# Become A Digital Nomad

An episode of [A Little Bit Richer](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1706157445), 14 Dec 2023, 13 min.

Audio: https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/2e9a850c-e6b9-48c2-afec-a8f8010f70f4/61b6e292-1c73-49e1-81ce-b075010b275f/9b25edda-071e-4532-84d0-b0c100c391cb/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=aee4b1cb-b4f6-4283-99aa-b075010cd6b0

In the post-pandemic world of remote work, more and more people are becoming digital nomads and leaving the UK to work from sunnier climates. But is it really as simple as just hopping on a plane with your laptop? What are the financial implications of working abroad for a UK-based company? In this episode, Kia Commodore chats with Claire Rhodes. She’s a freelance writer whose been working with UK clients from abroad since 2021. Kia and Claire chat through how easy it is to make the change to digital nomadism and how it can affect your other financial goals. And Claire describes what her lifestyle’s like these days – the high points, as well as the things she wishes she’d known before leaving the UK. You can play the podcast and find other useful content on Legal & General’s website: https://www.legalandgeneral.com/podcasts/a-little-bit-richer Find out more about Claire’s content writing services here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-rhodes-b5b821141/ Kia and her guests share their own personal thoughts and opinions in this podcast. These might be different from Legal & General’s take on things. They give financial guidance for a UK audience that’s relevant at the time of recording. It’s general best practice, not the kind of personalised advice you’d get from a financial adviser. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Kia: It is Kia, ever dream of changing your surroundings for
[0:04] Kia: something a bit sunnier? The rise of remote working, that
[0:08] Kia: dream is becoming more and more of a reality with
[0:10] Kia: lots more people embracing a digital nomad lifestyle. But what
[0:14] Kia: are the financial implications of that? How do you make
[0:17] Kia: a life- changing decision like this while sticking to your
[0:20] Kia: money goals? To get into all of this, I'm chatting
[0:23] Kia: to Claire Rhodes, a freelance writer whose job meant that
[0:26] Kia: in 2021 she was able to make the decision to
[0:29] Kia: work from abroad. If the way this episode sounds is
[0:32] Kia: a little different to usual, it's because you might have
[0:34] Kia: guessed, Claire isn't with me today. She's currently on her
[0:37] Kia: travels. Not that I'm jealous at all. Claire, thank you
[0:42] Kia: for coming on and taking the time out to speak
[0:44] Kia: to us. I want to ask you to kick things
[0:46] Kia: off. Tell me a little bit more about your story.
[0:49] Kia: How did you become and decide to become a digital nomad?
[0:52] Claire: I don't think it's particularly dissimilar to what I imagine a lot
[0:56] Claire: of digital nomad stories are. I sort of went to
[0:58] Claire: university, went straight into an office job straight after that.
[1:03] Claire: I've worked as a content writer for B2B tech companies,
[1:06] Claire: so I worked at PR agencies in London, content marketing
[1:10] Claire: agencies, that sort of thing. And I've been in that
[1:13] Claire: space for about seven years now. But over COVID like
[1:17] Claire: a lot of people, we were stuck inside. We were
[1:19] Claire: obviously doing a lot of remote working from there anyway,
[1:22] Claire: and I think it just encouraged me and a lot of other
[1:25] Claire: people to sort of look at our work- life balance.
[1:28] Claire: I hadn't done a lot of traveling before, so that
[1:30] Claire: was something that I really wanted to go out and
[1:32] Claire: just do a bit more of do it whilst I
[1:34] Claire: was sort of young. Find the money side of it
[1:37] Claire: does come after a little bit, but yeah, not sort
[1:39] Claire: of saving up and doing it for retirement and that
[1:42] Claire: sort of stuff. So I decided to go freelance in
[1:46] Claire: summer 2021, which is when I decided to give up
[1:50] Claire: my house that I was renting in Buckinghamshire, sell all
[1:52] Claire: my stuff, my car, everything and me and my partner
[1:55] Claire: just upped sticks and started traveling basically.
