The BEST Time to Become a Digital Nomad is NOW!
If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that life is full of uncertainties and we only live once.
After spending more than a decade in Los Angeles, I am truly tired of my mundane daily routine. I want to start a new chapter in my life, which is to leave California for good and become a digital nomad, beginning on August 1st, 2021, which is this coming Sunday.
It is a process in the making for almost a year, which involves multiple bold decisions from my perspective. To start, I am going to share with you how I did that. You can take this article as a frame of reference if having a nomadic life is your long-term goal as well. Then, I will break it down why 2021 is the best time to become a digital nomad. At the end of this article, I will wrap it up by revealing where I am heading to.
I wanted to become a digital nomad ever since I finished my graduate school in 2008. However, because I am an architect and the State of California is where I registered my license, my job is pretty much local. Every architect that I know, including myself, has to show up religiously in the office Monday through Friday, if not weekends as well. So being a digital nomad is basically impossible Because that concept just doesn’t go hand in hand with the norm of an architect’s job.
That changed when the pandemic hit Los Angeles last year. On March 14th, 2020, our office announced the work from home (WFH) policy. Everyone packed their belongings and started working from their homes the next day. After working remotely for a couple months, I found that I really enjoy it.
Working from home basically decouples myself physically from the office which is located in Downtown Los Angeles. That means, for the first time since I finished my school, I don’t have to stay in Los Angeles anymore. I suddenly realized that, now is the golden opportunity that I can finally pursue what I had in mind more than a decade ago. That is, to start a digital nomadic life.
However, it’s not as easy as just pack and go like you are going to have a weekend trip. There is a lot of plannings that need to be done before making the jump. For example, I had 2 houses and 1 vehicle in Los Angeles. What should I do with them?
First of all, I decided to get rid of my car, which is a Tesla Model 3 that I bought in 2019. Because of the supply chain issue that caused the computer chip shortage, the used car market is sizzling hot. A lot of people sold their used cars and made a profit out of the sale, including myself. I sold my 16 months old Tesla Model 3 to CarMax and made a net profit of $1348. I actually wrote an article on Medium and also did a YouTube video about the entire process.
Next, I had to decide what I should do with my 2 houses, one is my primary residence while the other is a rental, both located in Los Angeles. Because of the eviction moratorium implemented by the US government which prevents landlords from kicking out tenants whom are unable to pay their rents, it did cross my mind to get out of the rental business for good to save myself any unforeseen headaches. However, for my rental property, I have 3 very good tenants who are young working professionals. It is unlikely that they will suddenly become unable to afford their rent payments, nor will they intentionally not paying rent to game the system like many people are doing these days. So I told them that as long as they stay and pay rents on time, I will keep that house for them. I even promised them in writing that I would not raise their rent for at least another year and a half to give them a peace of mind in this uncertain and challenging time.
Then the remaining question is, what should I do with my primary residence. Should I rent it out as well just like I did for the other house? After all, passive rental income is the best income, right? But after careful considerations, I decided not to do it for the following reasons:
- Finding good tenants are not an easy task. I usually had to interview about 15–20 people before I could comfortably pick one. I am someone who would rather leave the place vacant than taking the risk of renting it out to the wrong person.
- Los Angeles was literally the epicenter of the pandemic in late 2020 and early 2021. Interviewing random tenants which might have a pretty high potential of exposing me to COVID is the last thing that I want to put myself into in the middle of the pandemic.
- The housing market continues to make at all time high due to high demand and low supply, as well as inflation concerns. I could make a pretty decent profit by selling my house which I had owned for more than 7 years.
So I listed my house on Redfin and sold it in April 2021 with a net profit of $245,000 dollars. I did another YouTube video about the entire process as well.
While I was in the process of selling my house, I knew that I also had to minimize my personal belongings in order to have a nomadic life. So I put pretty much everything on Craigslist except my underwear and also did a garage sale. As long as you set the price low enough, people will buy. I set everything to be at least half price or below compared to buying them brand new from stores. I was amazed that some people would drive for more than half an hour to pick up an item from my place just to save $20 to $30 dollars. Anyways, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. You never know.
When the sale of my house was closed, I was able to minimize all personal items to only one backpack and one carry-on luggage. That’s it. The backpack has everything that I need to work remotely, while the carry-on luggage has all my daily essentials such as my clothes and masks.
