There are two factions here, the “be honest, there are plenty of jobs for honest people” crowd, and the “lie and actually get a job” crowd. It’s time you joined us in the later group :)

I spent a decade building a software engineering career, am a department head right now and start to restructure my department now in a way, that when I step down as head next year I can travel full time while being a developer in said department again.

Heya

I have been a digital nomad since 7+ years now and the best part?

I met a financial advisor during my stay in a country and he helped me strategise how to make $10k/month in digital nomadic lifestyle

Have a remote job at home and just started traveling. No one ever really asked where I am and when they do I just say at home. If someone new asks, I say “I am based in {city}” so basically a lot of people are just lying to their employers. But employers don’t have your best interest in mind so I’m not going to have theirs.

Most people pretend they’re in the us, work remotely and commit tax fraud among other things

The trick is to apply for local jobs in the US, not “remote” jobs. Any website that has all remote jobs listed on it will be super competitive.

But applying to local companies in mid-sized cities will be significantly easier AND still often have remote positions (especially depending on experience or if you’re cheap).

Many many companies went to remote whenever Covid happened & not all of them went back to being in-office. Some went back to in-office, some went to hybrid, some are still completely remote to save money on office space.

So you need to find these local mid or small sized companies that probably don’t have the biggest advertising or recruiting budget & get them to hire you remotely.

It’s not rocket science.

Web developer here but I’m not making crazy money at all. But I have a very flexible schedule.

What helped me was placing myself in a situation where I had to force myself to find remote jobs and having nothing to fall back onto if I failed. Started way back in 2013.

Point is you like where you live but you would also like to get a foreign income. So, my question is if you have something to bring to a company, I guess you are pretty well positioned to register an LLC, s-corp in the US. And start approaching companies with what you do. Then sell your business services without the need to be physically in the US, or anywhere as you demand that in your b2b agreement.

That**,** my friend**,** is called the nomad way. Now**,** regarding the social media narrative about nomads, it’s a well diversity universe of people selling digital stuff, whether it is a service, products, or knowledge.

When I mean products, it could be both digital assets like print on demand products, or even real products that might be like Amazon FBA type. Which means that each of these things by itself isn’t anything close to ponzi schemes… that’s too naive… but contrary, it requires other skills that you seem to have not developed them yet.

Get skills, learn how to sell skills, find a job, become a contractor for that job. Upon negotiations tell them you’re going to travel slowly, this is key. Start job by building trust that you can get your stuff done. THEN go become DN.

I personally know how to code, read data, and used skills for conversion rate optimization. Make low six figs, super proud on this one. Traveling is awesome. I do hostels cause I don’t mind getting to know people and saving. I got super lucky, but key is that I know I can sell my skills if I get laid off, but also get shit done. Also put myself in a position that I am needed. No one else can do my job besides the manager.

I had the same idea as you, but for Colombia.

How did you get hired with a local firm? Did they sponsor a work visa or something?

Also, if you don’t mind, how much is the Brazilian company paying you? Or maybe you could just say: 20% of the normal USA salary.

British DN here. Worked in Construction for Main Contractors doing the Quantity Surveying (Cost Management for US ppl) for 5 years. I quit after 3 years of being a Trainee/ Assistance and went Freelance in London for a year, which I was heavy recommended not to, and arguably far too young or inexperienced to do so, but I bullshitted my interviews and it threw me in the deep end and I became really skilled and experienced very quick.

I took a break to India/ Sri Lanka, then came back did more Freelance saved up £7k and went to Mexico as wanted to live life in Sun an get out of the hell hole that is UK these days.

Had 2 ideas for making money:

1. Teach English so I got a TEFL cert while sneakily at work those last 3 months in UK. Cost me £150 and was all online. Passed. That’s my back up if anything ever goes wrong I can always make money somehow as a native speaker.
2. Set up Export Management Company. I tried hard with this but inevitably gave up after first year because I was running v low on cash, it was wayyyyy harder to break into clients that I wanted to work with and I was completely out of my depth LOL

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It didn’t matter though… because I found out I could actually do the QS/ Estimating work remotely… effectively helping Trades/ Subcontractors price jobs an do estimating.

