has anyone here changed their lives radically and impulsively? like moving to another country out of nowhere, deciding to leave the place you live to become homeless, something like that. and if so, please share a quick story of what you went throught. could be interesting
I was homeless (again) during the great drecession in 2008 and was playing WoW for a buddy for food money and a couch to crash on at one point. Other friends I grew up with came from out of state to play poker and drink.
We had a great weekend and they left. They called a half hour later that their car broke down and they needed a ride one state away ASAP so they could get back to their construction job.
Seeing as I had a car and no job, I offered to give them the ride, just give me gas money to get back to my buddies house.
So I drive them through the night and we finally get to the address they gave me. It’s like Monday at 2am at this point. My buddies say “this is the new place we are renting”. They knock in the door and a guy in a wife beater and boxers reeking like gin answered the door with a loud “who the fuck are you guys!?!?!?”
My buddies say “hey we are renting those rooms from you, and this guy is our ride, can he crash on the couch?”
they haven’t even moved their shit from their storage unit yet. Guy let us in because he recognized my one buddy who signed the lease.
Next morning they admit they lost all their money in poker and didn’t have the money to give me for gas, so I was stuck. Ended up doing odd jobs for food and beer money. Eventually got a job at the construction company my buddies worked at and rented the garage from the guy my buddies rented from.
Lived there for 7 years till I called in sick one time (yes, one time in a little under 7 years) and was immediately fired the next day.
At least I could afford to leave the state at that point.
As a kid, yeah. I moved all over the country. Mainly because I was addicted to drugs and was kicked out of my house, but it eventually turned into a lifestyle.
It’s definitely not all glitz and glam. You won’t feel like you’re in a movie. But it will give you skills almost no one else has. As well as a level of empathy most people also don’t have. I’m very glad I experienced it but I’d never recommend anyone else do it unless they have a fallback.
I sold all of my possessions and have been traveling as a digital nomad for a year and a half. It was the best thing I’ve ever done.
I am interested and am listening. If you want to speak to this more, I would be very glad to hear it. Feel free to answer as much or as little as you care to of course.
Questions I have include:
How do you live day to day, spend the hours, get food, hygiene, etc?
What country are you in?
What problems have you faced and what solutions have you found?
Are there problems you face for which you do not know a good solution?
What is a digital nomad in your definition?
How much money did you have when you started this and how much do you have now?
What is the best thing about it, and the worst thing about it?
What mode of transportation do you use?
Do you think it is sustainable?
- How do you live day to day, spend the hours, get food, hygiene, etc?
I work office hours at US central time, so things don’t really change a whole lot there. I wake up, do breakfast if it’s offered, hop on the morning meeting, and optionally find a cafe to work at.
Many places offer breakfast and lots of hostels have kitchens and refrigerators, so I’ll take one of those eco bags that I got for $0.50 in latin america and buy a few things for a meal, or I’ll eat out, which I do too much.
Hygiene is fine. Every place has showers and toilets - just wear flip flops or shower shoes in shared showers.
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I’m currently in the US. My company’s policy of work abroad changed, so I’ll be back here for a while.
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problems
I’ve learned to be more flexible. Sometimes places have flakey internet, but I have my phone as a hotspot. Your plans won’t always work out and its fine, there will be another way to make it happen. There’s another bus, plane, lodging around. It’ll be fine.
- What is a DN?
Your moving long term and have a digitally oriented job.
- money
I kept my job and I saved a ton of money in latin america. To give you an idea, the cost of my not out of the ordinary apartment plus utilities in Austin, TX came out to about $68 per day. My housing costs in latin america ranged from $10-$40 per day. It’s hard to spend there in a day what I was doing just for rent. And that’s eating out 2-3 times per day.
So I have way more money now.
- Best/worst
Best part is the adventure and seeing the world. Worst might be that connections are fleeting and you need to be ok with the finality of things. I think this is good overall, but what I do is I’ll travel for a while and then settle for a month or more at a CoLive arrangement. Those have the benefits of hostels in the social aspect, but you often have your own room, sometimes a dorm, and people stay for minimum amounts of time, which is often a month.
The conveniences of home can be missed a bit, but then I can rent a private room or a hotel if I want. Also, sometimes I want my me time, but then I retreat too much, so the social aspects of hostels can pull me out of that.
- Transportation
Buses in Latin America are great. I flew sometimes, but I have local transit passes for most places that I went to. Going between cities, I often took the bus.
- Sustainable
I’ve been doing it for a year and a half and don’t see myself stopping. I know people that have been doing it for 7+ years. It’s whatever fits you. You don’t have to fit a mold. You can try it for short term and go back, you can do it on and off, whatever. It’s your life. Live it. haha
Amazing, I think that is all very interesting. It would be nice to be able to feel that free. Thank you for sharing!
Sure thing! Hopefully that can help with ideas I got started by doing little short trips in the US. Maybe you can change things up with some weekend road trips or something
Thanks, yes, I love to drive out into the middle of nowhere myself actually.
In my job before last I invested in a a good amount of backwoods camping gear such as a good quality hatchet, ground mat, tarp, saw, hiking bag, maps, camp stove, and a few other things.
I was able to go out for an overnighter shortly after I had purchased these things to test them, but then I was laid off from my job.
I finally found work again and have not been able to go since, but some time in the near future when the weather is just a bit nicer, I intend to go where there are no other people and just spend about a week out there by myself. This is my type of escape.
As far as actual roadtrips go, at some point I kind of want to do what no one I know has wanted to do, and actually drive north until I hit the arctic ocean. I don’t know why exactly, except that everyone always goes south or east or west. I think it would just be interesting because no one I have ever met has done it haha.
It may be too mundane but it changed my life for the better when I quit a lot of old habits at once, like quitting fastfood energy drinks, and done away with my desktop setup and furniture redecorated that room into a plant room with a sofa and stuff to read… No more RGB lights in this house.
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I don’t know if this counts, but I’m getting ready to travel the world. I’ve got so many countries across different continents marked down that I want to visit, I just need to get my passport! 😅
