How To Fund Your Nomadic Lifestyle

Are you ready for a long-term escape from everyday life? Perhaps you’re tired of the stress and monotony of a traditional lifestyle. If so, you’re not alone, as there has been a significant increase in people interested in leaving it all behind and traveling the world. The nomadic lifestyle is freeing, inspirational, adventurous, and a choice many wish they had considered sooner.

Before you quit your job, sell your house, pack your bags, and hit the road, you’ll want to ensure you have the means to sustain the nomadic lifestyle.

Start with a Budget

The first step is to figure out how much you’ll need to be a nomad. At the bare minimum, you’ll need to pay for living accommodations, food, transportation, clothing, healthcare, mobile phone, and internet services.

However, if you plan on keeping your house, renting storage space, or have other financial obligations you must sustain, you’ll need to incorporate these into your budget. With careful research, you can get a general idea of how much you’ll need every month to travel for a living.

More reading:

• 7 Ideas To Save Money On Your Travels
• How to travel Europe on a budget
• Tips To Save You Money on Travel
• My simple digital budget and financial planner

Evaluate Your Savings

How much money do you have in savings that you can use to fund your nomadic adventure? Ideally, you should keep a cushion of at least three months of expenses in an account for emergencies. Anything else is yours to use as you desire.

Use my simple digital budget and financial planner to help.

Liquidate Assets

If you're passionate about the nomadic lifestyle, you might consider liquidating assets to acquire a large sum of cash. You could sell (or rent) your home, stocks, vehicles, jewelry, or other valuable items to specialized buyers for a reasonable rate.

Perhaps you're finally pursuing a nomadic lifestyle after a difficult life season, so make sure you liquidate the right way, whether it's a divorce house split, selling a car on which you still owe, or parting with any other valuables.

When Mr. Misadventures and I left for our “Project Escape” we sold our house and our cars to fund our adventures. Here is all the financial information from our trip.

Loans + Credit Cards

If you have an income source and decent credit, you could apply for a loan or credit card to start your nomadic lifestyle. Whether approved for a few hundred dollars or several thousand, it can go a long way to funding your dream.

However, if your credit is low, you may have difficulty finding a lender willing to work with you. In that case, you may want to consider putting off your plans until it’s improved. You can negotiate with creditors, pay down debts, or use a credit builder credit card to boost your score.

I really wish I had this many financial tools when I was starting out. I may not have gotten into such credit card in my early life if I had started with a credit builder card!

Be Savvy

From the outside looking in, the nomadic lifestyle seems like being on vacation every day. While there is some truth in that belief, if you spend like you’re on vacation every day, you’ll find you won’t get far. It’s all about finding a balance between affording what you need and doing what you want.

Most nomads are financially savvy, meaning they make informed decisions to help them save money and stretch their budgets. Whether they housesit or petsit to avoid paying for a hotel, use public transportation instead of renting a car, use coupons when shopping, or look for cheap local attractions for entertainment, nomads find a way to ensure they live comfortably while exploring the world.

There’s something about traveling for a living that entices everyone. However, not everyone is successful at living the nomadic lifestyle. Although there are various reasons for this, money is often at the top of the list. Before planning your grand escape, consider the funding options listed above to ensure you can travel without financial stress.

Remote Work, Businesses, And Side Gigs

Most nomads are remote workers, business owners, or complete odd and end jobs (side gigs) to acquire money for living expenses. Fortunately, the options are plentiful, affordable, and easy to start. You could create a blog, become a freelance writer, work as a virtual assistant, design websites, or provide professional services like accounting, consulting, or even content creation.

Of course, these aren’t your only options to make money as a nomad. You can open an eCommerce store and sell products online, housesit, walk dogs, clean and organize homes, or apply for an occupation that allows you to travel like a massage therapist, English tutor, personal trainer, life coach, music instructor, there are great cities for remote workers all over the country.

Although each earning opportunity will take time to gain traction and generate consistent revenue, you’ll be driven by the idea of living the life you want. With a great idea, solid marketing strategy, quality customer service, patience, and dedication, it won’t be long before you earn enough money to hit the road and travel as long as you’d like.

A few more resources to help you:

• What’s Your Plan for a Long-Term Stay?
• 3 Things to Consider for a Long Trip Abroad
• How To Prepare For A Year of Traveling at Home or Abroad
• Preparing for Your First Trip Overseas
• Learn from others. I have a series of travel blogger interviews, many of them nomads that will give you the real-life experience!

How about you? Do you have more tips for funding a nomadic lifestyle? Do share!

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