More often than not, when we talk about paying for our tickets to far-off places, we’re talking about telecommuting or freelancing. It’s rare that we talk about building a full business that we can legitimately earn a full-time living with, no matter which nation we happen to be in this week. The idea of building a business, in a year or less, that will make at $50,000 or more, may seem out of reach.
When we talk about travel in my family, we have great memories as well as a few cautionary tales. When it comes to souvenirs, there’s one story in particular that we tell. It’s been floating around the family for decades now (the events in question actually took place before I was even born), but it’s become a part of family legend.
When you’re planning out your journeys, you have to have an idea of how you’re going to pay for a place to stay, the occasional transportation and the food it takes to keep you moving. But there are a lot of options: you can find a job that allows you to telecommute, freelance for various clients and even sell your own products. Each has its own benefits and drawbacks.
When you’re getting ready to travel, especially if you’re planning to be gone a long time, it’s tough to focus on details like coming home. If you’re planning to travel around the world, perhaps staying on the road for months at a time, home can seem like a strange concept. But having a home base can make all the difference in the world to your abilities to travel.
Nomadesk is running a contest for the best digital nomad story with a ‘Digital Nomad Survival Kit.’ The kit contains a netbook and other gear, as well as a three year subscription to Nomadesk, valued at more than $2,000. There also seems to be an alternative prize of airfare for two to any destination (although there is some fine print).
I came across a way to send a letter from anywhere: Snailmailr. For 99 cents, this website will send two pages anywhere in the world. Extra pages do cost more, but if you need to include an image or a PDF, Snailmailr can print it just as easily as text. The service will even print images in color for no extra charge.
If you visit travel.state.gov, the website the U.S. State Department operates for travelers, you can see a link in the side bar that reads ‘Internet Pal in Trouble?’ When I noticed it, I was excited at first — the number of stories about an American citizen Twittering as he’s being arrested overseas or otherwise getting in trouble where only online connections really have an idea of what’s going on seem to keep growing.
It’s easy to become focused on the digital nomad phenomenon: there are amazing resources available for anyone who wants to create a business they can run wherever they can find an internet connection. Even jobs can be location independent — it’s just a matter of convincing your boss that you can telecommute and still stay focused. But those aren’t the only options when it comes to earning an income and traveling at the same time.
I learn about the places I want to go, more often than not, by reading. The latest culprit who has added a whole list of new places to my planned destinations is Kevin Dolgin, with his book, The Third Tower Up from the Road
In an interesting follow-up to the story of Laura Dekker earlier this fall, an Australian girl has embarked on her own attempt to become the youngest person to sail around the world on her own.
Sixteen-year-old Jessica Watson left Sydney over the weekend with plans to be gone approximately eight months.
The big difference is that Watson did not face any governmental opposition. It’s easy to point at the age difference between the two girls (Dekker is thirteen) as the reasoning, but I’m still not sure that age should play that big a role. Both girls, after all, have already racked up significant hours sailing alone — but Watson actually hit another ship on a test run in September, according to an article on the BBC’s website.
There isn’t any kind of magical change between the ages of thirteen and sixteen that make one girl obviously more trustworthy on her own, any more than there’s a mystical change the day you turn eighteen. The more I think about these sorts of situations, the more I become convinced that they really do need to be considered on a case by case basis.
Lately, I’ve heard of more than a couple of people planning to take off for the unknown with the intention of earning all the money they need to live by blogging about their travels. I hate to say it, but this idea may be a little more than optimistic. I’m not saying it can’t (or hasn’t) been done, but travel blogging may not provide the income that a lot of new bloggers seem to expect from it. Those travel bloggers who make a full-time living from their blogs put in plenty of time — often more than the full-time hours required in an office.
