Being a digital nomad, the Bilan

Today will be a bit different. I want to make a summary of my experience as a nomad for the past 2 years and see the pros and cons of it.

It's been more than 5 years that my dream was to become a nomad, to travel everywhere and work from where I want. I decided to find the best job for me that fit this and I worked hard to achieve doing it.

Now I can say that I'm a nomad. I don't have a home and I traveled half the year for 2 years. You can think that it's a dream way to live, but it really depends on you, and I changed my mind a lot since the beginning.

Just to come back to where I started, my first goal was to find a job to work online and have no obligations to stay somewhere. There were a lot of different possibilities for me. I'm from studies in computer science, and I started as a dev freelance. It was such a nice experience, but I know that it's not exactly what I wanted for some reasons:

• I'm very bad to sell myself, and I can cut my prices
• I'm not very good with all the changes a client can ask. Sometimes, they make some bad choices ( in my opinion ) and it's hard for me to stick with that
• You still have time limits and you need to stick with the contract and finish the work on time

All of these made me choose to try something else. During this time, I also tried making content. First, in IT security by made videos to explain some concepts on it, and my goal was to make money with it, enough to live. But I changed my position as I needed to make videos for beginners in order to make views, and you know, you need to make videos that make more views and so on.

Finally, I tried bug hunting. It was the best of all I tried. I can work when I want. It mostly depends on my skills and if I'm good enough. I don't need to negotiate the price as the bounty tables are clear ( in a dream world ). So that's what I did.

My goal was to make around 1k$ per month to live ( I know it's not a lot, but to live in southeast Asia, it's perfect ). And I did it after a year of work and I decided to move to Thailand.

I already talked about that but I didn't like the experience, mainly because of the hot humid weather at this time and it was too hard for me to accommodate and work there. And during this first trip, it was also a lot stressful to make enough money to live.

Looking forward one year later, I'm still traveling a lot, going back sometimes to my hometown in France and moving around. I'm now making enough money to live where I like and travel at the same time. And I found that there are a lot of pros and cons of doing it.

When looking on Instagram or anywhere, you see all the good stuff of being a digital nomad and working from everywhere. And I'm doing the same, sharing my pictures and good stuff. But there are also some caveats and I would like to talk about them too, to show the whole picture.

First, let's talk about the pros of working from everywhere :

• You can travel everywhere and visit new countries when you want
• You can meet new people and travelers from all around the world
• You choose the weather you want by going to a country that fits you
• You have a better lifestyle as you don't need to pay for a car, assurance, fees for a home, etc.. and overall it can be cheaper.
• You expand your thought by traveling a lot

And also a lot of other good stuff that depends on who you are. But it also comes with some caveats :

• You can feel lonely traveling solo
• You don't have any routine, especially if you move quickly
• It can be hard to maintain relationships and friendships
• You need to don't have a lot of stuff and live with the minimum
• You can feel the FOMO ( fear of missing out )
• You don't have a home and a place where you can stay for a couple of time

That's mainly my case and my point of view, and of course, it's different for everyone. For instance, Yassine Aboukir, another bug hunter is also a nomad for a long time, and he loved going to south-east Asia and living there. And he also travels with some friends so it can help.

All of this just to come to this point: what's next?

It's been months that I've been thinking about it, and I'm now quite sure, I want to get a home and take time to stay at the same place and build something. So after my trip to Asia, I will start looking at a flat, probably in France, and try to find something good and stay there for a bit.

I'm not saying that I will stop traveling a lot, but that having a home will help me have a space to come back when I want and don't need to stick to my parent's house.

I'm also running a lot, and traveling at the same time is not the best as I'm always tired. I need to get a routine of work and sport and for that, I need a space for that.

I will let you know what I do finally, but I will still continue to share my thoughts here and my travels.

I'm still in Japan for 3 weeks and then South Korea for a month before going back to France !

And if you have any questions about this way of living or something else, feel free to contact me!