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Digital Nomad Budget 101
If you are looking to invest as an expat or high-net-worth individual, which is what I specialize in, you can email me (advice@adamfayed.com) or use WhatsApp (+44-7393-450-837).
Introduction
We live life our own ways, which is the same for digital nomads. In this article, I will give you some tips on how a digital nomad budget looks like.
We all have various priorities for our spending, different levels of wealth, and different practices when it comes to travel. However, there are a few budgeting strategies that we can all take away and use, regardless of how we commute, work, or live.
Some of these budgeting advice for digital nomads will surely apply to you. While some may sound like a no-brainer, there are always new angles to consider when it comes to concepts we may assume we already understand. Take what you need from these money-saving suggestions and apply them to your own travel, employment, and living practices as a digital nomad.
Digital Nomad Budget Tip: Search for Free Activities
There is a constant and perhaps even annoying urge to live as excessively when you are a digital nomad with the opportunity to travel as much as you work. Every new city or nation you visit offers a multitude of intriguing new things to splurge your money on, such as museums and galleries, shopping excursions, tours, and local eateries.
How about you pause first, maybe take a deep breath, rather than succumbing to the temptation to spend your money on every distinct cultural activity that you come across.
Think of basic things. Strolling, taking pictures of the city, and trekking through the adjacent hills and forests are all cost-free.
You can also research what free things the current location you are in offers. Talk to locals and ask around, or simply use your laptop or mobile device to browse online. If you’re into art and culture, museums do offer free admissions like if you’re in the Philippines or in Seoul, South Korea – you only have to know where to look.
It’s an excellent travel hack too! Who knows, these free activities might introduce you to possibilities and activities that you might not otherwise have, such as those that are off the usual route.
Many local guides and nonprofit organizations offer English-language tours in major cities. In comparison to any shady tour bus, they’re frequently free and can provide you a much better view of the city.
Digital Nomad Budget Tip: Use Apps
One of the more basic and obvious—yet frequently disregarded—budgeting advice and travel tricks is the use of budgeting apps. As a freelancer, you are responsible for managing your own funds.
Every penny you earn was sought after, pitched for, and worked hard for. When you’re a digital nomad, spending money on food is a daily occurrence because you may eat as you travel, rather than doing a weekly grocery shop. You don’t have salaries and we often don’t have a fixed rent or mortgage.
You had to labor hard, actively seek out, and pitch for every dollar you make. As a digital nomad, you may not have those weekly grocery shopping lists or a regular rent or mortgage, just as you lack salaries or fixed incomes.
Every day, there are changes in your income and expenses. It would be better if you use budgeting apps since your income is erratic—that is, you occasionally experience extremes of wealth and poverty within a span of a day.
There are a ton of great budgeting applications available, so I suggest testing a couple of them out to see which one works best for you.
A lot of people, regardless of their occupation or circumstance, use Mint, which is one of the most well-known budgeting app. It’s a clever tool that refreshes as you use it and gives you a live record of your spending.
Some budgeting apps do cost money, but they typically provide value if you want to take budgeting to another level and have some spare money to invest. Popular examples of this are YNAB and EveryDollar (plus version), each of which have annual costs of $99 and $129, respectively.
Digital Nomad Budget Tip: Prepping your own meals
Since you’re almost always on the go as a digital nomad, it won’t be too surprising now if you’re also always eating on the go. This, however, is definitely not the most economical course of action.
A life-saving budgeting strategy would be to get a place of your own while you’re a digital nomad and to start developing a habit of cooking your own food if that’s doable for you. Of course, this tip won’t be applicable to everyone. There’s the issue of having a kitchen or tools to prepare your meals – and I haven’t even mentioned if you actually know how to cook, so…
But, if you can do this as a digital nomad, then you can absolutely save more on food. Also check out inexpensive produce from local markets, which is part of the trick.
If you’re not very confident with your cooking skills, go shopping for food that you can easily prepare, such as rice, pasta, bread, beans, tuna, and butter when you arrive at your next hotel, hostel, Airbnb, or housesit.