[1:59] Kia: Claire, that sounds like an absolute dream as someone who
[2:02] Kia: loves to travel as well. I'm sure you've probably seen
[2:04] Kia: some incredible things. And this year I went traveling, one
[2:08] Kia: of my favorite places was Thailand and I think that
[2:11] Kia: was when I realized it's actually not as hard as
[2:14] Kia: people think. Obviously there's time differences, there's things to work
[2:16] Kia: out but it's relatively easy to work abroad and I thought it was
[2:21] Kia: going to be harder than that.
[2:22] Claire: Yeah, definitely. I completely agree. I think unless you are
[2:25] Claire: sort of surrounded by people who have done it or
[2:27] Claire: know someone who have done it and been successful at
[2:30] Claire: it, it seems like a very farfetched idea. But until
[2:33] Claire: you actually meet someone who's done it and they can
[2:35] Claire: sort of tell you a little bit about it and the
[2:36] Claire: fact that, yes, there's hurdles to go over but it's
[2:39] Claire: not. Like you said, it is not as hard as I think people make
[2:42] Claire: it out to be. It's just a very different way
[2:44] Claire: of life that you just have to adapt to I think.
[2:46] Kia: Absolutely. And it's good that we've got you here to
[2:48] Kia: hear about everything that you are doing. So what does
[2:51] Kia: life look like for you now? So what work do
[2:54] Kia: you do and what does a typical week look like
[2:56] Kia: for you?
[2:57] Claire: I am living in Bali in Indonesia at the minute. We got
[3:00] Claire: a yearlong lease there, so that's where sort of home
[3:03] Claire: is I guess at the moment. I'm still doing the
[3:06] Claire: same work that I was doing when I was full-
[3:08] Claire: time employed, so I'm still doing B2B tech content writing
[3:12] Claire: but I've obviously just got my own client base that
[3:14] Claire: I work with. I'm really lucky that I've got a
[3:16] Claire: lot of flexible clients. The time difference for Bali and
[3:19] Claire: UK is seven hours, sometimes eight hours when we have
[3:22] Claire: daylight savings, so it's a little bit brutal. But everyone
[3:27] Claire: has been fantastic about having early morning calls in the
[3:30] Claire: UK and stuff so that I'm not joining calls at 1:00
[3:33] Claire: AM and that kind of thing. But obviously when it
[3:35] Claire: needs to happen, that's absolutely fine. In terms of a
[3:38] Claire: typical week, it depends on if I'm actively traveling or
[3:42] Claire: I'm back in my place in Bali, but I try
[3:45] Claire: to only work three days worth of hours a week if
[3:49] Claire: you like. I'm really trying to be kind of strict
[3:52] Claire: on that because one of the reasons I wanted to
[3:54] Claire: do obviously the whole digital nomad and remote working thing
[3:57] Claire: is to go out and see more of things. So it is
[4:00] Claire: very easy once you start getting your clients in and
[4:02] Claire: getting your money in and stuff to end up being
[4:04] Claire: stuck working Monday to Friday. And I think I've just
[4:06] Claire: tried to be really, really strict with myself about not
[4:09] Claire: going back into that. Needless to say, sometimes you do
[4:12] Claire: have to do that. Sometimes where you are living or
[4:15] Claire: traveling to is more expensive and flights and accommodation and
[4:18] Claire: things add up and then you need to get more
[4:20] Claire: money in and that's fine. But one of the really
[4:22] Claire: nice things is if you need to have a month
[4:25] Claire: or two where you are living a bit cheaper, you
[4:28] Claire: need to sort of not have so many expenses and
[4:30] Claire: stuff. You can fly somewhere that's going to lend that
[4:32] Claire: to you, so Bali's a great example of that. Flights yes,
[4:35] Claire: can be expensive depending on where you are, but the
[4:37] Claire: actual cost of living and the quality of living is
[4:40] Claire: a lot higher than in other places in the world.
[4:43] Kia: Claire, you are really selling this to myself and everyone
[4:46] Kia: listening, three- day work week, get to see the sites.
