What is a “Digital Roamad” Anyway?
Digital nomads are people whose job is “location independent;” their work is portable and they can work anywhere as long as they have access to good internet. Digital nomads tend to go somewhere other than their home country where it’s cheaper to live, that offers a better quality of life. They will typically stay for months or longer, sometimes even taking advantage of digital nomad visa programs to establish residency. We plan to travel slow, but roam more; therefore we call ourselves “digital roamads.”
Becoming a Digital Nomad
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What changes did we make to “go nomadic”? How is it different from just traveling longer? There are some considerations:
No longer “paying twice” for accommodations
Unless your home is paid for, you are paying twice for your accommodations when you travel (mortgage/rent plus hotel). And even if it is, you are still paying for property tax, homeowner’s insurance, HOA fees, upkeep. We gave up our condo and all the related expenses, sold our car, and put everything in storage (so we are only paying a monthly storage fee).
Medical insurance
Our previous medical insurance cost us so much more ($1700 / mo). We gave that up in favor of travel health insurance from Cigna that costs a lot less ($700 but there are some that are even less). It excludes Monica’s diabetes, but covers us for anything serious that arises. Insulin and Dexcom supplies are paid out of pocket (and we still get a discount with the Cigna policy). In fact, Monica ordered her Dexcom supplies on Amazon before we left and paid less than when it was “covered,” and got it within two days. Since we’ve been nomadic, she’s bought all her insulin overseas and it’s the same or equivalent brands and loads cheaper than in the U.S. Read more about traveling internationally with Type 1 Diabetes here.
Cell phone service
We are on the T-Mobile Magenta MAX plan that provides 5GB of high-speed data in
over 215 countries and destinations. It works great when we travel. However, it’s a US plan, and when we use too much overseas data relative to US data, T-Mobile gets annoyed and sends us nasty messages. This plan will not work for traveling more than a month or two so we had to find another solution.
Airalo to the rescue! Airalo is the world’s first eSIM store that solves the pain of high roaming bills by giving you access to 200+ eSIMs (digital SIM cards) globally at affordable prices. See more about travel resources.
We stay in touch with family and friends with WhatsApp rather than using text since it uses wi-fi or eSIM rather than cellular data. One annoying aspect of modern life is two-factor authentication when logging into websites or apps. We’ve always preferred to get these by text, but we’ve changed them over to email where possible to avoid getting extra texts.
US address
Our mailing address is a ScanMail location in Austin. This is handy just for the fact that they collect any mail or packages we might get, then send us photos of the contents so we can decide what to do with them. We got a check recently and were able to use the photos they sent to deposit it with a mobile banking app. An unexpected package came as well; we just had them forward it to our friends in Austin. The service is absolutely essential for banks and credit cards that require a US address.
Apple TV / Amazon Firestick
You can watch Netflix, some HBO Max, etc on your laptop. But sometimes you want to watch it all on a television in your hotel or airbnb. Apple TV and Amazon Firestick are devices you can travel with that allow you to access your streaming services on a television. Airplay allows you to stream what’s on your MacBook on a television. All of it is a bit tricky; sometimes you just can’t access the same stuff at home due to licensing or other restrictions. In these cases, you can try using a VPN, which hides your location.
Virtual Private Network
Having access to a VPN is a good idea, not just for Netflix. It can help out in unexpected ways. For my business I have to log into US state websites to file and pay sales tax. Six states are no problem, but the state of Louisiana restricts access, so I used the VPN to log in. Other sites, like CVS Pharmacy, just won’t allow you to access it from overseas, which can be really annoying when you need to log into your account.
Taxes
We definitely still pay taxes.
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