Not only does it save you from allocating too much time on food preparation, you’ll also get to save a load of money. It’s another one of those obvious but invaluable digital nomad budget tips.
Digital Nomad Budget Tip: Additional savings account
You can accomplish a number of objectives at once by opening a different savings account, such as making a travel and lodging fund, keeping all other items for everyday costs, setting a monthly financial target that will keep you motivated, as well as reducing your anxiety when saving. This is a budgeting advice that works well with using a budgeting app.
Saving in just one bank account can be confusing for some when it comes to separating the funds into various categories.
You can relieve the burden of saving by opening a different savings account and coming to an agreement with yourself about the specifics of such account, like what it’s for and how much must be placed into it each week or month.
You might not realize it yet, but such strategy could also help you ease the mental stress of having to manually account for your funds every time. Besides, it won’t be wise to carry your savings around on a piggy bank.
Digital Nomad Budget Tip: Simplify your tech
We must make sure to fully utilize the capabilities of our tablets, computers, and smartphones. To conserve money and space, we need to squeeze every last bit of functionality and power out of our technology. We can cease spending money and allotting space on unnecessary items if we learn to rely even more on technology.
If all you do on your laptop is write and browse the web, sell it and replace it with a tablet with a detachable keyboard. Compared to computers, tablets are more compact, lighter, and thinner.
Even better, you can create all of your Google documents on your phone by connecting a soft keyboard to it. The newest smartphone and a few minor accessories are more than enough to do all a digital nomad needs to do.
Meanwhile, if you’re still traveling with a large camera that you bought for a hefty sum, why not consider getting rid of it? Nowadays, you can not only take photos using your smartphone but also film videos, as it can act as a camera with professional caliber. You may learn how to do such things from a variety of guidelines and tutorials available online.
If you sell your camera, you can even use the money for other important things to help your budget out a bit.
This is a terrific money-saving strategy and is also helpful for downsizing, traveling more lightly, and living a simpler life without much clutter. You may travel with only hand luggage if you give up your bulkier technology and learn to rely solely on a phone and a tablet. You might also find it to be more comfortable to live out of a backpack rather than a suitcase. As a result, you can cut down on extra flight expenses too.
Digital Nomad Budget Tip: Book tickets beforehand
This is one of those money-saving ideas that heavily relies on meticulous planning and spending the time to browse the internet leisurely and attentively in order to get the best deals.
Establish the practice of thoroughly organizing your trips ahead of time, down to the day, if you can. Also whenever possible, start purchasing all of your travel tickets early and way before your actual trip, whether you’re going on a train ride or riding a plane.
Advance purchases can save you a ton of money on airline and train tickets. If there is a chance that your vacation itinerary will change, you can still acquire your tickets early and add a little premium for cancellation insurance. Even after adding that extra cash, the cost of a flight booked during the eleventh hour will still be much higher.
When it comes to comparison shopping, you must have already heard of the travel and budget tip that relies on Skyscanner. However, don’t forget to look at Momondo, Kayak, Travelocity, Google Flights, and Expedia as well as other flight search engines to find the best bargains.
Digital Nomad Budget Tip: Don’t FOMO
The fear of missing out, more popularly known as FOMO, is a vicious and formidable force in modern society. You can feel it towards anything, really – from the latest gossips, movies, and trends to the most talked-about video game, tech, or K-pop idol concert – as long as you think your friends or even a stranger has caught on something which you haven’t.
To successfully save money and create a budget, you may need to learn to control your own FOMO. Simply consider how much better off you are each time you refrain from spending money on something to stay current with the latest fad. While a night out is quickly forgotten and the most recent movie is seen before being replaced by the next, your money stays safe in your pocket and can be used to make long-lasting trip memories or sustain your life as a digital nomad.
