The lifestyle that goes along with working your way around the world can give you a leg up during an economic downturn, according to an article in ComputerWorld:
The trend toward the digital nomad lifestyle, which includes everything from using Starbucks as your office to “extreme telecommuting” — working remotely while traveling or living abroad — has clear benefits. But big cultural changes like this are always resisted, especially by the companies that should embrace mobile employees and by vendors that sell the goods and services that enable extreme mobility.
The article goes on to list six reasons that digital nomads have more leverage in business as the economy gets worse. While I agree with all six points made in the article — I’ll let you read them for yourself — but I think it’s also worth mentioning that switching to a telecommuting lifestyle is a pretty good deal for the digital nomad, too.
Businesses like telecommuters because we’re cheaper, but telecommuting is also cheaper on the worker’s end of the deal.
- No work warderobe
- No transportation costs
- No lunches out
- No donations to whatever cause your coworker’s kids have this week
There are more savings, of course, but right there, you’ve saved enough money for a trip to the nearest beach. When you start thinking about the additional savings associated with traveling a lot — like relying on a smaller set of possessions — can make your expenses drop like a rock.