I emailed around ALL my old managers/ linkedin contacts and one old manager had gone solo and set up a small construction firm of his own. We negotiated a 50% pay cut on my rates, but flexible hours and I’d just charge a day rate for his Estimating needs.

He introduced me to a small Bricklaying company and charged him for me (taking a %). He told me he’d only “take a tenner” (£10) but me an the Brickie found out after 6 months he’d been taking £50 (so charging the Brickie £200).

We cut him out as he was actually a lying prick, and we decided to go it alone at a meet-in-middle rate of £175. That was 2020.

I’ve since built out his entire Bricklaying Company into something professional, with all the top Construction certs, and doubled his Turnover (during Covid). We just did our record year and next year looking to go for £1 million turnover. His biggest job was 3 houses and we’ve now done 21 Homes in both 2022 and 2023, and began doing enormous Care Homes and have been able to bring his Brother back into the business.

We do everything digitally - all Whatsapp based/ Whatsapp groups for projects. We have a Dropbox plan, and highly organized folders. We do Zooms/ Teams with clients. And as he is in the UK he attends meetings and I do everything by email/ zoom or Skype-Phone plan also.

My rate increased yearly from 175-190-skipped a year- then this year I agreed £220 a day. I work about 3-4 full days each week, varies a lot. Invoice bi-weekly £1300 to 1500.

I use a Florida Registered LLC so as a NRA I pay no tax. I don’t make more than £35k per year, and it’s expensive everywhere except Asia and Argentina. Hot Spots in Mexico are so expensive these days with Peso getting stronger.

Seek to limit your Expenses & Taxes and live cheaply. Always live like the locals. Make friends with locals not nomads. Learn the local language. Talk to taxi drivers everyday. Become friends with Cafe an restaurant owners. Befriend your airbnb hosts. Your network is critical.

I spend a lot as I have special diet requirements also - Carnivore/ Keto. That also makes it hard to travel. I also don’t drink or smoke. This means lack of “partying”, but that used to make me lonely & depressed even surrounded by a crowd.

This is the best life I could imagine for myself right now and I’m always grateful.

Just this year - Thailand, India, Indonesia (too far actually timezone killed me), Argentina and Colombia. I’m writing this from a $30 USD a night studio in Bariloche. Will be hiking in a few days once I’ve finished my tasks and opened up some free space.

I used to do a lot of manifestation/ The Secret stuff but now I just set my mind to what I want and then I go for it. IDK who or what is helping me but without a doubt I’m always looked after and I find that things take care of themselves. Osho & Zen Buddhism helped me a lot.

The world is getting much more expensive, but third world countries are getting more developed… there’s always a new amazing spot the hippies have found - just gotta find them.

Don’t pay attention to idiotic social media influencers. First rule.

After applying that, it really is as easy or difficult as you want to see it.

It is as simple as generating income online, you can get a job, be a freelancer or start a business. But don’t think it will be easy, people overvalue their effort, how many quotes did you send to say it’s not working for you? How many jobs did you apply for? If the answer is 100 it is little, if it is 200 it is little, if it is 500 it is also little, nobody knows. That it is COMPLETELY POSSIBLE to earn income to live as a digital nomad is a fact, I am from Uruguay and I have been doing it for years and many of my friends have made the transition, partly seeing my experience.

But there is no magic recipe, think creatively, try several different ways, find a way that works fairly well and try endlessly with that formula. It’s a matter of time until you get it

I think a lot of digital nomads with western salaries were that before covid and just transitioned. I think far less got western salaries after covid and moved appbroad.

Point is the easiest way is to the prove value/experience and negotiate from a position of higher value.

I work as a psychotherapist (in the USA), but travel to new countries every few months (tourist visas).

I spent 2.5 years in grad school then worked a handful of years to build up my career. Then took the plunge to live abroad after some big life changes. After having a solid footing in my career, THEN I made the fully remote push.

While the “digital nomad life” seems glamorous, it is not for the faint of heart and it is not usually long lasting for people. It is certainly not “vacation” mode. I spend Monday-Thursday inside my apartment (an AirBnB) working, then get to go out on the weekends. While it is generally cheaper to live abroad than in the US, it’s not an astronomical difference.