If you are intrigued by the thought of working remotely, here’s what it’s essential know, with financial and lifestyle suggestions from those that’ve been doing it because the early days of digital nomadism.
Live the digital nomad life: Can you are taking your job with you on the go?
Nora Dunn, a content creator and former financial planner, is a longtime nomad. In 2006, she sold the whole lot she owned – including her busy financial planning practice in Toronto – and went traveling. She was burned out from work and realized she wasn’t willing to attend until retirement to pursue her lifelong dream of traveling. What if for some reason she couldn’t do it when the time finally got here? “For me, the cost was more than selling everything I own,” says Dunn, who shares her adventures and travel tips about her blog. The Professional Tramp.
At the time, “digital nomad” wasn’t yet a term, and the approach to life Dunn pursued felt as foreign because the places she would visit. There were few resources for long-term travelers, comparable to online forums and meetups, and few employers were willing to rent nomadic employees.
Of course, the pandemic modified that. What began as work at home has change into work from anywhere. Some Canadian employers even encourage their employees to explore the world. For example, communications company Media Profile offers a “Work Away” profit that covers as much as $3,000 of worker travel expenses.
Countries are also joining in. Until recently, digital nomads operated in a gray area – they weren’t eligible for work visas and made maximum use of their stay for tourist visas. As an answer, countries comparable to Greece, Portugal, Croatia, Iceland and the Bahamas have introduced digital nomad visas or permits, a lot of which have been introduced because the pandemic to permit foreign distant employees to remain for as much as a yr. (And if you happen to’re eager about working as a digital nomad in Canada, our federal government announced a brand new one on June twenty seventh six-month digital nomad visa for foreign tech/STEM employees on the 2023 Collision Conference in Toronto.)
Not all nomads sell their possessions and surrender their careers like Dunn did, nevertheless it’s becoming increasingly common to see your colleagues from one other province or country joining a Zoom meeting.
How many digital nomads are there?
Although there aren’t any exact numbers, it’s estimated that there are 35 million digital nomads worldwide, with Americans making up the bulk. A 2022 study by MBO partner reports that 16.9 million American employees describe themselves as digital nomads – up 131% from 2019, before the pandemic.
But Canadians are also organising home offices outside of their homes – based on Statista, Canadians make up 4% of the digital nomad population, rating fourth behind the US, UK and Russia.
