By Donna Apidone
One couple sold their home in Seattle and have not looked back.
This text is reprinted by permission from NextAvenue.org.
Could you reside as a digital nomad?
Imagine moving from one country to the subsequent, possibly for a couple of days or a couple of months. Sometimes, 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 thought of it for about five seconds and said, ‘OK.'”
Just a few months later, Jensen discovered some intriguing details about the life-style. “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 quite a lot 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 suggests we stay in a single place anywhere from one to a few months. We just like the pace of that. It also gives us a likelihood to get to know people.”
Their website, Brent and Michael Are Going Places, is full of recommendations, funny stories and practical suggestions in regards to the nomadic lifestyle, including Hartinger’s thorough explanation of medical insurance and access to healthcare.
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 a web based educational curriculum. As travel writers, they’ve been on CBS’s “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 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 could 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.”
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Expats and taxes
The nomadic lifestyle just isn’t wholly carefree. There may be considerable paperwork involved in obtaining visas, healthcare and insurance, and there may be 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 for those who stay greater than 180 days, and we at all times travel on tourist visas (90 days or less), so there’s never been a have to file abroad.”
He notes a detail of U.S. tax law that advantages nomads. America has something called the Foreign Earned Income Tax Exclusion, which is that this: if someone is out of the U.S. for greater than 330 days a 12 months, some or all the income they earn on those days overseas — 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 12 months.
“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, you have to be abroad for 330 days. not counting any day wherein you fly to, from or over the U.S.
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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 think this law was a real loophole, applying to only a few people. But nomading has turn out to be a bona fide phenomenon, so the exemption probably cannot last.”
The attraction of smaller cities
Iringo Szekely, a strategic change adviser 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 annually.
“I prefer smaller places to benefit from what I would like from distant working, which is having fun with life more,” she said. So annually she looks for accommodations near the beach, restaurants and nature. In this manner, she added, “I can maximize leisure time off being affected.”
Hartinger and Jensen also prefer what they check with as “second-tier” cities. “They’re far more welcoming,” Hartinger said. “The pace of life is slower.”
And, he says, there may be a financial profit. “Because we spend much of our 12 months in second-tier cities and in cheaper 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 may possibly forestall personal relationship at work, but Hartinger and Jensen have found assist in the co-working community. That’s a casual global network of employees 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 a tremendous technique 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 — principally you may get up in a room and say, ‘I actually have an issue with this. Does anyone have any expertise?’ There’s at all times someone, irrespective 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.
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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 certainly one of the large 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 individuals are people.”
Jensen echoed that privilege allows for generosity. “I believe 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 a substitute, it enriches their experience.
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Appreciating America
“It’s greater than the way of life,” 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 blissful.”
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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.
“While 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 rejoice. A variety of countries don’t rejoice that.
“I wish more Americans were exposed to the realities of the world.”
Donna Apidone writes and produces segments for America’s heartland on PBS affiliates nationwide. She hosted “Morning Edition” on CapRadio in Sacramento, California, for greater than 20 years. Her interviews with authors/influencers are at DonnaApidone.com. She is the writer of “Drive-Time Meditations” and “TransForMission.”
This text is reprinted by permission from NextAvenue.org, (c)2023 Twin Cities Public Television, Inc. All rights reserved.
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