Alter-Nomad: On Personal Finance

Location independence is an opportunity for more financial independence. Ask random people in the street about what financial independence means to them. They will tell you they need millions to consider themselves financially independent, that you have to earn a lot more than what you are currently earning. As long as you invest it correctly, you would have earned enough money for the rest of your life. This is a never-ending quest. A trap where money is the bait. This is no freedom. Sustainability is reachable if and only if you learn to master your money. Money is a universal tool meant to provide a way to exchange goods and services. It should remain a tool. Instead of wondering how you can earn more, you might want to think about living on less. People don’t want money, they want the freedom that comes with it. Traveling the world is usually one item on everyone’s bucket list. Randy Komisar[@komisar] defines the concept of “deferred life plan” as the common behavior for an individual to systematically postpone your aspirations in life. Life is short, there is a necessity to use your time wisely. Most people use excuses to delay their travels, mostly financial and relational reasons. I will come back to the relational aspect in a moment, but let’s focus on finance first.

Back in 2017, I spent six months interning in Geneva as a software engineer. The first step toward a life of continuous adventure and learning and intellectual freedom is to stop being scared of the future. Most bad decisions in life are taken out of fear. I set out to learn how to spend my money more wisely - because money is a source of worry when it comes to planning the future - to implement spending habits accordingly. There are but two ways to gain financial freedom: you can either increase your income or decrease your expenses. Decreasing your expenses is easier than increasing your income because it’s immediately actionable. Expenses result from daily habits, so financial independence is a lifestyle based on frugality and anti-consumerism, which is exactly how historical nomads live.

Rent, food, and transportation are the most important categories of personal costs. Then mobile subscriptions, bank fees, and health insurance. Then hobbies and leisure activities. I could choose between living at the French border or living in Geneva. I opted for the former as I had the opportunity to be housed in a special program allowing recent graduates to access affordable housing. The apartment was pretty small but it was enough to sleep and cook, and the rent was amazingly low at $260 per month. I spent all my food budget on grocery lists and home cooking, rarely eating out except for a few times to hang out with friends and coworkers. Meat is not only expensive but resource-intensive to produce, I investigated ways around it. Ho boy, the wonders you can do with rice and beans. At the office, I was always bringing my own lunch, much to the amusement of my coworkers who were spending $20+ on take-out. Food took me around $300 per month. I did not use public transportations for four months (at $80 per month) and bought a running bike for $300 instead. I would bike for 20km per day in 2 hours. This way I avoided buying both a gym membership and a transportation card. I ditched my mobile subscription and relied on internet services instead. Bank fees were a necessary cost as a French worker in Switzerland ($25 per month). My health insurance was covered by my student status back in France. Regarding hobbies, I spent 90% of my free time working remotely on my startup or learning new things. Knowledge is available for free on the internet, why not use it wisely? I also bought a pull-up bar and a yoga mat to exercise a bit more. Except for the few times I really felt like socializing (maybe once a week?), I can’t say I spent much on parties or booze. Most of the social interactions I had were with my coworkers or neighbors. My revenues were around $2700 so I ended up saving 70% of my income on average over the 6 months I spent in Switzerland.

As I just demonstrated, even by spending so little I was still enjoying a balanced and healthy lifestyle, and those six months were among the most productive time of my life. I was not depriving myself either. I lived frugally, not cheaply. I spent money on what mattered to me. I just had grit, to do what was right to fulfill my ideals and execute on them. This experiment was also the main reason why I was not afraid anymore to become a digital nomad straight out of college. I do not travel simply for pleasure. Or for the sake of traveling. Travel is my tool to become a better human and to reach mastery in my art. There was no more appropriate time to start. I saved around $24000 over five years from previous scholarships and earnings, so I decided to make the leap of faith and build my own tech business while traveling. In my case, I make tech products, so I had no need for either a big network or a lot of money to start.

I applied the same financial thought process during my travels. Cost is the main factor that sets me on a destination over another, for the exception of friends and family. Rent, food, and transportation are still my 3 biggest expense categories, so I assess the potential costs according to them. Food costs and transportation costs always end up proportional to housing costs, so I just narrow down my researches to the locations with the best ratio between housing costs and quality of life. Then, I head down to Airbnb and start looking up places. If I’ve never gone to a place before, Airbnb is my safest bet. I book places for a duration of one month. No more, no less. Not only it is just enough to get an idea of the location and decide if I want to stay or not, but it also allows me to get a monthly discount on the rent. If I want to stay, I can look around for cheaper options and meet the landlord/manager face to face. If I don’t like the place I can just move on as I’m not tied by the duration of my rent. My housing budget for a month is $500 top. I use five Airbnb filters to cover all my needs: entire place (mandatory in my experience if you need to get some serious work done), kitchen, laundry, WiFi and workstation. Finally, I browse places starting from the nearest destination and choosing where the quality of life is the best - usually downtown but if the area is well connected it doesn’t matter.

Tickets can be the biggest upfront cost, but the local life costs compensate: smart travels are way cheaper than a sedentary life. Relocating from France to South-East Asia, I easily cut my monthly costs by 50%. I lived in Penang under $600 a month without sacrificing my well-being. I spent $834 for a month in Bangkok in an amazing apartment (swimming pool, city view, Chinatown district, gym, an entire studio for myself) and eating out delicious food at the shop opened 24/7 located at the bottom of my skyscraper. You can always live on less, but depending on your work it’s good to have a minimum of comfort to avoid going crazy/burning out. Backpacker hotels are nice for a time, yet you will need a bit more personal space if you plan on traveling for a long time.

How would it impact my life to receive 1 million dollars right now? I would travel the world while writing for machines and humans alike. I’m already doing that. Maybe build my own little house and grow a garden like Thoreau? Find a nice lady and have kids too. Work from home and watch over them. Hit the road when we feel like it. Visit my friends and family more often. Keep life simple. I don’t need one million dollars. And I never will. If you are already doing something you love, chances are that your life won’t be much affected by a wage raise. This is something we should strive for: a lifestyle fitting you so deeply that even all the money in the world would not be able to change it. Alignment. And living locally is the best way to improve your living conditions while reducing your expenses.