traffic lights or parking tickets and things like that. They don't really care so much because they don't get paid as much. And police also will often operate on sort of a bribe style income instead of just getting paid from the office or wherever that they work. Right. So just get used to it. The coolest thing about that is that you can really get anything you want almost.

You have to be careful of the laws though. Like if that country does not allow certain drugs and you bring those into the country, that really bad things and harsh punishment can happen. You should be very careful with that. You know, sometimes like the country you're in, the stuff is legal and then the country you're going to, it's illegal, but maybe you didn't know that or you just accidentally packed it and you get there and all of a sudden they find it on you.

Well, that's, you know, really dangerous. So you have to be very careful about that kind of stuff. Now, the biggest benefit of living in a developed country on the other side of the world, which obviously can be kind of stressful for culture shock, but the biggest benefit is the low cost of living. And that's obviously why I started and everybody else starts in Southeast Asia or somewhere else like Colombia or Brazil or Portugal or something like that.

It's just the lower cost of living and still decent living standards overall if you choose a good neighborhood and all that. I happen to have a home base in Bali, and I like to visit Bangkok, Thailand a lot, and other places in Thailand, and other places in Indonesia. I go back home maybe once or twice a year to the U.S. and visit my family and spend some time out there, and I'm working on getting a home base in the U.S. as well.

And yeah, it's quite a journey, because when you first started as a digital nomad, you're probably going to be traveling around a lot. When I first started, I went to Chiang Mai, Thailand, and I traveled all around Thailand, and I traveled into the other Southeast Asia countries like Malaysia, the Philippines. Singapore, Bali, Indonesia, and various other places like Vietnam and Laos and Cambodia. All these countries are really cool, and the people are cool.

The tickets are pretty cheap to get around, and you know, you're gonna be living out of a suitcase for a while.

You're gonna the coolest thing about southeast asia though is that you can find furnished apartments for super cheap like maybe 300 bucks a month or something like that or less um or more if you want to spend more money but usually that's about the average cost and uh you can live you know in basically a hotel room for you know the cost of like less than what rent was at home way less so it's pretty incredible what you can get for your dollar and uh so you know that's what I would do especially

in places like Chiang Mai, Thailand. That's where I started. Chiang Mai is a small city in the north of Thailand and it has a very low cost of living and very friendly culture there as well as a really big digital nomad scene and it's really fun and yeah it's like small city vibes. It's really cool. So check out Chiang Mai and Bangkok is a bigger city.

It's a little bit more expensive but it's also very fun and can be a little bit too fun sometimes for sure but it's very fun depending on what you're into and there's a lot of islands and stuff like that as well in the south of Thailand that are amazing lots of cool places you can go snorkeling scuba diving, and you know overall just have a great time.

So there's low cost of living, which is a great benefit. But also one of the things you're going to have to deal with in exchange for that is visas. So visas can be quite, you know, an interesting process sometimes. When you first start traveling, you can just get tourist visas or a visa exempt usually. But after a while, you're going to have to get some sort of a multiple entry visa or a long term stay permit of some sort.

And every country kind of has their own thing set up for visas for longer term stay people. But generally speaking, it's pretty easy to get. it. And what you should just do is research it and get on board with a visa agency who can help you to get the best visa for you. Don't try to just do it all yourself.

And like, for instance, for example, if you go to Thailand with a visa exempt and you start doing what they call visa runs, where every 30 to 60 days, whenever your visa expires, you do like a weekend trip to a bordering country or something like that. And then come back. If you do that more than three or four times in a six month period, they're going to start saying something to you usually.

And they're going to tell you that you need to go back to your home country and get a multiple entry visa. That's an official longer term stay visa that costs more money but allows you to do what you're doing on a longer term basis. So if you start digital nomading and you find that you really like it and you find that you really like specific spots, then I would just recommend looking into getting a longer term stay permit in that specific area.

I kind of screwed up in Thailand and ended up having to leave because I had gotten too many visa exempts in that time period. And then once you get to that point, they kind of want you to be out of the country for like three to six months before you start coming back again. So I started staying out in Bali, Indonesia, and I got really lucky. I actually met this wonderful woman.

