1 Year, 49 Flights, 12 Countries, $25,000 income: Starting Life off as a Digital Nomad

This is the first post in a series about life as a digital nomad: how I became a digital nomad, weighing the positives and negatives of this lifestyle, the different ways others have done it, and how you can achieve the same location independence.
 
2015 was a crazy year for me. I made it to 12 countries across four continents. I went on a dizzying amount of adventures. Played with colors in New Delhi during Holi and had water fights with cops in Bangkok during Songkran. Rented a car with three people and drove around the entire country of Iceland. Got put in a headlock during a disastrous date in Seoul. Spent the night at a castle in the English countryside and a multi-millon dollar villa in Phuket. Petted kangaroos and ran from emus in Australia. Plus Italy, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, China... I have never had so much fun in my life.
 
I did all of this while making roughly $25,000 USD in 2015, a little more than half of what I made the year prior. Let me give you low-down on how I made this happen. Long story short: it involved some pre-planning, parental love, credit cards, and a lot of luck. I assure you, it was not all glamorous.
 
How It Happened

I started 2015 off with the desire to make the transition from renting my cottage in Boise, Idaho, to becoming location independent. I had been working remotely as a creative project manager for a Fortune 100 tech company, but had mostly been limited to working in the U.S. as that was where a majority of my clients were based. In February I caught a lucky break—I became the company’s interim lead project manager for the Asia Pacific Region. I packed everything in storage and was off less than a month later.
 
Arriving in China after a vacation in India, my goal was to spend each month in a different locale in Asia. This was quickly derailed as due to the controlled Internet situation in the country, working in China proved to be unfeasible. So I headed to Thailand for about five weeks, with a visa run/work laptop repair jaunt to Singapore. Then it was off to South Korea. I liked it there so much that I ended up staying a second month. In-between I took a week long holiday to Europe.
 
At the end of June, I parted ways with my job, wanting to follow my passion of starting a travel company. I headed back to the U.S., where I spent the summer visiting friends and family and went on a fiscally irresponsible, yet totally amazing trip to Iceland.
 
In September, I headed back to Chengdu, China, making it my home base as I bounced between Australia, Indonesia, South Korea (again), and a few more trips to Thailand. At the end of November, I ran my first group trip, which was incredible. Shortly thereafter, I returned to China where I’ve been since then.
 
How I Did It

1. Pre-planning. I had bought a number of my tickets in late 2014 through various flight glitches and deals. My flight to India was already paid for, likewise was my ticket from Italy > Singapore > Los Angeles (for an incredible $420). I had also purchased Air Asia’s ASEAN pass, which for $135, provided me 10 credits to be used during a month of traveling within the Southeast Asia region. I used this to travel between Bangkok and Bali. A couple of flights were bought using miles, including the flight between South Korea and London. Which brings me to...
   
   
2. Credit cards. I signed up for two credit cards, the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Capital One Venture Card. Both had amazing sign up bonuses (50,000 and 40,000 points), which I later redeemed for over $1K worth of flights and housing expenses. They both earn 2X miles/points on travel expenses. With no foreign transaction fees as well, charging all of my purchases and then paying them off monthly is a great strategy.
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3. Savings. I started with about $3K in the bank before I left in March and zero credit card debt. I would personally recommend starting with more, but as I had a stable corporate job, I thought this was fine. This proved to be troublesome after I left my job, which will be discussed in Part 2.
   
   
4. Freelancing. I have a long-term freelance contract with a Seattle-based agency doing presentation design, which has been awesome. I also have picked up a number of short-term presentation design gigs through sites such as Elance and Upwork.
   
   
5. Generosity of parents. My parents have patiently put up with me moving back in as I build Courting Adventure. For all of the traveling around I’ve done, four months last year were spent at home. Which honestly has been great. 
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6. Finding a balance. From a 3.5-hour spa session in Bali to $20 cocktails in Gangnam, I’ve definitely had moments where I splurged. However, I’ve spent a majority of weekend nights in. I have eaten a lot of $1 fried rice and $2 pad thai meals. I also only travel with one completely full carry-on bag + messenger bag, which prevents me from buying random stuff.

 
Sometime in the next week, I will discuss further about the positives and negatives of being a digital nomad. It can be a long, lonely road… it’s definitely not for everyone. But for me, it’s the lifestyle of my dreams.