Look, I know many things are easier said than done, like how I believe any self-respecting financial consultant cannot really work for a big financial firm forever without wanting to break away and do their own thing down the line, but yeah, when you’re dealing up-close-and-personal with the finances of many different types of people the window of opportunity becomes that much clearer to you. Financial consultants are indeed bound by client-service provider confidentiality, but you can learn a lot from just interpreting the numbers associated with your clients.
The firm I worked at for a while was quite a big one with a licensed private banking division, albeit a small private banking division, so I could get an even deeper insight as to the manner in which the colourful variety of clients make their money. Seriously, I could write an entire book and perhaps I should…
Anyway, just from looking at numbers associated with financial planning, insurance, investments and how money flows in and out of associated bank accounts (paper trail), I can offer some insights into the world of the likes of so-called digital nomads, those people whose ability to generate an income is location-independent and so they often choose to travel and work remotely.
Now I can tell you that there are real digital nomads and there are pretenders to that title. I’ll start with addressing the pretenders. These are the people who give the impression that their income generating exploits are location independent whereas they actually hold down full-time jobs which tie them to one spot. The pictures they share of themselves with laptops in exotic locations (if they have any of those pictures at all) are nothing but those which have been shot while they were on their annual month-long vacation.
To corroborate this claim one only has to look at their banking records which clearly show that they receive full-time salaries from a permanent, location specific job. Furthermore, what they’re actually trying to do is create the illusion that they make their money in the way a digital nomad does, whereas they’re actually trying to sell you the idea of that lifestyle. They want to make money selling you some sort of e-book or spot on in some training seminar, webinar, mastermind, etc.
Real digital nomads will never try to solicit you to “join them” in some or other way, especially if that would involve you having to pay some sort of joining fee or buying a spot on some training programme they have. Real digital nomads will surprise you with regards to how they make their money, some of whom make for seriously special cases like those who are full-time gamblers, the games they play of which you can learn more here.
Otherwise the typical digital nomad either works remotely as a freelancer (writer, graphics designer, consultant, etc) or they run a business remotely, which would inevitably be a web-based business and that’s what makes it location-independent.
Now as much as I’m privy to this information as an insider in the form of a financial consultant, unfortunately this doesn’t mean I could be a digital nomad. It takes a lot more than just being able to work remotely, but perhaps you have what it takes.
