I Asked 12 Digital Nomads What They Do for Work
Here's what they shared
When I first set out on my travels, I quickly realized that digital nomads were far fewer in number than the Facebook groups I had been part of led me to believe.
With little exposure to people who, like me, were working and traveling for most—or a significant chunk—of the year, I soon found myself craving connection with them.
I wanted to meet like-minded folks who understood the challenges of this lifestyle—from embracing a nontraditional path to making it a reality, all while constantly adjusting it to keep it sustainable.
I also began to wonder:
What were fellow digital nomads doing for work? How were they financially supporting themselves on the road?
As the months went by, I met more of them, yet I never reached a point where I felt I had a clear, satisfying picture of this community—or where my curiosity was fully satisfied.
More recently, as I noticed the nomad community growing on Substack, I reconnected with my original quest.
So today, whether you’re a beginner curious about how people make this lifestyle work or a seasoned traveler who shares my curiosity about what fellow nomads do for a living—I hope you’ll walk away with some great insights.
Without further ado, let’s dive right in!
How is this article organized?
I initially hesitated on how best to organize the many endeavors of the digital nomads I connected with for this article.
After some thought, I decided to structure it around their primary professions.
However, since nomads are a highly resourceful and often multi-passionate bunch, no single categorization can fully capture the breadth of their work. With that in mind, I’ll do my best to highlight whenever someone juggles multiple activities.
ESL teaching
Teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) is an incredibly popular job for those who choose to combine travel with work.
Of course, this field is generally limited to those who speak English at a native or highly fluent level. However, I’m not unfamiliar with people who have done the same by teaching Spanish, French, or Italian.
Let’s take a look at a nomad who uses ESL teaching as one of her main ways to support herself financially:
— Expat on a Budget
In her article “How Do I Earn While Living Abroad?”, Kimberly shares with admirable transparency how she makes a living while residing in Portugal—one of her main sources of income being teaching English as a Second Language (ESL).
Although she is now settled in Portugal, I chose to include Kimberly’s story because of her past experience traveling across the U.S. in a van and the multiple income streams she has built over the years—most of which are accessible to anyone seeking a location-independent lifestyle.
Beyond ESL teaching—which Kimberly openly acknowledges comes with initial challenges, such as setting very low hourly rates to gain traction and credibility—she diversifies her income through property rentals, book royalties as an indie fiction author, and coaching services that help others navigate the process of moving abroad.
I invite you to check out Kimberly’s article for a detailed breakdown!
Accounting
—The Lotus Nomad
Debbie is a great example of a slash career professional, seamlessly balancing multiple income streams. In fact, labeling her endeavors under “Accounting” might feel too reductive (sorry, Debbie!).
Over DMs, Debbie kindly shared how she manages her diverse income streams:
“I have an LLC setup called Lotus Creative. Under that company I have two divisions for income streams. One is a travel agent, whereby I operate under a host agency as a contractor. It's ideal because they carry the insurance and provide education and contacts to travel networks all over the world.
The second and actually bigger money maker for me is I am a certified QuickBooks pro-advisor. You know, accounting, bookkeeping payroll small business startup consulting and teaching how to use the QuickBooks platform.”
Undoubtedly, both of these income streams are ideal for digital nomads. However, Debbie didn’t hesitate to give a heads-up that both require education and training to get started.
Graphic and Web Design
— Extracurricular Pursuits
Emily also has a solid professional setup for her nomadic lifestyle!
She is a graphic designer, who also dabble in other areas like web design, SEO and copyrighting—all fields with significant overlap. This is why many of her clients, who initially hire her for one service, end up booking more of her offerings! (Nomads out there, take note of this strategy!)
In her article, An Antidote for the Sunday Scaries, Emily doesn’t shy away from bluntly outlining the trade-offs she faced when stepping off the corporate ladder six years ago to live life “on her terms.”
I highly recommend reading it—especially if you tend to look at the digital nomad lifestyle with rose-tinted glasses!
Tech
— Eddie & Sara Explore
Sara had been practicing as a lawyer specializing in real estate law for 15 years in what she describes as a “very corporate job” when the pandemic hit.
Like many, she and her husband, Eddie, did quite a bit of soul-searching during that period as they realized they didn’t want life to pass them by while they sat in an office.
So, Sara quit her corporate career and joined Eddie’s freelance tech consultancy business in 2021, becoming digital nomads.
Since then they run the business together.
Eddie handles the technical side, while Sara manages the non-tech and client facing side: preparing pitches, liaising with the client from beginning to end and dealing with legal retainer agreements. Her focus has been in creating a professional streamlined service for dealing with their clients.
