Digital nomads work remotely while traveling freely and sampling life around the globe
Could you reside as a digital nomad?
Imagine moving from one country to the subsequent, possibly for a number of days or a number of months. Every now and then, you check in together with your work team. Then it’s off to a museum or a ski slope or a beach.
Brent Hartinger and Michael Jensen have been digital nomads since 2017. They made the choice in response to politics within the U.S.
“I turned to Michael, and I said, ‘Why don’t we sell our house and leave the country?'” Hartinger said. “And Michael considered it for about five seconds and said, ‘OK.'”
A number of months later, Jensen discovered some intriguing details about the approach to life. “One Sunday morning, I used to be reading the Latest York Times, and there was this text on this thing called digital nomads. I began reading it, and it was like, ‘Oh, that is what we’re talking about doing.'”
Co-Living and Co-Working
The article answered lots of questions on resources around the globe, including co-living and co-working hubs.
The couple committed to a timeline, sold their house in Seattle and never looked back.
“Our house is wherever we occur to be on the time, yet we work remotely,” Hartinger explained. “We call ourselves SlowMads, which implies we stay in a single place anywhere from one to 3 months. We just like the pace of that. It also gives us a probability to get to know people.”
“Our house is wherever we occur to be on the time.”
Their website, Brent and Michael Are Going Places, is stuffed with recommendations, funny stories and practical suggestions concerning the nomadic lifestyle, including Hartinger’s thorough explanation of medical health insurance and access to health care.
Not all long-term travelers are digital nomads. Those that are retired don’t fit the definition. Hartinger and Jensen are still working. Hartinger is a novelist and screenwriter. Jensen is a novelist, too, and has been editor of an internet educational curriculum. As travel writers, they’ve been on CBS Sunday Morning and CNN.
Pamela Parker has considered herself a digital nomad since moving from the U.S. to the Netherlands in 2014. Considered one of her contracts is with a global spiritual organization based within the U.S. and includes digital instructional design and adjunct faculty work.
“I really like the creative freedom of working remotely.”
“I really like the creative freedom of working remotely,” she said, although there are some logistical mishaps.
“My distant workmates may speak and send emails as in the event that they were text messages or tweets. This limited type of communication may cause miscommunication, and far time could be spent simply getting on the identical page. And lots of of them mix up or disregard the time zone differences when organizing meeting times.”
Expats and Taxes
The nomadic lifestyle shouldn’t be wholly carefree. There may be considerable paperwork involved in obtaining visas, health care and insurance, and there’s the problem of income taxes. Do nomads pay taxes within the country where they work or within the U.S. or each? To make sure they meet all requirements, Hartinger and Jensen work with accountants who focus on nomad taxes.
“Yes, all U.S. residents are definitely required to file a tax return” with the Internal Revenue Service, Hartinger says in an email from London. “We do file and pay U.S. taxes,” he writes. “But most countries only require taxes and returns if you happen to stay greater than 180 days, and we at all times travel on tourist visas (90 days or less), so there’s never been a must file out of the country.”
“All U.S. residents are definitely required to file a tax return.”
He notes a detail of U.S. tax law that advantages nomads. America has something called the Foreign Earned Income Tax Exclusion (FEIE), which is that this: if someone is out of the U.S. for greater than 330 days a yr, some or all the income they earn on those days in another country — even from U.S. sources — becomes “foreign earned” and is NOT subject to U.S. income tax. Expatriate couples can exclude as much as $112,000 from U.S. income taxes of their 2022 return and $120,000 this yr.
“We still pay payroll taxes, after all, and we must keep careful track of where we’re on this planet,” he adds. To qualify for this exclusion, it’s essential to be out of the country for 330 days. not counting any day wherein you fly to, from or over america.
Hartinger said every nomad he knows advantages from the present tax law, but he suspects Congress may change the law because the nomadic lifestyle becomes more popular. “This loophole will probably be tightened within the years ahead: until very recently, I believe this law was a real loophole, applying to only a few people. But nomading has turn into a bona fide phenomenon, so the exemption probably cannot last.”
The Attraction of Smaller Cities
Iringo Szekely, a strategic change advisor and marketing operation manager for a global IT company, has a everlasting home in Amsterdam, but she works from Greek islands for 3 to 4 months every year.
“I prefer smaller places to take advantage of what I would like from distant working, which is having fun with life more,” she said. So every year she looks for accommodations near the beach, restaurants and nature. In this fashion, she added, “I can maximize leisure time off being affected.”
Hartinger and Jensen also prefer what they confer with as “second-tier” cities. “They’re far more welcoming,” Hartinger said. “The pace of life is slower.”
And, he says, there’s a financial profit. “Because we spend much of our yr in second-tier cities and in more cost-effective countries, our cost of living is definitely about half what it was in Seattle.”
The “digital” component of the digital nomad lifestyle may very well be a drawback because it will probably forestall personal relationship at work, but Hartinger and Jensen have found assist in the co-working community. That’s a casual global network of staff for various corporations who share office space, equipment and support staff.
“There are hubs all around the globe which are known for nomading,” Hartinger said. “Not only are you meeting people socially, but professionally. It’s an incredible strategy to make connections. And if either of us has an issue — we’re not real tech guys, but we run a web site and do various things online — mainly you possibly can rise up in a room and say, ‘I even have an issue with this. Does anyone have any expertise?’ There’s at all times someone, regardless of what your query is. You mostly have access to incredible resources.”
Hartinger and Jensen return the favor by sharing their skills as skilled writers.
An Option Just for the Wealthy?
The topic of “privilege” comes up in reference to digital nomads. Hartinger and Jensen have given the subject considerable thought.
“That is considered one of the massive accusations about nomads,” Hartinger explained, “that we’re a privileged lot, and after all we’re. It’s generally people who find themselves from America or Canada or western Europe, from a wealthier, more developed nation.
“Confronting the fact of it, and attending to know local people, has made me a more caring person and a more empathetic person,” he added. “The more you travel, the more you see that folks are people.”
Jensen echoed that privilege allows for generosity. “I feel it’s higher for us to be off in Sarajevo (the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina) spending that cash in the local people,” he said.
Hartinger added that American privilege doesn’t separate him from the people he and Jensen meet of their travels. As an alternative, it enriches their experience.
Appreciating America
“It’s greater than the lifestyle,” he said. “We meet all these awesome people who find themselves really content with their lives. You see it up close and private. You see that everyone looks out for one another. Everybody loves their kids, and everybody desires to be completely satisfied.”
Hartinger and Jensen don’t plan to live within the U.S. again, but their nomadic lifestyle has given them a fresh appreciation of the country they left.
“Whenever you travel around the globe, you realize that almost all countries are far more homogenous than America,” Hartinger said. “There may be much about America to be admired. A part of our stated values is that we accept people from all around the world, and that is something we have a good time. A number of countries don’t have a good time that.
“I wish more Americans were exposed to the realities of the world.”