So we were dating and she's from Jakarta. So I actually got to visit and travel around Jakarta a lot and kind of start becoming more of an expat and staying in Indonesia a lot longer. And then the pandemic happened. I actually just stayed in Bali with her and we stayed together instead of me going back to the U.S. What I found is that, you know, digital nomad life is really, really fun, but it can be very tiring. And living out of a suitcase sucks for doing it for a long time.

And it's just nice to have a home base, especially closer to the area where you like to travel a lot. So we decided to establish a home base in Bali, which we both like, which is close to everything in Southeast Asia. And Indonesia is just a wonderful country and it's really cool. And there's lots of cool islands out here and places and things to do. So, you know, the culture is really nice.

Cost of living is really low so everything's great about indonesia i highly recommend it but you know everybody's got their own tastes so um yeah but uh definitely if you come out here like with a significant other you know just understand that the culture shock is going to be for both of you and you're both going to have to work together to overcome it to figure out your new lifestyle abroad um and figure out which country you like just by visiting each one for a short

period of time maybe i would recommend doing like three to six weeks in each location if you just do like one week it's just not really enough to get a feel of the place like a local but I would just recommend doing more research online to find different specific areas and I'll be making more videos like this to kind of highlight different places that I think were really cool and what I liked about them and stuff like that but.

My favorite so far to start in, for sure, that's easy to figure out is Chiang Mai, Thailand, Bangkok, Thailand. Phuket, Thailand is also quite nice, but a bit more expensive. And Koh Samui, Thailand is also really cool. Bali, Indonesia, it's a bit more hectic, but it's really, really nice. And you can also check out Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Go check out Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. And Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

That's, you know, most of Southeast Asia right there. You can also check out Medellin, Colombia, Colombia, and you can check out Mexico City in Mexico is really nice, as well as Puerto Vallarta and Puerto Escondido. There's a lot of cool places all around the world. You can do digital nomad stuff.

People often will do it just in their home country, like in the US, you can buy or rent a van and you can just travel around, you know, different places and kind of just work online using a satellite internet connection, that kind of thing.

And, you know, do that kind of thing. You can do that in Australia. you can do it anywhere in the world but you know you just got to kind of get your stuff together and you got to figure out you know how much life is about to change for you I just highly recommend doing slow travel over fast travel I found that living you know staying one place one week at a time or two weeks at a time just felt like too fast I didn't really get a chance to to really really like you know

live like a local in a city and meet people and stuff like that I also didn't get a chance to like really experience the culture enough and figure out the cool places and stuff so So one to two months is actually ideal, up to three in one particular place before leaving.

I like to call it like seasonal traveling or being a seasonal traveler, just playing a season somewhere. And you can look it up ahead of time, like what's the best season to spend in Bali or what's the best season to spend in Thailand, that kind of thing. I'll tell you right now, Bali, it's best in the winter, sorry, in the summertime when it's cool, which is the summer months. And then Thailand is best in the wintertime when it's cool and dry.

So they're kind of opposite seasons. And so if you end up liking both like I do, you can just kind of hop back and forth between those two countries. And then, you know, go back to the States when you want to see your family and stuff. Both have incredibly low cost of living options and tons of great culture. So I can highly recommend Thailand and Indonesia, Bali, Indonesia specifically for most everybody.

Yeah, so once you become a digital nomad for a while, you'll make probably a decision as to whether you want to stay being a digital nomad and keep traveling around or if you want to settle down and create a home base somewhere. Usually people go through phases of their life, just depending on the type of person you are, what you're working on, the people that you meet along the way,

that kind of thing. Maybe you just like really find a place really friendly and you'd like to call a place home or you just get tired of traveling. Whatever it is, oftentimes after traveling a lot, you'll want to settle down. And then maybe after being settled down for a while, you want to travel a lot after that, too. You know, people have like midlife crises and things like that. And you can become a digital nomad at any age almost.

So, you know, in your early 20s, you know, it's backpacking around or even in your retirement years, you can start being a digital nomad. You can do it even if you have children. You can do it at any time in your life. So don't definitely don't think about digital nomad is something you have to do in your 20s You can only do in your 20s It's definitely something you can do at any point in your life You know, it's just you have to be prepared for it.

