Travel Series

Why I’m Going Back To The 9–5 After 2 Years As A Digital Nomad

The Things No One Tells You About The “Freedom Lifestyle”

I remember the days before becoming a digital nomad. Scrolling through Instagram and seeing pictures of laptops working on idyllic beaches with some sort of caption about a “freedom lifestyle.” At the time, I was sitting in a grey office in grey cloudy London. These images captured my interest.

I spent a year persuading my boyfriend to take the leap with me, and then another year saving up. Instead of taking the traditional route of saving up to buy a house, we wanted to save up and see the world. We didn’t know what we’d do when the money ran out, but we had the feeling we’d figure it out.

We ended up traveling for 7 months around Asia until covid hit. As I mentioned, we had our savings, so during these 7 months, we didn’t need to work. When covid scuppered our plans (we took the very last flight out of Siem Reap, Cambodia on March 23rd, 2020), we used the lockdown to brainstorm ideas and start a business. We also decided that we’d do it from Spain. Alvaro (my now fiancee) is Spanish, and we were lucky enough that his parents had a spare/empty house for us to live in. I’ll save the stories about the business journey for another time as they deserve 1 if not 100 articles of their own.

Most likely covid influenced my experience of the digital nomad lifestyle. However, I think it’s important to share the less glamorous side of “the freedom lifestyle”, as it’s not always as it seems on Instagram. These points are the things I found particularly hard. I know not everyone will agree with me, and that’s what I love about Medium. We can share and discuss how we feel!

Friendships — I think this was one of the hardest things for me. It’s not that we didn’t meet people and make friends whilst traveling and during our time in Valencia, we did. But, I missed the deep relationships you forge through time, through living experiences, and going through life (good times and bad) with them. I missed the best friend I’ve been lucky enough to have since the day I was born. My other best friend with whom I spent our wild years exploring the nightclubs of Birmingham, and the other who was my very first “work bestie”. I found the digital nomad and ex-pat communities to be very transient. It was near impossible to have long-lasting friendships.

On the flip side, I loved the opportunity to meet people from a whole range of backgrounds, experiences, and circumstances. But for me, not having my close friends nearby or the ability to make friends (and know they wouldn’t move on next week) was far more negative than any positive.

Money — there really is something to be said for having a steady paycheck. During my time as a digital nomad, I did freelance work on the side of starting a business (I am still starting this business alongside my new full-time job). Having a 9–5 comes with the comfort of knowing that you’re going to get paid a certain amount on a certain day every single month. As a freelancer, I found it near impossible to predict when and if I would get paid. Some clients didn’t pay on time, and one didn’t even pay her very last outstanding bill, despite me doing the work. (Yes, I made a mistake delivering the work before payment and that’s a lesson I learned). I found that this was pretty common within the freelance world. To make it more difficult, there is not much protection for freelancers. I’m in countless Facebook groups with others and it’s sad to say this issue comes up daily. Freelancing is one of the most popular ways digital nomads earn money.

The problem here wasn’t the money alone, but also the stress that it caused. I was almost crippled with anxiety when one particular client wouldn’t pay, despite me knowing that what we had delivered was more than they had even asked for.

I’m now in a position where I know I’m getting paid every single month, and also, I can use some of that income to bootstrap our business.

Financial freedom — having a steady paycheck, provides us with that feeling of being financially free. This paycheck means we live in the house that we want. I can’t tell you how great it feels to not be living out of a suitcase. We can also have the things we want without worrying about where our money will come from. And, we can do the things we want in the evenings and on weekends. I’ve always worked very hard, and I had a successful career before leaving to go traveling. I know I’m lucky to have been able to re-enter the job market with a slight promotion to where I was before.

I always see people talking about the possibility of having both time and financial freedom. I don’t believe that both, in conjunction, are possible. If you have financial freedom, as in, you can afford to do whatever you want, then it’s likely you’re pretty successful in whatever it is you do. Building to any level of success within a business or career takes time. It also takes time to maintain and sustain. When you have great financial success, you have responsibilities too, especially if you have a team that runs a lot of your business processes for you.

Whilst I no longer have time freedom per se (I have to work 5 days a week now, instead of choosing my hours), having a paycheck gives us the freedom to do pretty much anything else we want with our lives. As well as funding our business.

Did you know that to have true financial freedom (as in, the “I never have to work again, can fund everything I might ever want, put my kids through school and give them everything they want,” type financial freedom), you’ll need $25 million in savings?!

Routine (or lack of) — this is something that doesn’t affect everyone. Some people (my fiancee included) are great at sticking to a routine. I am not one of these people. I am someone who can easily snooze my alarm, skip a workout and decide to take a day off if I feel like it. The consequence of this is that I lose motivation for what I’m doing. I am most motivated when I have concrete goals, a time to wake up, and a gym class scheduled. I work in sales, so my goals are concrete and keep me motivated. I also love having the accountability of having a job. Since starting work, I’ve been more consistent with my business and with writing on Medium. When I have less time, I find I procrastinate less and accomplish more.

Not having a place to call home — along with financial stressors, is the hardest for me. I love traveling and seeing the world. I also don’t mind jumping around from hostel to hotel. However, I love my house. I love my house is full of my things and my comforts. I enjoy having a summer wardrobe, a winter wardrobe, a few pairs of shoes (I’m not an excessive clothes buyer by any means, but I like having options). I also like controlling what I’m going to eat each day, having my fridge full of food I like and I love cooking. That’s another thing I missed, especially in the traveling phase.

In the words of Dorothy, “there’s no place like home.”

I saw that my fellow contributor to the Coffee Times, Lorena, posted this article about having doubts whilst traveling.

It’s true, traveling is not always easy, especially when it’s for long periods. What you see on Instagram, doesn’t always reflect reality.

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