[4:50] Kia: And like you said, if things need to kind of
[4:51] Kia: cut back on money, you'd make that move. You are
[4:53] Kia: really selling it. So let's go into that a bit more.
[4:56] Kia: What have some of your high points been then and
[4:59] Kia: what has surprised you on your journey into this digital
[5:03] Kia: nomad life?
[5:04] Claire: I would say some of my high points is some
[5:06] Claire: of the weird and wonderful places I've traveled to. I've
[5:09] Claire: been to Mauritania and West Africa. I spent a month
[5:12] Claire: in Pakistan. Places that you wouldn't necessarily think to go
[5:15] Claire: on vacation, but because you're traveling it is obviously more of
[5:18] Claire: an interesting place to go to and are far less
[5:21] Claire: traveled if you like. And it was amazing. But also
[5:24] Claire: the fact that on either side of that trip I
[5:26] Claire: was just able to kind of just lock in and
[5:28] Claire: get my work done. And then I could take that
[5:30] Claire: month off and it was fine and I knew everything
[5:32] Claire: was going to be fine. And all my clients knew
[5:34] Claire: I was going to be off for a bit and
[5:35] Claire: I could just come back and get straight back into
[5:36] Claire: it. But yeah, I think that's something that I would
[5:38] Claire: perhaps elaborate on, find your nice easy clients and make
[5:43] Claire: sure that you build a connection with them. I think
[5:46] Claire: a lot of people are worried with remote work that
[5:50] Claire: it's all kind of email based and you don't really
[5:51] Claire: get to know anybody, especially as a freelancer I find
[5:53] Claire: that people are sometimes a little bit standoffish about that.
[5:56] Claire: And it's very different meeting someone in the office and
[5:58] Claire: doing that kind of thing, but just make sure you
[6:01] Claire: have kind of regular phone calls with people. And just
[6:04] Claire: have that personal element as well so that you are
[6:06] Claire: both seen as human, you're not just business entities doing
[6:09] Claire: a business transaction. I think that's really, really important. In
[6:13] Claire: terms of things that surprised me, I would say from
[6:18] Claire: a, it's kind of a digital nomad point of view
[6:20] Claire: but also a self- employed point of view, taxes to
[6:22] Claire: be honest. When I first went freelance I didn't earn
[6:26] Claire: as much in my first year. I didn't work for
[6:28] Claire: kind of six months. I saved up a lot and
[6:29] Claire: just wanted to solely travel so I only worked for
[6:31] Claire: the latter six months of it, whereas my second year
[6:34] Claire: was very much traveling and working continuously. I did my
[6:38] Claire: tax bill a couple of months ago and was a
[6:41] Claire: little bit surprised by that. So I'm having the fun
[6:43] Claire: thing of making sure I've got enough money to pay
[6:45] Claire: for that in January. So I think that's something to
[6:48] Claire: bear in mind whether you are digital nomading or kind
[6:51] Claire: of doing self- employed, that kind of thing, just do
[6:55] Claire: your homework on where you're working and your tax situation
[6:58] Claire: and who you need to pay for what would be I think
[7:00] Claire: a solid piece of advice that I wish I'd taken
[7:03] Claire: a little bit more notice of. But I've done that
[7:05] Claire: now, so hopefully the hard work's done for anyone else
[7:07] Claire: thinking about it and listening,
[7:09] Kia: I think what you've mentioned there is really good. You've managed
[7:11] Kia: to do some incredible travels, that sounds like a dream,
[7:15] Kia: the places you've been and what you've done. But when
[7:17] Kia: it comes to the finance element and you mentioned taxes,
[7:20] Kia: we've spoken about it before in this podcast, but that
[7:23] Kia: is something that really does almost stump people especially when
[7:27] Kia: you're self- employed. And it's great to see that obviously
[7:29] Kia: now you've got a bit more understanding. But I think a
[7:32] Kia: lot of self- employed people, myself included, have had a
[7:34] Kia: similar journey where you go into it, everything's great and
[7:37] Kia: then the tax bill comes and then you're having to
[7:39] Kia: kind of work that one out. And just a reminder
[7:42] Kia: for our listeners, make sure that you're checking the tax
[7:45] Kia: and employment regulations in the countries that you're planning to
[7:48] Kia: travel to, because each country has their own rules and
[7:50] Kia: restrictions on this and it's always good to double check
[7:53] Kia: and see what's going on with those countries. It's also
[7:56] Kia: worth noting that with national insurance, you may have to
[7:58] Kia: pay this if you think that there's any chance you may
[8:01] Kia: be returning back to the UK in the future. When
[8:03] Kia: it comes to your financial goals, Claire, how does working
[8:07] Kia: abroad actually fit into those goals that you have?
