I need to vent.
Everyone all the time asks me how can I afford traveling all the time. I work remotely and have a corporate 10 years long career, I don’t have kids and don’t have a car or an apartment. I speak 2 languages and used to be the most hardworking person ever to make my career. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still from a poor country and I don’t make big money, I travel on budget, but in my country I would be consider above average in terms of money. I’m great in managing money, I provide for myself and am independent for 10 years and I used to live for only $275 a month.
Also as a digital nomad I travel to live in a country, I’m not a tourist that spends much money every day.
How do you deal with it? People tell me all the time that I’ll get broke or that I should work more or that I have a sugar daddy. They ask me if this lifestyle isn’t expensive. Obviously it is, but having kids also is super expensive.
The most funny thing is that I meet people that makes literally 10 TIMES MORE than me and they are jealous and ask me of I could advise them to make more and how much they should make to afford being a digital nomad.
I suspect that it has to do with two things:
- You not having kids
- Your ‘refusal’ to settle down and develop ties to a specific place
People who don’t procreate and who wander around rather than staying put solely identifying with one group identity are always going to be shamed. Wrongfully so, but still, it happens. It’s a sad fact of life
Why though? It really triggers people for some reason.
I personally don’t care what people do with their own lives, it’s none of my business. But damn, people have really nasty things to say about how I live mine.
I can only speculate. My best guess would be that people have some innate fear of anything that endangers continuity, i.e. the continued existence of the tribe. People who go their own way are subsconsciously seen as a threat because they demonstrate that cliches about belonging and procreation are just that, cliches, concepts that bear little relation to reality.
I can answer this from the perspective of having a SIL that is a failed DN.
It’s because she shows up expecting to stay at my place for free disrupting our schedule and eating all our food while she figures out who she can mooch off of next.
She is homeless because she doesn’t want to pay for a place while traveling but she always wants to crash at our place when she needs to or she’s deciding where to go next. So, she wants it both ways which is bullshit.
By all means, live your life however you what but when it affects my life you can fuck off.
I don’t go to work to provide a crash pad for someone else.
Man that sucks. Had a couple of places (one after the other) where I didn’t need to pay rent when I was gone, because either the apartment was small with the roommate owner or they weren’t using their apartment and were just waiting to sell it once they got settled into their new place well enough. I’d never just crash indefinitely at someone’s place without discussion or payment.
You’re so right! I feel so shamed that I don’t want to buy an apartment and get stuck in one place.
Absolutely no shame in your choice! Don’t listen to them, we totally understand! Finding some like minded people might help?
Who buys an apartment tho?!
In my country it’s like a must and a success. People take 30 years mortgage just to have 40 m2.
If i would buy something it would be a house but never an apartment, it is just throwing your money away. Yeah you can rent it out when it is paid but too much trouble for it
I’m in the US and real estate is super expensive - a lot of people start by buying a condo and either rent it out later or sell for profit to buy a house.
No, in my country actually renting apartments is a good business. Many of my friends have 2 apartments and they rent out one. We don’t have buildings that are owned by one company and they rent it out. Every apartment is owned by a person. It’s much different than in different countries.
Stay strong OP!