First of all - This is not a guide on "How to become an Digital Nomad" - As I have no idea about it! This is just a question to myself on how this could be an possible option for the future.
As some of my followers might know , I'm currently living in Thailand, working fulltime for an German textile company and have a solid monthly income. I really do like my job and there is almost no day where I think "I dont want to go to work today". But working for a big company is the thing I maybe (if it's possible) want to avoid in the future and work on my own and follow my passion.
Work on my own?
My passion is definitely photography. But I do know im not good enough yet to make a living from it. I'm actually still pretty far away from being a good photographer. But that is something I can improve and learn for free on my own with one of the million tutorials on Youtube or even some articles here on steemit.
Also Photo- editing is something I want to get better in. My skill level for editing is also still pretty low, but it gets better day by day.
So, that's basically all I want to focus on. I also dont have any other skills which I could use to just travel the world and work from my computer.
The only way to follow my passion, doing photography and travel the world is to generate a passive income. I started 3 months ago to get started and trying to create a passive income on Steemit & Shutterstock. This is how it went so far:
Passive Income
(Passive Income from the first 3 months)
Steemit (1)
Steemit: 142 Steem = 145$ /3 = 48.33$ á month
I've been on steemit for 3 months now and i'd say its going pretty good. The community is growing , interactions with other Steemians are getting more and I still enjoy it as much as from the first day on.
The biggest currations i've got on steemit were always for bigger reports (travel/trip - reports) which definitely take a lot of time to create. I still do have a ton of them, just need to write them down. (Thank you 
The second biggest income i've got were for photo contest and my (almost) daily photo posts. For this I have to thank Tomas (
Shutterstock (2)
Shuttestock: 0.75$ /3 = 0.25$ á month
Well, yeah.. Haha! I have to say, I did not really focus on Stockphotography yet. I basically just uploaded around 30 test photos on shutterstock to see how it goes. I will definitely invest some time and prepare a folder which i will upload on different stock websites. @Jpphotography worte also an great article about it.
Trading?
(Day/Swing/Scalp - Trading)
Well i've been in an payed trading group for almost 1 year (left about 2 months ago) . I did learn the basics of trading and I think I would be able to do some good trades if I invest a ton of time and focus on it. But do I really want to invest my time into trading ? Probably not (And if - not more than 1h a day)
Investments?
I do hold a several cryptocurrencies which I purchased since the end of 2016. Unfortunately I did waste a lot of profit during the heavy drops from January and the recent bearmarket. The coins which I hold now are all Long Term investments. So it dosent really bother me to just hold them. I will not invest any more Fiat into currencies except Steem for now.
Invest in Steem?
At the current prices I will definitely purchase as much Steem as I can in the comming months. I do think we are pretty much at the bottom and the price will go up from here again. I'm super confident about it (no financial advice oc.).
Whats next?
What really matters now is to focus on the things I love (Photography, Photo editing) and no wasting any more time on stupide unnessasary bullshit which does not help me to grow.
There are many things I will change in my daily rutine , to really only focuse on the things I want to become better in.
Yesterday for example I unfollowed about 95% of the Youtube channels on my Account. Why? Because they always bring me of the track when I want to watch learning tutorials/videos on Youtube.
I will focus on things like that in the comming days and then get a structure and a plan on things I want to improve/develope on weekly learning hours, on stock websites I want to register etc.
What I do know is that hard work always pays off. But u will not achieve anything by being lazy and doing nothing.
When is the right time to become a digital Nomad?
Dont worry, I'm not crazy and wont quit my job soon. Becoming a digital nomad is something you need to plan VERY well in my opinion. There are plenty of things you need to take care off when you want to live the nomad life:
- Insurance (Health etc.) Never be foolish and risk your life by not paying a small fee for your insurance
- Backup Money You never know what is going to happen on your journey, there always can be cases u dont expect. Always have some money on the side.
- Retirement Money I know it sounds silly, but you and me will get old. There is no question about it. And if you dont want to live in the streets when you are old, make sure to always safe some money up for the future.
Thats just a few points which came to my mind thinking about "Being a digital Nomad" - I'm very sure there are plenty of more points which you should take care of when u plan to live that lifestyle.
Some of you might think now "dont think to much, just do it" But the risk is in fact very high if you dont have an solid, steady - income.
Future?
I personaly am as far away from being an digital nomad as you can be :D There is 0 chance I could survive with the money I generated with my passive income for now. I'd say to risk it, I would need an passive income from at least 1.2 - 1.5k US$ a month. I dont know if I will ever be able to work on my own, but I will definitely try it and put all my energy into learning and developing myself and my skills.
Thanks for reading :)
Best,
Chris