There are SO many ways that you can support and fund your nomad lifestyle!
Consulting/freelance work. If the work that you currently do can be done pretty much anywhere, but your company doesn’t evangelize the remote work lifestyle, why not take your skills, knowledge, and network with you? You might have seen in my first post that I was working my “dream job” before I went remote, but the only con of that job was that they wouldn’t let me work remotely. With my background in both consumer research and project management, I knew that these were roles that many times a company doesn’t have a full-time use for. So I marketed myself as a consultant in these areas to fill in the gaps or work on special projects where they don’t need a full-time employee. I get to set my rates and boundaries, and it ends up being cheaper for them than a regular employee position. And guess what? The company whose dream job I left became one of my first clients! (So don’t burn bridges on your way out either, it may work in your favor!) Don’t know where to start finding clients? Put yourself out there on LinkedIn and check out Upwork as a place to get started.
Maybe you want to work in scenic places, doing more service-oriented type of work for a shorter period of time. Coolworks is one of my favorite places to get inspired about all the beautiful places I could live without a serious commitment while meeting like-minded folks and interacting with the public. Many of these jobs even come with housing options too! Note that this is a site for jobs in the US, so be sure to check visa requirements if you come from outside of the country.
Do you enjoy sharing knowledge? Teaching something you are knowledgeable about is certainly an option! The most common teaching job among nomads is teaching English online, and there are TONS of companies out there that are always looking for English teachers (both online or perhaps in a place that you would like to travel to). But it’s not just limited to teaching a language! You can share how to do pretty much anything with anyone online! Udemy is one of the most popular places where one can share and teach their skills online through recorded videos.
Speaking of sharing knowledge, I just recently got my yoga teaching certification because it’s something that I very much enjoy and want to share, and a yoga teacher is something many places around the world are regularly looking for. You probably won’t make much money from teaching yoga around the world unless you have a massive following, but many yoga teaching gigs offer housing and meals at a minimum - and let’s be real, the accommodations are often the most expensive part of living! Yoga Trade is a website devoted to yoga teachers seeking gigs around the world. While most are in exchange for room and board, you can occasionally find the paying gig here too, and sometimes in high-end luxurious accommodations!
If your focus is more on cutting back on the big expenses like housing, rather than bringing in more income, there are a multitude of resources out there to find volunteer exchange positions to get you to where ever in the world you are longing to be! Some of my favorites are Worldpackers, WWOOF, and Workaway.
House and petsitting is a wonderful way to support your travels if you are an animal lover. While this is typically an exchange for housing on most platforms, you may also be able to use this experience to build up a paying clientele. Trusted Housesitters seems to lead the pack as far as number of sits around the world go, and I’ve personally been using this site for 5 years now that has led me to some fantastic places and travels. If you join with this link, it’ll get you a nice discount on your membership fee!
If you have an RV and are sick of the Walmart parking lots in between your epic stays, check out Harvest Hosts. This is such a great idea, where you can stay a night at a farm, winery, or brewery (and some other cool locations too). A low membership fee, and a small purchase at the location is all that’s required to enjoy these outside-the-box RV locations! (As a brewery geek, now I just need to find the version of this that lets those of us without RVs stay in these places too!) :)
Some outside-the-box options could be living on-site where you are learning something. For instance, when I did my yoga teacher training, my housing and meals were included in that - so I got to live on a gorgeous beach in Thailand for a month while I spent my days learning how to teach something I am very passionate about. The food was awesome too! Something else I’ve been looking at is a skydiving licensing program: at the facilty I’m looking at, they offer free accommodations in their bunkhouse if you purchase their Class A License “in a week” program. The best part is that you don’t even have to finish it in a week - so presumably you could stay there for a month of so while learning how to skydive!
There are so many different avenues to living a nomadic life of freedom, and I’m sure I’ve barely even scratched the surface here! Let your imagination run wild with all the things you have to offer the world where ever in the world it is that you want to be!