Let me reiterate that as a digital nomad, your financial situation is subject to drastic changes. They frequently veer toward the unknown and are unpredictable. Spending money to keep up with the buzz puts you at danger of running out of money when you need to buy a costly flight or when your subsequent Airbnb turns out to be more expensive than you anticipated.
Prioritize more interesting things that you actually want and need rather than things you simply believe you need because the synergistic effects of hype and FOMO have persuaded you that they’re something you need and that they are vital when, in reality, they are not.
If you frequently cave in to FOMO and hype, try to wait for the next big item to emerge and curb the temptation. When the newest blockbuster is released, avoid going to see it. Skip the online craze. Let a month pass. It will soon be forgotten, and no one will give a damn about it. However, the money you just saved will still be yours. Your budget now has more wiggle room and you’re even a little wealthier as a result.
Digital Nomad Budget Tip: Try service-based lodging
Rent and lodging costs, whether they be in hotels, hostels, or Airbnbs, are often just too expensive for digital nomads. It’s not necessary for you to keep doing this.
In essence, service-based lodging is free lodging provided in exchange for maintaining the property where you are housed. This maintenance typically include cleaning, bringing in mail, taking out the garbage, and – probably the most important task – taking care of their pets.
As a digital nomad, you can live rent-free thanks to websites like Trusted Housesitters, which can instantly change your entire way of life. If you work from home and bring your office with you, you can transfer that office to someone else’s house, live there for a few weeks or months, take care of their dog or cat, and then move on to the next place. You no longer have to spend a single dollar paying for accommodation.
It’s not like things will get awry a la The House Sitter (2015 film) if you heed this advice. I mean, you’re not some Emelie (the 2016 film), right? Besides, this is one of the best and most effective digital nomad budget tip I can give you. One third or even half of an average person’s salary is often consumed by rent, making it the largest expense for a lot of people. Effectively doubling your income would mean taking out this chunk from your expenditures.
Digital Nomad Budget Tip: Embrace a minimalist approach
Downloading apps, opening accounts, preparing your own meals, and other digital nomad budget suggestions on this list can all be done immediately. Others have to do with your way of thinking, how you perceive the world, and how you go about living your daily life. The border between these two categories of budgeting advice is blurred by adopting a minimalist outlook.
You need to think like a minimalist to adopt a minimalist attitude. Think of Japan’s zen philosophy, which saw inner freedom as something that could be attained via simplicity.
The practical side of minimalism is related to the previous digital nomad budget tip on this list, which is to simplify your technology. Investing in tech that is versatile, powerful, and tiny lets you get rid of a lot of other stuff and allows you to move around more freely. Get a Kindle instead of a library. Get a tablet with a Netflix account instead of DVDs. Depend on streaming services like Amazon Prime, CuriosityStream, and Crunchyroll.
You can apply the same minimalism attitude to your clothes as you do to your travels. If you can forgo style in favor of convenience, you can travel with significantly less luggage. Say, a robust hiking boots can replace three different types of shoes and be worn anyplace. The same is true with windbreakers that are light but durable.
You may quickly learn to travel simply and lightly, with only a sturdy backpack instead of a bulky luggage, by streamlining your tech and clothes into only the most necessary and multipurpose items. You can always save money on flights by using this hand luggage strategy.
Digital Nomad Budget Tip: Establish simple budgeting targets
If you don’t establish realistic goals that fit with your personality and lifestyle, saving money, budgeting apps, and minimalist books can only do so much for you. You are the only one who truly knows your needs and desires. The digital nomad budget advice I have laid out here will be suitable for everyone, which is due to a lot of factors like character, employment, way of life, or travel preferences.
Sure, some input here and there can be advantageous, but you should set your own financial objectives because they will work best for you.
Some things to think about as you set your goals include the amount of money you wish to save, your usual expenses, behaviors to ditch, as well as lifestyle changes you can immediately execute.
Pained by financial indecision? Want to invest with Adam?
Adam is an internationally recognised author on financial matters, with over 447.7 million answers views on Quora.com and a widely sold book on Amazon
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