[8:09] Claire: I think it kind of fits in, so for example,
[8:12] Claire: I want to buy a house at some point. I'm
[8:14] Claire: 30, I've not quite got there yet. I'm not sort
[8:16] Claire: of at the stage in life where I want to
[8:18] Claire: get married and have kids and stuff, but yes, I
[8:20] Claire: would like to have a house in a few years. And
[8:23] Claire: I think sort of working abroad like I mentioned earlier,
[8:26] Claire: if you have a kind of financial goal like that
[8:29] Claire: for a house deposit for example in your mind and
[8:32] Claire: you want to do that, it's very easy to live
[8:35] Claire: where it's a lot cheaper and you can save a
[8:36] Claire: lot more money.
[8:38] Kia: I think everything that you shared in this episode has
[8:41] Kia: been really good at almost dispelling anyone, including myself, who might've
[8:46] Kia: had reservations about moving abroad, what am I going to do
[8:49] Kia: for money? Where am I going to live? It's going
[8:50] Kia: to cost so much. I think there is that perception,
[8:53] Kia: that idea that it will cost an arm and a
[8:54] Kia: leg when in reality you've shared of your journey that
[8:57] Kia: you're earning more, working less and paying less so you
[9:00] Kia: can reach some of your financial goals. And Claire, you might've
[9:04] Kia: had me sold. I know that wasn't your aim, but
[9:05] Kia: you might've had me sold. Don't be surprised if the next
[9:08] Kia: episode I'm going to be on a sunny beach somewhere.
[9:10] Kia: Everyone, don't be surprised. What do you wish you'd known
[9:14] Kia: before you made this change?
[9:15] Claire: I think there's three things that kind of jump out
[9:17] Claire: for me here. The first being just do your homework.
[9:20] Claire: So look at where you're going, look at where you
[9:22] Claire: want to travel, look at where you want to work
[9:24] Claire: and just make sure you have the right things in
[9:26] Claire: place to be able to kind of do that properly.
[9:28] Claire: So look at things like where you need to pay
[9:30] Claire: taxes, so that obviously depends on your clientele and where
[9:34] Claire: you're working. And look at things like visas as well.
[9:37] Claire: Obviously if you're going somewhere where you're going to work
[9:40] Claire: online and you need a business visa for example, just
[9:42] Claire: make sure you've done the right sort of research to
[9:44] Claire: make sure that you are ticking all the boxes. The second
[9:47] Claire: thing I would say would be to have a safety
[9:50] Claire: net. Traveling is great but unexpected things do happen, so
[9:54] Claire: expect them to happen and just be prepared. So if
[9:58] Claire: you need to have a last minute flight home or
[10:01] Claire: you need to change your travel plans and that kind
[10:03] Claire: of thing, just make sure you've got a bit of
[10:05] Claire: money set aside to do that. If you don't, it's
[10:08] Claire: going to get very overwhelming very quickly. You don't want
[10:10] Claire: to be putting things on your credit card and it's
[10:14] Claire: going to be a lot. So just make sure you've
[10:15] Claire: got that sort of capital set aside for that I
[10:17] Claire: think is really important. And thirdly, I would say choose
[10:22] Claire: a place where you're going to have a bit of
[10:24] Claire: a community. There's some really, really great cities that I've
[10:27] Claire: been to that have got really, really, really good digital
[10:31] Claire: nomad communities in there and that's obviously why people go.
