nomad4ever

Hi there Visitor! nomad4ever.com is an Asia-centric, established Travel Resource for World Travelers, Nomads and early Retirees. Find here Trip Reports, Tips about Money Matters, RTW Travel, Travel Gadgets, Medical Travel and Retiring early. If you are new here, you may want to subscribe for FREE to the full RSS feed of nomad4ever. Thanks for visiting! ;-)

A Digital Nomad is a person who needs mobile technology to conduct business while on the road which could be within a city, between cities or from other countries. Nomads are not location dependent except through personal choice and could be employed by a business or be freelancers.

This is a growing trend with the uncertainties of long term employment with a single company and rapid changes in emerging technologies, and there is a different mindset required to be successful.

So the guys over at Digital Nomads are trying to figure out what people who seem to live that kind of lifestyle are like and they came up with a meme about it.

Besides FreedomSeeker and Nia, I was asked as well to answer 3 questions about Digital Nomadic Lifestyle:

.

1. What do you feel is the key attitude to being successful in this lifestyle?

It’s probably easier than most people might think.

If you have a low demand in luxury assets, that’s basically it. Reject being a Slave of the World of Consumerism, give up the material temptations of the medial advertised Lifestyle. People survive everyday in all parts of the world. And mainly happier than in developed countries. Why do you always see people in 3rd world countries smiling, even though they don’t own anything? Because they still enjoy life in its basic form and happiness doesn’t come with money.

Why work your back off to buy a Porsche, 2 houses and tailor-made suits; when you can drive an old used Motor-Scooter in a beautiful surrounding, rent a small but cozy flat and sit in flip-flops and shorts at the Perfect Beach, thus avoiding Monday Morning Blues forever? If you tend more to the latter, you can have it. If you want to own all the riches - you can have it as well. It’s all up to you! But make your choice early!

To live Nomadic, it might help to be a bit more mobile or adaptable than the guy next door, meaning to have less baggage in one location but a desire and curiosity to try out something new, unknown or explore other cultures than the one you were born into. Be considered to be an Outsider wherever you go, that can slowly change as you get adapted to your host country.

We live in the Digital Age, so everything internet-related should work naturally for you, if you consider working, trading stocks, publishing, sharing or exchanging views and information online.

Be prepared that things will change all the time around you. Things go their own way, the world keeps moving, even though you are just watching. Nothing is steady. But if you think of change as a chance to learn something new, then you are surely set.

.

2. What is the biggest drawback for you in being a digital nomad?

Currently I don’t see many drawbacks, as it’s the life I always wanted to lead. Maybe at an older age, if you are not healthy or if you want to create a family - some obvious drawbacks will occur or weight heavier.

There are some short-comings currently though; like the lack of a world-class service culture, health-care issues, hygiene, food or environmental standards. Most of the time you have to compromise somehow. But if compromising is your strength, that won’t be too much of a drawback.

.

3. What do you consider to be the minimum essential equipment you currently have or would be buying in the future?

As digital gadgets are concerned I gave up on most amenities which I still enjoyed in a high-developed country like Germany or Singapore. Basically I don’t need Watches, Cars, Divesuits, a CD/DVD-Collection, jewelry, the latest 3G-Handphone or other techie devices anymore. The same counts for DVD players, Big Screen TV or Digital HiFi or Dolby Surround 5.1 Systems.

Currently I’m thinking about consolidating the following 3 gadgets into 2:

• A Digital Camera I need for taking pictures and creating lasting memories of travels and visits to other countries
• A PDA I might try to give up, even though it is surely useful to stay connected - serving as a telephone, mini-computer to check your stocks, store your addresses, e-mail, telephone numbers and MP3’s
• A Laptop is surely a multi-functional gadget I currently can’t live without. I use it to blog, skype, store my photos/data and play a game or two once in a while

Hopefully there is soon a PDA capable of shooting better pictures (at least with 3x optical zoom and minimum 4 Megapixel), then I could see to give up the Camera as a separate gadget. Or I consolidate the functions of the PDA into the Laptop, but then I still might need a cheap handphone, so not really a consolidation at all, mainly only in the overall worth of gadgets, which isn’t a bad thing as well.

Important data I store online and burn on CD’s or DVD’s and send back to my parents for storage, so in case of loss of the laptop I can still recover my data.

What else could be necessary? I’m sure everyone will answer those questions differently than me. Is there any great gadget out there you can’t live without? Please let me know!

Technorati : 3G, attitude, computer, device, digital, dvd, equipment, gadget, laptop, nomad, pda, techie, tekkie

Useful Article? Click here to Vote for or bookmark it!

Hide Sites

If you liked this post, make sure you subscribe to the full RSS feed of nomad4ever!

written by Chris