The Pros And Cons Of Being A Digital Nomad

Last Updated on 16th May 2024

This post about the pros and cons of being a digital nomad may contain affiliate links.

“Digital nomads are a type of people who use telecommunications technologies to earn a living and, more generally, conduct their life in a nomadic manner.” – Wikipedia

Alongside sharing as many travel tips, destination guides and a plethora of other travel related content, I also want to really delve deep into my life as a digital nomad and freelance travel content creator (God, that sounds wanky, huh?) 😂

I frequently get asked a tonne of questions relating to being a digital nomad, freelance writer and blogger so I wanted to start a new series of posts on my blog sharing as much information as I possibly can.

Today’s instalment is all about the pros and cons of being a digital nomad and helping you decide whether it’s really something you’d like to pursue. As much as I’m not the biggest fan of the term ‘digital nomad’, it is really the best way to describe that kind of lifestyle and it allowed me to pursue my life of full time travel while creating travel content for myself and other people at the same time.

If you’re wondering whether it’s something you might be interested in, check out all the pros and cons of being a digital nomad to help sway your decision!

Pros of being a digital nomad

You’re in charge of your working schedule

One of the biggest appeals of being a digital nomad for me was the ability to be completely in charge of my own working schedule and the content that I create.

While I never exactly struggled being told what to do when I was in full time employment, my best work always occurred when I was in charge of an idea and had the creative freedom and control to pursue it how I saw fit.

As a digital nomad, you’re completely in charge of your working hours and schedule; you really are able to design the life you want to life. (This is actually something I go into in great detail in my ebook – Project 2020 Vision).

You can travel and see the world

Of course, alongside being completely in charge of how and when you work, the other biggest pro of being a digital nomad is being able to travel and see the world.

I’ve always wanted to travel the world and as soon as I decided not to go to university, I knew that I wanted to make travelling full time (or at least as much as possible) my new goal.

Living on the road with Matt and having the freedom to travel to as many places we want really is the gift that keeps on giving as there’s no way we’d be able to do that if we were still in traditional full time employment.

You have so much freedom and flexibility

Speaking of freedom to travel, you’ll also enjoy so much freedom and flexibility in other areas of your life when you’re a digital nomad.

Only want to work four days a week? Want to take two weeks off to get your PADI qualification in Fiji? Wanna take a road trip around America? You CAN as a digital nomad.

As long as you’re making enough money to cover your necessary expenses, you have so much freedom and flexibility to live the life you want.

There’s no limit on how much money you can earn

Following on from the point above about having the freedom to do pretty much whatever you want, you also have the freedom to make as much money as you want; there’s no upper limit or salary cap.

You’re not relying on a capped monthly wage, instead, if you want to earn more money that month, you have the means and resources to go after more money.

Obviously, the amount of money you earn is directly correlated to how much you work, but if you’re willing to work hard and invest your time in something that you’re passionate about and that brings you so much joy, the money you earn will feel that much sweeter.

You get to meet and work with so many people

Another excellent positive in favour of becoming a digital nomad is that you’ll get the chance to meet and work with so many different people.

Many countries around the world have some sort of digital nomad scene where you’ll find co-working spaces, or even just a group of nomads working in a hostel lobby.

It’s a great opportunity to not only meet new friends, but also to bounce ideas off similar kinds of creative people, almost like you would with colleagues in a typical day job.

There’s so much inspiration everywhere

Some of my best ideas for blog posts have sparked from island hopping in Thailand, on top of a mountain in New Zealand or scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef.

My point is, when you’re a digital nomad, inspiration can strike pretty much anywhere and when an idea pops into your head, you have total control to run with it in any way you like.

You’ll have an improved quality of life

Of course, this point is somewhat subjective to each individual and depending on what your life looked like previously, but when you become a digital nomad, you may find yourself experiencing an improved quality of life.

Before we started travelling and working online full time, our lives were far from bad or any kind of negative at all, but once we started travelling and working for ourselves, our quality of life improved because we were living for ourselves, rather than working just to earn a paycheque and keep the big bosses happy.