[10:35] Claire: Off the top of my head, Canggu in Bali which is
[10:37] Claire: where I live is a great example of that. Other places
[10:40] Claire: as well, Lisbon, and there was also Tulum in Mexico
[10:44] Claire: is another place that I've been to that's got really
[10:46] Claire: good digital nomad communities. And I think it's really important
[10:49] Claire: to surround yourself with like- minded people, especially if you
[10:52] Claire: want to go down the digital nomad route. So a
[10:55] Claire: really, really good example of that, there's a pub where
[10:58] Claire: I live in Bali and on a Friday night everyone
[11:01] Claire: goes down there. But it's always really interesting because it's
[11:04] Claire: always people who are kind of starting their own businesses,
[11:08] Claire: looking for inspiration, where they want to travel to next.
[11:11] Claire: You'll probably find someone who is in the same field
[11:13] Claire: as you or someone who you would see yourself as
[11:15] Claire: having a client in that space and you can end
[11:18] Claire: up working together. Everyone's really willing to help each other
[11:21] Claire: out and sort of provide that inspiration that you may
[11:24] Claire: need at that certain point. And if you are lucky enough that you are in
[11:27] Claire: the right place at the right time, you can give
[11:30] Claire: inspiration to other people who may need it at the
[11:32] Claire: time as well.
[11:33] Kia: To run off this episode, I ask every guest the
[11:35] Kia: same question and I'm going to ask you, what three tips do
[11:39] Kia: you have in terms of being a digital nomad that
[11:42] Kia: will help our listeners get a little bit richer?
[11:44] Claire: The first thing I would say is just do it.
[11:47] Claire: Just give it a go. Don't wait until retirement to
[11:50] Claire: do all your travel dreams and that kind of stuff.
[11:52] Claire: Give it a go. If it doesn't work, it doesn't
[11:53] Claire: work. If it does, it's going to be the best
[11:55] Claire: decision you ever make. Secondly, I would say look at
[11:59] Claire: what you can actually do feasibly, sort of working remotely.
[12:02] Claire: You need to remember that you're traveling around, you've only
[12:05] Claire: got so much space in a backpack. So picking something
[12:08] Claire: that is laptop based is great. Obviously I'm a content
[12:11] Claire: writer, I need a laptop. I don't need to have
[12:14] Claire: cameras and all that kind of stuff that might make
[12:17] Claire: it a bit harder perhaps to travel around for some
[12:18] Claire: people. And thirdly, I would say save up a bit
[12:23] Claire: first. When I left to go traveling a few years
[12:26] Claire: ago, I sold everything in my house and downsized everything
[12:30] Claire: to a couple of boxes that are at my mom's
[12:31] Claire: garage now. So that money really helped me. It made
[12:35] Claire: me feel a lot more secure. Moving to another country
[12:37] Claire: and traveling around is quite a scary thing to do.
[12:41] Claire: So having that money set aside was really nice for
[12:44] Claire: me to know that I have it and if I
[12:45] Claire: need to dip into it, I can. And if I
[12:47] Claire: don't, great, I can just continue saving.
[12:50] Kia: Claire, thank you so much. I'm excited to see where
[12:53] Kia: you're off to next. Somewhere hot and sunny I'm sure
[12:56] Kia: compared to where I am, chilly UK. But thank you
[12:59] Kia: so much, it's been a great episode.
[13:01] Claire: Thanks a lot, Kia. It was nice to meet to you.
[13:03] Kia: Great to hear about Claire's incredible lifestyle. The podcast has
[13:07] Kia: taken a break for a couple of weeks for Christmas.
[13:09] Kia: But then a little bit richer we'll be back in the new
[13:12] Kia: year, where we'll look at how to create good money
[13:14] Kia: habits for 2024. In the meantime, if you're enjoying the
[13:18] Kia: pod, hit follow and tell your friends. See you in January.

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