It’s easy to find articles about people quitting their jobs to be social media influeners and full time digital nomads. While that’s great for them, it’s not realisitic for most people.
You don’t have to sell your house, quit your job, and start a blog to get some of the benefits of a nomadic, travel-filled life. Interested in a low risk way to try it out? Then this article is for you.
If you follow the steps in this article you can go live and work somewhere else with almost no stress. If you like it, you can do it a few times a year or (like me) do it full time.
What do you need?
You need a job that let’s you work remotely almost all of the time. A trip to the office now and then (especially if they will pay for it) is fine, but you need to be remote day to day.
You also need a bit of disposable income to let you keep paying your mortgage while renting another place temporarily.
That’s it. Really!
4 Simple Steps
- Pick a cool town 6-8 hours away from you by car
- Pick a short term rental that has essential items
- Pack lightly w/ about a week’s worth of stuff
- Go and explore. Maximize your time living in the new spot
We’ll unpack each of these more but it’s really that simple to get started. Don’t sell your house or put your belongings in storage.
Picking a Place
Our goal getting started is to do something that’s both low risk and different from normal life. Don’t sell your house or buy a camper yet! If you have a bit of disposable income you can explore being a digital nomad with no loss if you don’t love it.
Why 6-8 hours away?
You need to get away from your home or you won’t experience anything new. 6-8 hours is a reasonable drive for most people and gives you lots of options that will be interesting but not exotic and scary.
You’re not moving to SE Asia (I did once but it’s not simple). You’re going from the middle of Ohio to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee or something like that.
Why a week?
It takes at least a week to experience an area and know if you like it or not. A night or two is fun but you’ll only see tourist spots. You won’t shop for groceries, explore random parks, try local restaurants, etc.
Bonus: If you travel to and from your destination on the weekend and you have a fully remote job you don’t have to use PTO to relocate.
Why “a town”?
You need access to short term rentals, high speed internet, and enough conveniences to not make this seem like primitive camping in the national forests. Save that for a vacation.
You’ll be working full time so your time to explore is in the mornings, evenings, and weekends. If you’re in a cool town that’s really easy to do. If you’re in the middle of nowhere you’re not going to do much exploring.
Will any town do?
In fact, no. Some towns and cities don’t allow short term rentals like AirBNB and VRBO. Others won’t be interesting to you.
Make a short list of 3-5 things that you like about a community and look for places that have most of those.
My list is:
- Walkable and bikeable - I use Google maps, turn on the bike route layer, and look for lots of green lines. I also look for sidewalks around my rental (noted below). Biking is my main form of exercise so long trails somewhere nearby are a must
- Rentals available near downtown - I want to get done with work, put on shoes, and go out the door. Rural living is not for me when I’m exploring
- Reasonable weather - I spent two months in upstate NY in the winter. Great while I was snowboarding. I was locked inside the rest of the time
- Breweries - I prefer to cook most of my meals because I love cooking, but I also like to visit breweries. Adjust this based on your preferences.
Picking a Rental
Don’t overcomplicate this because you’re only staying for a week. If you have the bare essentials you’ll be fine. You need to decide on a few things so you can filter appropriately:
- What’s the total price you can afford for the rental? Filter this immediately so you don’t see mansions you won’t be renting anyway
- What are your required attributes? Examples include: dog friendly, two bedrooms so two people can work, stairs/no-stairs, etc. You’ll need to set these filters right away.
Some towns don’t allow short term rentals so it pays to use the map view, zoom out, and scroll around.
Tip: Look for college towns. They’re built to support large groups of people who only visit for a few years. They tend to be walkable and easy to explore, have entertainment, lots of rentals, and are generally fun and probably different from where you live. I don’t think the value of a walkable town can be overstated.
Read the Reviews
Don’t skip this step! If there are a lot of recent reviews that are bad, move on. If the host has more than 3-4 properties they are probably an investor landlord and that generally means they’ll do the bare minimum to make the properties be nice. I’d skip those places too.
Once you have a rental in mind, give yourself a very limited amount of time (I suggest 1 hour) to book it.
People don’t have trouble picking between bad options and a good ones, but a lot of people are terrible at picking between two good options. If you’re considering multiple good options then it doesn’t matter; just pick one. Setting a timer forces you to make a decision and move on to the fun stuff.
Packing Your Stuff
You don’t need much stuff for a week. Seriously, you don’t. You don’t even need a full week’s worth of clothing because washing is a thing you can do.
Your bag
Start by setting out a bag. One bag. It can be your biggest one but you’re only going to use it for all of your clothes and toiletries. You can have other bags for your work stuff, pet stuff, etc. But you aren’t moving permanently and the less stuff you take, the lower the stress will be to get settled.
Your clothes
A few tips on what clothes to pack:
- Pick simple clothes that can combine together in multiple ways; this will let you take fewer clothes
- Pack layers - If you wear a t-shirt, thin sweatshirt, and a waterproof jacket you can be comfortable in most weather all together, or mix and match to adjust to climates
- You can and should plan on doing laundry - You’re not going on a cruise. You can wash clothes. If you have 3 days worth you can make them last 5 or 7
- You can buy something you forget - Make a list of what you actually think you need and then trim it down as much as you can, and go
Your non-clothes
You don’t need much. It’s just a week. But there are a few things I recommend:
- Medicine and chargers - Just don’t forget these. Double check. Triple check
- Exercise clothes - It’s important to keep your exercise routine going in case this becomes more than a 1 week adventure
- Desk stuff you need - pens, paper, wireless headphones, etc. Think through your work day and make sure you have what you need. This is critical if the stuff you’d forget is expensive
- Basic must have kitchen stuff - I travel with a good knife and at least a few spices. AirBNBs will have plates and forks and stuff but I’ve found the knives tend to be garbage and that matters to me.
Go Explore!
That’s it. Trying out a nomadic lifestyle isn’t really that hard or complicated. Give it a shot!