Part IV: Finding The Digital Nomad Lifestyle
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Part IV of my journey towards FIRE picks up in Mid 2017. If you missed Part III, you can check it out here. This stage of my journey was all about Finding the Digital Nomad Lifestyle.
My excitement from moving to Austin had begun to fade. My work schedule was changed from a regular M-F routine to a night shift schedule. SUN-WED nights, which was a drastic, negative life change. Finances were on point, but my work situation, not so much.
Night Shift
Working the night shift was awful. I am naturally an early bird. I never realized the importance of following your natural circadian rhythm until I read When by Daniel Pink. “When” is an excellent book that discusses the importance of timing in all aspects of life. I would highly recommend it as a starting place for lifestyle optimization.
It doesn’t take more than a quick search to find a laundry list of negative health effects from shift work. Depression, moodiness, anxiety, insomnia, I had it all. Despite being exhausted and generally feeling awful pretty much all the time, I continued to grind it out at work. I eventually got into a routine. I knew working nights was terrible for me mentally and physically, but I was able to adapt.
The new team I had at work, however, was a positive change. I hated being on nights, but I was able to learn a new department and worked with some awesome people who made it even better. The rest of 2017 was still fun, and I had transitioned to the night shift, barely, but I had transitioned.
Finding the Digital Nomad Lifestyle
It was around this time that I really considered living the Digital Nomad lifestyle.
The term Digital Nomad refers to people who are location independent and use technology to perform their work.
I’m sure I had Googled something along the lines of “ quitting your job to live in Thailand,” which had always been in the back of my mind, ever since I read “The 4-Hour Work Week” by Timothy Ferriss way back in 2008.
I would daydream about quitting my job and spending time in Thailand whenever work got super stressful.
There’s also plenty of overlap between the digital nomad/slow travel lifestyle and the FIRE movement. A few examples of FIRE bloggers that also travel extensively, taking advantage of Geoarbitrage:
Even though this lifestyle had been floating around in the back of my mind for a while, I never seriously considered it until a friend in real life began living the Digital Nomad Lifestyle. My friend had joined a year-long Remote Year program in 2017 and was blogging about his journey. The combination of my work situation sucking and him looking like he was having the time of his life made me consider making extended travel a reality.
I began researching the digital nomad lifestyle at pretty much the same intensity as I had when I first discovered the FIRE movement. I watched a few videos by Chris the Freelancer and was hooked. Being lonely and depressed working the night shift, staying up until 5 am watching hours of digital nomad and travel videos was my only recourse.
Questioning My Life Trajectory
By early to mid-2018, I was tired and burnt out from being on nights. Hardly ever did I get to see my friends or even my brother who I lived with.
I became confused with what I wanted in the future at my job. I had received excellent performance reviews and was on track for another promotion sometime within the next year. But, I began to question if that is what I wanted as my work/life balance was already heavily skewed.
When I looked at a job promotion, I saw more pay, yes, but I also saw longer hours and having to “always be connected” if any problems arose. I would also potentially have to move to a new city if I got promoted. I didn’t want to have to start completely over AGAIN, with the responsibility and stress of a new job.
All of this questioning about life and my future made question my current life “path.”
My goal had always been to stay with my company until I hit a certain arbitrary “FI Number”. I had a good salary and had the limiting belief that I would never make more money elsewhere.
But, as I continued to investigate FIRE and the digital nomad lifestyle, the idea of Flexible FIRE became more and more enticing. Work became less and less fulfilling and more stressful. I was sick of my commute, the Austin traffic, and the rigid schedule.
My life was out of balance.
The financial side of the equation was good, but I had zero time or location freedom to speak of. I started questioning my ability or desire to power through to achieve some arbitrary FI number.
I made a list of my options — from safest to riskiest- which included options such as:
- Get another job in Austin
- Take a few months off, then get another job
- Find a remote job
- Take a year off and join a program such as Remote Year.
Which option did I choose? Check out Part V for more details of my “escape” plan.
Originally published at https://nomadonfire.com on August 21, 2019.