Just look up for the visas Exchange rates have your money ready have some sort of location independent source of income ready, And or just an online business of some sort you can run from broad You can even have like a home-based business But make sure you hire people to run it for you that do a good job of it before you leave.

So there's lots of different ways to make money online i have a separate video on that as well if you check out my channel my top 10 ways to make money online favorites and there's lots of different cool ways to make money online to have money while you travel. The key is you kind of have to have a good work-life balance, figure out, like, I'm just going to work these hours of the day and then, you know, hang out these hours of the day.

I'm going to work these days of the week, hang out these days of the week, that kind of thing. It's a really good idea to give yourself as much leisure time as you can possibly have because leisure time is a good time to brainstorm and get good ideas for business and also to relax and just have a good time and enjoy your life. Don't find yourself working Sundays, you know. This lifestyle really calls for taking Sundays off or whatever.

If you want to take certain weekdays off and then work weekends, it's all on you. You're your own boss, right? So do your thing. But digital nomading basically means you got to be your own boss. So make your own schedules and stuff, but stick to it.

Usually I work with project-based timelines. So I have one project I'm working on, and then there's a timeline and a certain milestone, and then I'll take a break after I'm done with it, that kind of thing.

Or just like I just plan trips and then I try to plan projects in between those trips and then during the trips if something comes up but then I'll just handle it really quick but not spend all my time doing it I'm making this video on the beach right now in Rajat Empat because I just finished with you know five days of scuba diving I'm kind of burnt out from scuba diving we're gonna leave tomorrow and go back to Bali so I'm actually like really excited to go back

home and get back to business again but you know again this is one of those things where like you know you need kind of a balance so I've been working for like two three weeks straight on a project so So it's a good time to take a break and take a week off and go to the islands and scuba dive a lot, make some fun videos, you know. You know, have a good time. And that's what being a digital nomad entrepreneur is all about. So yeah, that's about it. I guess being a digital nomad can be really fun.

I definitely can recommend it. I've done it for a long time now. I kind of settled down, became an expat in Indonesia. I got married. So I have my wife in Indonesia. She's an Indonesian woman. So I get permanent resident access, which is great. And it's really easy.

I can definitely highly recommend that if any of the men out there are watching this or even women too, like if you want to go to a country and settle down, it's a lot easier if you get married to a local because then they can get you any kind of long-term permit for super cheap. Another way to do it, of course, is if you're super rich or just have businesses and stuff like that, you can get investor or business visas for not too much money.

And, you know, it's definitely a good idea to have businesses in developing countries. I mean, developing countries are growing at a faster rate than developed countries are usually. And so like, for instance, Bali is just going crazy right now. So it's a great place to have a business like a property management business or real estate investment business. Those kinds of things are going crazy. Just getting like a beach club business or bar alcohol business in Bali is great profit as well.

So there's lots of local businesses you can get into, but every country kind of has their own rules for who can do business and what it costs to do that and stuff like that. And those are kind of things that you have to look into with the lawyer usually or an accountant in that particular country. But definitely consider to that as well. You know, you don't have to just make money online. You can actually settle down and make a business in the country that you stay in as well.

Oftentimes you'll have things like work permits you have to get, like requirements like that, where you have to pay a little bit more taxes, which is, you know, pretty normal. So just get used to it.

So it just depends like what you want in life and, you know, where you're trying to achieve. And just ask yourself the question of like, why do I want to do this? Try to find the answer for that and then try to, you know, see if it's worth all the effort. For me, it definitely was. And I was super happy to be able to... This dog just barked at me. Hi, puppy. These dogs from the Raja M. Pot place are hanging out with me while I make this video. This one in particular is really sweet.

So I love dogs and cats. We have a bunch of cats at our house in Bali. It's pretty cool. So if you guys ever come out to Bali, hit me up. Let me know. We can come hang out. You know, I can meet at a cafe, hang out. If you have any questions about specific stuff with being a digital nomad definitely drop it in the comment section I'd be happy to help with that You know, let me know and definitely subscribe for more cool videos. See you guys out there. Take care.