Together they also create SaaS products—their most recent being MakeTheList.io.
Marketing
— Into Many Things
Katharina was able to travel across Portugal and Canada while working for a social media agency in Germany, holding various roles: team lead for a group of social media experts, strategist, and managing small brands' social media accounts.
She also experimented with both freelancing and working as an employee in these roles. Way to go!
Sales
— Serendipity Lab
Choosing a “category” for Brian was a bit of a challenge, I must say, as he truly embodies the essence of a multi-passionate individual!
I decided on ‘Sales’ because it was the field that provided him with the most geographical flexibility, as he explained in his article “I’m on sabbatical”.
In that piece, he takes us down memory lane, reflecting on the many roles he has held over the past few years: Engineer, Photographer, Tour guide, Sales Rep.
This last role was pivotal in launching him into the digital nomad lifestyle:
“Then in 2020, when COVID hit, I landed a remote sales gig.
This gave me the ability to generate an income from my laptop, which was the original goal of my sabbatical. I then took advantage of the digital nomad lifestyle and traveled the world while working multiple jobs. After working closely with a few founders, I started taking on my own consulting projects focused on helping online businesses increase their client retention.”
I'm curious to see how Brian has reinvented himself since taking his sabbatical!
Mental and Physical Wellbeing
This category includes a wide range of roles.
— Beyond Ordinary
In his entrepreneur chronicles, Jeremie describes his experience as a co-founder building Warrior Flow School, which offers various yoga training programs.
This is how Jeremie supports himself today, but in his series made of short, straight-to-the-point articles on his entrepreneurial journey, you'll discover that this has been far from an overnight success!
— The Next Chapter
I was surprised by how early Asia entered the digital nomad space and how she built a lifestyle that truly allows her to live off her passions—coaching and writing!
In Asia’s words:
“I quit my full-time job as a Brand Manager in 2016 once I started traveling and living abroad. Since then, my income has been primarily made up of coaching and writing with some other miscellaneous side gigs here and there.
Asia has been supporting herself through her relationship coaching business, helping single women heal from heartbreak after breakups and divorce.
She also works as a part-time Success Coach for a company based in Australia and has occasionally taken on ghostwriting and copywriting projects over the years.
Jada Butler—
In her Substack publication “The Midlife Nomad”, Jada shares her nomadic adventure and work as a licensed clinician and therapist in pre-retirement.
In an eye-opening paragraph titled the Math of Joy, she reflects on what she believes are the 'real costs' of the American lifestyle, which ultimately prompted her to change her life:
“Nobody tells you about the American lifestyle: the cost isn't just financial. It's paid in time, health, and life force. When I sat down and calculated the true cost of maintaining our "successful" life here, it was staggering:
- High healthcare costs despite having "good" insurance
- Long working hours to maintain our lifestyle
- Precious time spent maintaining possessions
- Minimal vacation time compared to other countries
- Constant tradeoff between earning and living”
Writing
— From the Desk of Amy Suto: Make Writing Your Job
Amy has been a full-time digital nomad, freelance writer, & author for the past four years!
She has blogged about every destination she’s visited (I highly recommend her blog, 24 Things I Learned in 2024: Writing, Travel, & Money, to get an idea of her lifestyle), and she shares freelance writing tips and writing job opportunities on her Substack. Very empowering!
—The Curious Chronicles
Anjali is a freelance writer who also travels the world while working.
I found her rationale behind this writing-and-traveling lifestyle very inspiring (hint: it has to do with dreaming of being a travel blogger for Nat Geo!)
Investing
— The Freedom Diaries
Calling Tanessa’s story fascinating would be an understatement. She and her husband set a goal to retire by 40—only to achieve it by 33!
As she describes in great detail in her article, ‘Step by Step: How We Retired in Our 30s’, they began by investing in real estate in 2018 before shifting to the stock market. Fast forward to today, they live solely off the dividends from their portfolio—having sold all their real estate in 2021 to reinvest it!
After experimenting with traveling as a family of four over the past few years, they embraced full-time nomadic life in 2024, seizing the opportunity when their landlord decided to sell their rental home.
Thank you for reading Freedom Focus!
I hope you enjoyed exploring how these nomads sustain their travels. I’d love to hear your thoughts:
Did anything, in particular, surprise you?
Which fields, not mentioned above, would you add as well-suited to a digital nomad lifestyle?
Great overview, Caterina! I admire people who manage to build a business that allows them to live the life they love, whether as nomads or settled abroad.
This is awesome thank you Caterina for sharing this 🙏