71–80 of 133 posts
https://kaveh.page/lessons_solo_traveling/
In particular, #6 and 14.
For what it’s worth America is one of the easiest if not the easiest place to be an immigrant, all things considered. You’ll find a community of your fellow countrymen already thriving, you have well established rights that are maintained by the rule of law, and so long as you try to fit in and work hard nobody will pay much mind. Many if not most digital nomads are Americans traveling from an open minded heterogeneo…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do you consider southern europe, as a red-blooded American, I suck at Geography. But, I have been to Spain, Italy, Greece, and Turkey. And it was all full off Spaniards, Italians, Greeks, and Turks, respectively. Colonialism does mean many european countries do count among their ranks people who aren't "native" to europe, but America is a land of immigrants. Full stop.
Southern Europe has much more visible minorities than most of the US, especially the smaller and medium sized towns. Not sure where you have been. Most Indians I have met usually have negative views about racism and diversity in the US.
Sources?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well I am Indian, and during my time in India, I did not find it nearly as culturally diverse as the US. I'm not speaking about regional differences, those exist in pretty much every country.
Indians are fairly culturally diverse if you only compare the major cities. You have much more ethnic differences in India than US as well. Immigration from the more "Middle Eastern" North-West India and the more "East Asian" North-East India is also widespread. And it is also important to point out that regional differences are much more stark in India than in the US. Most Americans have only ever met ethnic minorit…
America deserves it's fair share of criticism, but to criticize America as having no/limited experience with diverse cultures shows pretty gross ignorance.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I work remotely in a rural ranching area. Since almost day one we've been fully integrated. The key is our kids. We all do the same sports and kids activities together. We even go to branding parties and help out a lot. It was a real commitment moving down here we didn't just decide to live in an area, we joined a community. I could see how things would be very different if we didn't do that.
That doesn't sound like a 'nomad' to me.
This looks like non news to me. People don't "hate" digital nomads (and the article itself does not even back up this claim from the headline). In fact, most people do not even notice them most of the time, as they don't make up for a significant percentage of the population anywhere. There will be always small and very vocal groups, complaining about effectively irrelevant things like this. That is not newsworthy. >…
Granted, this is mostly rural camping and small-city AirBNB all in the borders of the US. (Except for one time I stopped in DC for a month - strangely the only people that came to talk to me were the homeless and even they held decent conversations)
We're getting our adrenal glands pumping over Narcissistic obsessives dedicating every ruminating moment towards writing the next hit piece where they finally resolve their past scenarios, and they finally said all the right things to the wrong people, in an orgy of retraumatizing material. Just ignore them, go travel, say hi to people, change the world and all that stuff.
I know three different people who sold their homes, moved into sailboats, and set out to be waterborne digital nomads, sailing around the world and doing freelance work to support themselves. I know one guy who did the same thing, but with #vanlife. In all these cases, without exception, they regretted it within a year. My advice is, before you liquidate your assets, quit your job, upend your life... give it a dry ru…
I think that most people can't give it a dry run without that liquidation, though. Having a normal job gets in the way of that lifestyle and is virtually guaranteed to sour the experience. Obvious not all of them like it, but I think even fewer would like it if they don't commit to it outright. It's definitely not for me. I need a lot more stability than that.
I was thinking you'd probably take your standard 3-5 weeks of yearly PTO, plus however much unpaid time off you could get your company to agree to. That would make for a good month, month-and-a-half, or possibly two months test. And, I think if at all possible you should try to work while traveling, either your current job or some freelance work, because that would be part of the actual experience you're testing.
> It's definitely not for me. I need a lot more stability than that.
Same here. I like sleeping in my bed and making pizza, and taking showers any time I want. Also, as a designer, it's kind of a non-starter for me, since I can't seem to get by without a gigantic monitor.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A whole of locals, from Lissabon to Bali, actually might disagree. Not to talk about the defacto visa and tax fraud some digital nomads commit. Nothing wrong with going to live and work in a certain place. But do it the proper way: get a work visa if you have to and register for taxes like everyone else. Otherwise your taxes not paid are an unfair advantage compared to locals, it is illegal and basically cheating.
No, those people are mad about Airbnb and that's not the same thing. I have rented my vacation home for years and maybe once did I have a "digital nomad." And I don't know about Bali, but I pay taxes through the nose on each rental for them and the property taxes and income taxes if I make a profit or not (not in the US). I'm happy to do it, I'm not complaining about paying them but don't tell me I don't. Also these…
Ignoring that, I am following the tangential topic about digital nomads, work visas, and taxes. I think the regulations are still trying to catch up. Some folks have a fantasy that when the internet is involved, they are working in cyberspace at the remote end of their network connections. But, the actual rules in most jurisdictions tend to be about your physical location while working. They usually lack any clear rules to disambiguate the spectrum from "traveler on holiday making a few phone calls" and "permanent work from home with foreign employer". This is a gray area and relies on selective enforcement.
My experience is a little dated, but I think it is still, sadly, too relevant. I was an expat in SEA about 20 years ago. I was not an itinerant nomad. My partner took a local job there and I went along for the adventure, so we tried to settle in one place. But, my best work prospects remained in the US tech market, just like a digital nomad. My US clients knew they didn't want the hassle of hiring me outside their normal tax jurisdiction, nor the legal risk of pretending I lived in a US mailbox. All the legal advice we could find led to one frustrating answer. To be totally legal, we had to start a local consulting company and take on some local staff (and local shareholders!) so that our company could sponsor my work permit. This also awarded me the right kind of extended visa and proper re-entry permits for when I needed to travel internationally.
Our company then had to engage my US "employer" via subcontract. We effectively had to have local staff on retainer even though I didn't need them to satisfy my US client's needs. We had the accounting and tax headaches of running that company, plus local personal income taxes in our host country. Then, as a US citizen, I still had to file US income taxes and try to get all the exclusions and credits to avoid double taxation. Aside from losing money to pay unnecessary local staff, it was difficult to minimize profits that would distribute to the shareholders for what was just an overly complicated solo consultancy.
At the same time, I was well aware that others were flying below the radar. They ritualized "visa runs" to cross borders and reenter on temporary tourist visas. They played games where they told a different story to each jurisdiction about where they were really domiciled. I've often wondered how many of them succeeded in this cheating game for decades since I knew them, or whether they eventually got caught up in some kind of financial disaster.
the digital nomads will eventually drive me out of this part of town, onto a shittier part, same as I will drive out some other less wealthy sucker even farther out of the nice parts onto even shittier parts. such is life. so this is why I am glad the dollar reign is coming to an end; I may still get fucked (too late for me) but I'll be glad to watch the mechanism by which I got fucked fall and crumble