One unexpected perk of being a digital nomad is that sometimes you can find a place to live for free! For example, when my friend found out that I just sold my house, they offered me to stay in their house for free to watch the house for them while they are out of the country. Burglary rate has been increasing in their neighborhood due to the pandemic, so having someone they trust staying in their house is a win-win situation for both of us. Although I couldn’t wait to start exploring the world, this was an offer that I couldn’t resist. That’s why I postponed my travel plan until now. Since they are coming back next week because their kids need to go back to schools soon, I am going to move out this coming Sunday, and that is the date my digital nomad life will officially begin!
If you are considering becoming a digital nomad yourself, I will say that the BEST time to start is NOW! And here are the 3 main reasons why:
First of all, we have a labor shortage in the market. Employers are having a difficult time hiring employees due to the lucrative unemployment benefits provided by our government. Some people actually make more money staying home watching Netflix than actually having a job. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, by the end of April 2021, job openings rose to an unprecedented 9.3 millions.
This is a workers market. In a workers market, you will find it much easier to negotiate with your current employer not only about your salary, but also the possibility of letting you working remotely for good. If your boss cannot accommodate your request, then quit. The sad reality is, our society doesn’t reward loyalty. Those who jump between jobs every few years in general make more money than those who are loyal to their company. There are 9.3 millions job openings in the market. The chance that you can find one which will allow you to work remotely is at the historical peak now. So don’t let the opportunity slip through your fingers. The only person that is stopping you is just you.
Another reason is, even though a lot of people started working remotely last year, it was not a good year to become a digital nomad. The previous global pandemic was the Spanish Flu which was almost a century ago. So barely any of us had any experience how to react to a pandemic situation, including any government around the world. 2020 was the year of trial and error. You could barely go anywhere without being quarantined for 2 to 3 weeks, not to mention the border restrictions most countries implemented.
After living with the virus for more than a year, most of us, if not all, are experiencing fatigue. It is not healthy to individuals both physically and mentally. It is not healthy to the economy both locally and globally. Without knowing when this pandemic will end, some countries such as UK already started experimenting lifting up most of their COVID related restrictions, despite the possibility that the Delta variant may cause another even bigger wave. Canada will start allowing non-essential travel on August 9th. Singapore is considering a “travel corridor” with low risk countries. The world is finally on the starting line of opening up again.
My point is, in 2020, you could barely go anywhere despite granting the opportunity to work remotely. People moved from cities to suburbs to lower their living expenses, but I don’t think that really fit into the definition of a digital nomad. But starting in August 2021, the number of countries that you can visit are trending up. And because many countries such as Thailand which heavily rely on tourism, want to bring back tourists to revitalize their economies so badly, you can anticipate that there will be travel deals popping up here and there very soon.
Last but not least, thanks to the Federal Reserve which keeps printing money without adding any value to the economy, inflation is going to hit us hard. The cost of living in America is expected to increase in double digits year after year from now on. It is a man-made disaster following the natural disaster. It is not a bullet that we can dodge. It is a hand grenade that the government is inserting into our anus that will inevitably explode in any second.
The United States is one of the most expensive places to live already. If you move to another country, say Mexico or Thailand, you can either cut your living expenses by at least half, or double your living standards with the same dollar amount. One advantage of being a US citizen is that your passport allows you to go to a lot of countries without the need to apply for an entry visa. Before the world finds out that the US dollars actually worth less than a piece of toilet paper, one should definitely take advantage of it while you still can before the music stops.
If this pandemic has taught us anything, it is that life is full of uncertainties and we only live once… If having a nomadic life is your dream like me, there is no better time to start it than right here right now.
So where am I heading? My original plan was going to Cancun in Mexico. But the pandemic is getting worse these days over there and I also found out from the news today that a US firefighter was just kidnapped and killed in Cancun last week while he was celebrating his wedding anniversary with his wife, that made me change my mind as well as my plan.
I am actually going to Honolulu in Hawaii this coming Sunday. I haven’t been to Hawaii before so this is something really exciting to me. Hawaii is one of the few places on earth that you can go these days without the need to quarantine yourself if you are fully vaccinated, which I am. I plan to stay there for the full month of August, after that I will choose my next destination, which I still have no idea where yet. But, this is the beauty of being a digital nomad.
I used to have a misconception that living a nomadic lifestyle is the privilege of the millionaires, I couldn’t be more wrong. In fact, if you are struggling financially in the United States like I once did, living a nomadic life outside the U.S. may actually improve your financial situation and your living standards.
If you want to follow my digital nomadic life and see whether this type of lifestyle is suitable for you, make sure to follow me on Medium or my YouTube channel Nic Studio.
Before I go, I just to emphasize one more time: WE ONLY LIVE ONCE!