Your money goes further – digital nomad pros

Of course, this entirely depends on where you are in the world and the kind of work you’re doing as a digital nomad, but typically speaking, you can probably expect your dollar to go further.

When we were travelling Southeast Asia, we spent significantly less than we would have living in the UK as everything is just cheaper. You can make your money last much longer if you’re living in places such as Indonesia or Cambodia, as opposed to the UK or America.

You’re not trading your time for money

One of the biggest things that corporate companies ask of you is to literally exchange your time for money.

Financial freedom is a goal that Matt and I continue to go after every single day and I’m a firm believer that being a digital nomad will allow me to achieve that goal much sooner.

Working for other people prohibits you from doing so many things and trading your time for money when you’re not really fully invested in what you’re doing is such a shame.

Once you’ve found something you love and you’re wholeheartedly passionate about, you’ll never truly feel like you’re working. Instead, every day that you get to work on your own projects will feel like a blessing.

Cons of being a digital nomad

You’re responsible for everything

On the flip side of enjoying being in charge of everything to do with your business or online venture, you’re also faced with the reality of being responsible for everything.

This can include everything from your taxes, chasing invoices, obtaining new clients and work, web design, creating content and so much more. It’s an absolute pleasure to have so much creative control, but remember that it does also come with its downsides when you have to do absolutely everything yourself.

There’s very little structure or routine

Thankfully for me, I’ve never been a huge fan of routine. I hated the mundane routine of “waking up, going to work, coming home, blah blah blah” that I had when I was in my old day jobs – it just wasn’t for me.

However, if you’re someone who does enjoy structure and routine to your working life, then you may struggle somewhat as a digital nomad as there’s virtually no routine to your daily life.

Whether you’re constantly on the move and travelling to new cities and countries, or you’re working on different projects everyday, the lack of routine can sometimes take its toll.

If you don’t work, you don’t get paid – digital nomad cons

Unlike traditional employment where you benefit from paid annual leave and sick pay, being a digital nomad doesn’t really come with those perks. Basically, if you don’t work, you don’t get paid.

A life of full time travel sounds (and is) amazing, but the reality is that if you do decide to “take time off” for a week, you’re probably not going to get paid.

Of course, there are many ways around this, such as to build a reliable passive income stream (I’ll go into that in much more detail in an upcoming post), but typically speaking, you do have to work to get paid.

It can be difficult to find and maintain a work/life balance

I spoke about this in much more detail in my post about how I manage a blog and business while travelling full time, but one of the downsides of being a digital nomad is the difficulties you’ll face with maintaining a good work/life balance.

The desire to go out and explore every day, compared with the need to work to earn money is something you’ll have to learn to deal with when you’re a digital nomad and it’s important to determine your priorities so you don’t face too much hardship when it comes to finding a good balance.

Bad Wi-Fi = no work – cons of being a digital nomad

For me, one of the worst and most inconvenient parts about being a digital nomad is the impossibility to work when there’s bad or no Wi-Fi.

This is especially frustrating if you have an upcoming deadline for a client but you’re staying on an island with terrible Wi-Fi signal and constant power cuts (this happened to us frequently when we were in Gili T in Indonesia).

It’s very difficult to work online when you can’t actually get online, so you just have to be prepared to face these kinds of inconveniences if you think the digital nomad lifestyle might be for you.

Homesickness

I suppose this point isn’t directly about being a digital nomad, but if you are travelling full time and working online, you’re likely to experience your fair share of homesickness.

Missing my family and friends back home in the UK was one of the worst things about travelling for me, and the FOMO that you’ll experience can also be pretty tricky to deal with.

However, alongside finding the work/life balance as a nomad, you’ll also have to find a happy medium between feeling homesick and enjoying the new life you’ve created.

Now that you’ve been introduced to some of the pros and cons of being a digital nomad, has it swayed your decision at all? Do you think it’s something you’d like to do? If you have any more questions or want to know more, send me an email or message me on Instagram as I’d love to help!

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