British DN here. Worked in Construction for Main Contractors doing the Quantity Surveying (Cost Management for US ppl) for 5 years. I quit after 3 years of being a Trainee/ Assistance and went Freelance in London for a year, which I was heavy recommended not to, and arguably far too young or inexperienced to do so, but I bullshitted my interviews and it threw me in the deep end and I became really skilled and experienced very quick.

I took a break to India/ Sri Lanka, then came back did more Freelance saved up £7k and went to Mexico as wanted to live life in Sun an get out of the hell hole that is UK these days.

Had 2 ideas for making money:

1. Teach English so I got a TEFL cert while sneakily at work those last 3 months in UK. Cost me £150 and was all online. Passed. That’s my back up if anything ever goes wrong I can always make money somehow as a native speaker.
2. Set up Export Management Company. I tried hard with this but inevitably gave up after first year because I was running v low on cash, it was wayyyyy harder to break into clients that I wanted to work with and I was completely out of my depth LOL

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It didn’t matter though… because I found out I could actually do the QS/ Estimating work remotely… effectively helping Trades/ Subcontractors price jobs an do estimating.

I emailed around ALL my old managers/ linkedin contacts and one old manager had gone solo and set up a small construction firm of his own. We negotiated a 50% pay cut on my rates, but flexible hours and I’d just charge a day rate for his Estimating needs.

He introduced me to a small Bricklaying company and charged him for me (taking a %). He told me he’d only “take a tenner” (£10) but me an the Brickie found out after 6 months he’d been taking £50 (so charging the Brickie £200).

We cut him out as he was actually a lying prick, and we decided to go it alone at a meet-in-middle rate of £175. That was 2020.

I’ve since built out his entire Bricklaying Company into something professional, with all the top Construction certs, and doubled his Turnover (during Covid). We just did our record year and next year looking to go for £1 million turnover. His biggest job was 3 houses and we’ve now done 21 Homes in both 2022 and 2023, and began doing enormous Care Homes and have been able to bring his Brother back into the business.

We do everything digitally - all Whatsapp based/ Whatsapp groups for projects. We have a Dropbox plan, and highly organized folders. We do Zooms/ Teams with clients. And as he is in the UK he attends meetings and I do everything by email/ zoom or Skype-Phone plan also.

My rate increased yearly from 175-190-skipped a year- then this year I agreed £220 a day. I work about 3-4 full days each week, varies a lot. Invoice bi-weekly £1300 to 1500.

I use a Florida Registered LLC so as a NRA I pay no tax. I don’t make more than £35k per year, and it’s expensive everywhere except Asia and Argentina. Hot Spots in Mexico are so expensive these days with Peso getting stronger.

Seek to limit your Expenses & Taxes and live cheaply. Always live like the locals. Make friends with locals not nomads. Learn the local language. Talk to taxi drivers everyday. Become friends with Cafe an restaurant owners. Befriend your airbnb hosts. Your network is critical.

I spend a lot as I have special diet requirements also - Carnivore/ Keto. That also makes it hard to travel. I also don’t drink or smoke. This means lack of “partying”, but that used to make me lonely & depressed even surrounded by a crowd.

This is the best life I could imagine for myself right now and I’m always grateful.

Just this year - Thailand, India, Indonesia (too far actually timezone killed me), Argentina and Colombia. I’m writing this from a $30 USD a night studio in Bariloche. Will be hiking in a few days once I’ve finished my tasks and opened up some free space.

I used to do a lot of manifestation/ The Secret stuff but now I just set my mind to what I want and then I go for it. IDK who or what is helping me but without a doubt I’m always looked after and I find that things take care of themselves. Osho & Zen Buddhism helped me a lot.

The world is getting much more expensive, but third world countries are getting more developed… there’s always a new amazing spot the hippies have found - just gotta find them.

Don’t pay attention to idiotic social media influencers. First rule.

After applying that, it really is as easy or difficult as you want to see it.

It is as simple as generating income online, you can get a job, be a freelancer or start a business. But don’t think it will be easy, people overvalue their effort, how many quotes did you send to say it’s not working for you? How many jobs did you apply for? If the answer is 100 it is little, if it is 200 it is little, if it is 500 it is also little, nobody knows. That it is COMPLETELY POSSIBLE to earn income to live as a digital nomad is a fact, I am from Uruguay and I have been doing it for years and many of my friends have made the transition, partly seeing my experience.

But there is no magic recipe, think creatively, try several different ways, find a way that works fairly well and try endlessly with that formula. It’s a matter of time until you get it

I work remotely in IT, live frugally and invest my savings - last 8 years of my life.

ATM I’m debt free with my own apartment, with another apartment I’m buying for cash, some stocks and a good emergency fund (3 years of living expenses).

I’m still trying to earn as much as possible for my contract work. I mostly don’t splurge at all.

If you can speak english, you can do phone sales. Selling to people in the USA. Get paid in USD. A lot of these gigs can be freelance, independent contractor. BUT, it is hard work, definitely not a “get rich quick” scheme.

I do social media / content creation for my own pages where I partner with brands so earn money via paid ADs or affiliate marketing and also do freelance social media management and copywriting for websites / blogs for other peoples business. I have a degree in marketing and journalism which makes it very easy to work digitally

By being a very senior person with lots of experience

I spent a decade building a software engineering career, am a department head right now and start to restructure my department now in a way, that when I step down as head next year I can travel full time while being a developer in said department again.

Lucked out during COVID…

My US-based company went fully remote, and I started traveling LATAM. Never really looked back.

Affiliate marketing.

I wrote a couple of guides on how to get started. They’re pinned on my Reddit profile.

Pro tip: don’t buy any courses. 99.9% of “educators” make money by selling courses instead of doing actual affiliate marketing 😉

I prepared for hard times while I was working in tech before moving abroad - managed to save just shy of £150k.

I spent 2 further years in Thailand but working full time for a UK company earning ok money.

Lost my job in September and haven’t earned a penny since. I know I will never find a real DN job again, so in an effort to remain abroad I’m trying to become a WordPress website designer.

No luck so far in finding paying clients, but I’m at the beginning. At least I’ve got my savings to help me out.

Hope it will improve.

One of the best threads on this topic with many realistic replies. Thanks everyone that contributed, this was helpful.

Most are lying. Dont believe the internet.

Get a remote job, don’t tell employer

Get really good at something valuable.

Freelance or charge a company royally to do it.

Work for a usa company and secretly leave the usa with a setup that lets them think you’re still in the usa… there’s two general ways to do this and both work pretty well. You’ll make enough that when/if caught and fired you can easily coast until you get a new job. It’s a cat and mouse game