Beginning of a New Page: Nomad?

There are many of us that dream of traveling the world, but it really is just that: a dream. Or is it?

For the past two months or so, I’ve been fiddling with the idea of traveling throughout Asia to live a nomadic lifestyle for however long I can take it. It really stems from me wanting to travel the world to do photography, travel to new places, and just be in locations where I can really thrive and be excited. Los Angeles just hasn’t done that for me and I need a change of location to feel motivated. This video below by Pat Kay, one of my favorite photographers, also helped push this idea forward. And once this idea started snowballing, plans and ideas started filling up. There were so many points to research and become knowledge about so I understand it can be very overwhelming, but I may have an idea of starting a nomadic lifestyle.

Money

As we all know, this world runs on money. The role of money obviously plays a very important role for a nomadic experience. From the research I’ve done over the past couple months, many suspect it takes a good six months at least to start having some type of traffic towards your website or to generate some type of income. In my case, I plan on trying to sell my skills and services, update this blog with travel tips and adventures, and make vlogs/cinematic type “tours” of the cities I visit that shows travel tips. However, Pat Kay says you should have some type of income before actually quitting before going all into your own business, in his case (and hopefully my case), being a full time photographer/creator. I personally agree with this take, however, I honestly can’t see myself being “stuck” in Los Angeles for another year, especially with everything that happens in this city from the traffic to the distance between locations, the lack of local transportation, etc. Thus, the role of money. How will I survive if I have no income for potentially a year or so? I’ll really be betting on myself here. With no income, my savings and spendings will be of high importance. Pat Kay also mentions about the topic of managing your savings in his video. He recommends you save 6-9 months of living/traveling expenses so you can endure the hardships of being a full time freelance photographer/creator. This is so you are able to withstand the periods of no income. He then mentions you need to really build and plan your spending habits down to the cent. In my case, this is even more important as I would not have income for at least six months. With that, I will share my calculations. Before my departure day, I will have around 12-15 months worth of monthly living/travel expenses. My monthly expense is the combined sum of the necessities I believe I need to live comfortably and efficiently. It includes: rent/airbnb, food, transportation cost, subscriptions, pocket wifi, and “living expenses” which includes costs like toiletries, coin-laundry costs, laundry supplies, etc. My idea was to make sure I overestimate so I calculate only the worst case scenario. That way, I’ll be able to withstand any surprises and be ready for that. If it’s cheaper than my predicted price, that’ll just be a bonus. The main and important idea is to really think about your spending habits and limit your spendings to only what you need. From there, calculate that spending for every month and really be specific so you can be as exact as possible.

Insurance

After you calculate your potential savings and can breakdown your monthly expenses, we need to start thinking about insurance. Nomadic insurance can be tricky, especially as an American where we can really get screwed over if we are injured and don’t have insurance. There’s a reason why our insurance in America is referred to as a legal robbery by other countries. While researching, I found this very thorough article by Brent Hartinger. He talks about the different routes one can go to get insured and be safe while being a nomad. The path I decided to go for was applying for medical (LA Care specifically) since it is free. I’ll be able to go for doctor and dental visits when I return to the U.S, though it’ll probably be difficult finding a place that accepts my insurance, but that’ll be a worry for later. Combined with that LA Care medical insurance, I will also apply for Safety Wing, which is a international health insurance. Since I will be mostly in Asia (and hopefully later Europe), I’ll need insurance to cover me internationally. With this combination, I’ll be covered just about anywhere I go.

Credit Cards

If you thought that was it for finance, there’s a bit more. Although this step is optional, I highly recommend it, especially if you live in America. It can simply be described as two words: Credit Cards. Now I know what you may be thinking: why would I need a credit card for international travel? Well, two reasons come off the top of my head: Sign up bonuses and no international fees. With sign up bonuses such as the Chase Freedom credit cards, they automatically give you a $200 bonus if you spend more than $500. So if you spend a $1000, that’s already $400 back. This can be used for your flights, rent, etc. That’s huge for starting out a nomadic adventure. Along with that is the no international fees. In my case, I will be in Asia so if I ever need to use a credit card in Korea for example, I won’t be charged any outrageous fees. The bonuses the card gives you when making purchases are just that, bonuses. The sign up bonuses are really the meat of most credit cards. The exception are those credit cards with annual fees that come with all sorts of goodies in their package, an example being the Capital One Venture X credit card. The annual fee is $395, but you will basically be able to get $300 back if you use it wisely and travel often. I was planning on getting this card, but there are many unknowns with it from an international standpoint. The annual fee probably wouldn’t help either with me being on a tight budget. And to add onto that, if I ever want to cancel it, my credit would probably take a dip. With all those in mind, I decided to stick with the Chase Freedom credit cards and the Bank of America travel credit card. Those three cards will be my main choices for my nomadic trip.

I know that was a lot of information, but we’re more than halfway there! We’re almost to the fun part I swear!

Packing

The next step is figuring out what we will bring for our nomadic trip. You will need to take into account how many times you’ll be returning to your home country and the longest period(s) you’ll be away. In my case, I planning on not returning for a while as flights are quite expensive from Asia to America. After, you’ll need to figure out whether you want to go light or pack or bulky. I’ve never seen any recommendations for nomads to pack heavy. I don’t see it having any benefits either so I would suggest you pack light. For me, I decided I’m going to pack light. I’m planning on bringing on a personal item as well as a carry on throughout this entire trip. With this, there is no possible way the airline can lose my belongings. And I cannot afford that to happen either since I’ll be traveling with my gear which is quite expensive with my cameras, lenses, and laptop being in my personal item (backpack) and my clothes/toiletries/etc  being in my carry on. I currently am making a list for what I’m going to bring. I have it down to the exact number of things I want, so when the day comes, I won’t be panicking and rushing to plan what I need. I’ll already have it down and I’ll just need to make sure it doesn’t go over a certain weight limit and it fits.

The Fun Part: Planning

The last step will probably be the most fun. That step is planning where you want to go, how long you’ll want to be there, etc. This goes hand in hand with the first step in calculating your monthly expense. You’ll really need to crunch the numbers, but once you have set a budget for yourself, you’ll know what you’ll be able to do for each location. I currently have five countries I know I want to visit, with three of them being a confirm already. The schedule will probably change, but for the first six months of my nomadic trip, I have that planned down and set. You’ll probably want to spend some time to make sure you have this planned for the first couple months so you aren’t running around like a headless chicken, wasting your precious time researching when you arrive to that country/location. Especially if you are jumping in with no income whatsoever like me.

This is really scratching the surface of the planning for your nomadic experience. There are definitely other factors to consider such as income streams, especially for a photographer like myself, gear insurance, converting money when abroad, retirement funds, etc. It is definitely a lot of work and planning, but I believe it will be worth it. I am excited for the future and what traveling around Asia will mean to me, especially after my experiences traveling a bit through Japan during my stint there in 2018-2019. I will update any findings I have and my learnings. I hope this was helpful for anyone in the same position as me.