What is a Technomad, and why is this alternative lifestyle becoming so increasingly popular?

 

 

 “A lifestyle usually associated with touring rockstars, retirees and gypsies, has now begun to be adopted by singles, younger couples and families. “

A technomad (or alternatively known as Digital Nomads) is if you can’t already figure out, a combination of the words technology + nomad, or someone who utilizes technology to live a nomadic lifestyle. Plain and simple. It is a portmanteau, or a combining two different words to create a new word, like Bennifer (Ben Affleck + Jennifer Lopez), Cosplay (costume + play), Frenemy (friend + enemy), or internet (international + network).

 

 

We are living through a technological or informational revolution, and much like past revolutions such as the Agricultural or Industrial Revolutions before it, the way things were, are not the way things will be. Not only has the internet connected us quicker and closer together in a short period of time, and brought more diverse ideas and way of doing things. It has allowed many industries that once required workers to commute to a singular location to produce, it now allows for work to be done remotely. Many of those associated with being technomads are entrepreneurs, programmers, bloggers, affiliate marketers, copywriters, among other professions.

Nomads were typically in older days generally associated with livestock herders, hunters, traders, and gypsies. Most would think that lifestyle died off a hundred years ago, although as of 1995 some estimated that 30-40 million nomads still throughout the world, most common in third world countries such as Mongolia. Although it is estimated that by 2018, over a million people in the United States now, most residing in RVs.

 

 

HOW IT CAME TO BE

Many see that dawn of this alternative lifestyle to grow out of the dark days of the 2008 economic recession. A time where many people owed more than their homes were worth and U.S. homeowners lost a cumulative $3 trillion in equity. A time when so many of the American Dream was being foreclosed. People started to think outside the box, much like the shared economy that is ever growing with the likes of Airbnb and UBER.

The recession showed to many that a house can sometimes be a bad investment and a 401K relies on the economy to grow to increase its value. That maybe waiting until you retire to travel may not come if you have bad health or die early due to hereditary conditions.

Perhaps the ideas spread by Timothy Ferriss in “The 4-hour work week”, or other like-minded ideas that started to spread, gave way to people to start looking at living life differently that way we have since World War 2. To many, it is an abstract idea that is confusing, to others it’s a pipe dream, and for others it is hope. Not actually owning a home, or putting it up for rent, to live either in an RV, Airbnb, or tiny home while experiencing different regions and cultures, as one works and travels at their own leisure.  

In our modern age of ever-increasing materialism that involve both parents working a 9 to 5 job, for 3 cars, 2 car garage and mini-mansion, an endless schedule of meetings and events along with ever increasingly expensive housing, medical and education. It’s no wonder many feel like they are working themselves to death, or that we fill our homes with things don’t actually mean that much compared to the memories with make and share with those we care for. Many have decided to trade the luxuries usually associated with the American Dream for some alternative. That you can still have a meaningful and happy life whether you have a large house or on a bunk in a camper.

In a way, it’s a modern day wild west.  Instead of the heading out into the unknown of the American West, of people seeking the fame for exploring the great unknown, or chasing the riches promised by the gold rush. We are breaking the shackles of tradition, traversing our own uncharted paths while living and appreciating lost history, landscapes, and cultures all around us.

 

 

HOW THEY DO IT

Though not nearly as popular or reported on as the small or tiny home communities that have popped up, primarily due to the fact that most technomads, or digital nomads, most go unnoticed as vacationers with their campers or business travelers jet setting from one location to another.

Some have opted for globe setting across the world, while others choose to traverse via an RV (Recreational Vehicle or Motorhome). Regardless of how people do it, the goal is the same. To live perhaps a simpler life, free to travel and enjoy life.

Many people who are technomads work in fields that allow for working remotely, such as but not limited to online marketers, bloggers, programmers and so on. Either working for themselves or being contract workers, where they can telecommute. That the only thing you need to work and earn money is a computer and a decent internet. Which means you can be on the beach in the Philippines or a flat in Tokyo. Meaning whatever you can fit in your luggage and carry on the plain you can bring, which isn’t a lot, but the tradeoff is being able to work anywhere is probably worth it.

Living in Recreational Vehicles (RVs or Trailers), or pre-furnished apartments, such AirBnB other people’s homes and apartments, as part of the growing shared economy. Living in other communities for short or extended periods of time.

 

 

HOW WE DO IT

Our story is much like many others. The details might be different, but we are apart of a growing yet largely unknown subset of Americans, most often associated with retirees and others more economically more well off, that really started to grow out of the great recession of 2008. For us, it was 2014. When upon losing my job because a Chinese company purchasing the company I had been working for, then downsized my department. After many months of applying for companies and getting rejected my wife started to create her own website, a sister site to this one. At this same time, we had a good friend who had already been traveling the world with their family, and they imparted to me, what I’m about to impart to you. They had started to travel with their family a few years earlier when they noticed that they could spend about the same amount to travel as they could renting out a place in the states. So instead they sold everything except what could fit into four individual pieces of luggage.

My good friend admitted to me that “American Poor, is World Rich”. We found that it was cheaper travel and live outside the U.S. than to rent a place in most places throughout the U.S.

By the time they sold us on this they had already taken their kids to see such things as the Louvre, Stonehenge, and many of the other world wonders. Not only were they learning about them they were experiencing first hand.

For us already having 3 kids, when we started our kids were just about the age to go into public school but decided that by doing this we would homeschool our kids. Don’t anyone kid you, teaching your kids can be really hard, especially on days when you need to get an article was written up or project finished and they don’t want to sit still and do their work. That being said, there is nothing more rewarding than you teaching your kid to read than having your kid reading to you or going to a museum and they are the ones teaching you about history or science.

This obviously isn’t a life fit for most people. It’s admittedly hard. Having had a steady job most of my adult life and a great home and loving that other life, there are always trade-offs. Carrying luggage for my family of 5 through Heathrow Airport trying to catch our flight while accidentally shedding kids toys while people are staring at you like your crazy, but then we get to experience my kids lighting candles in a Monastery at Meteora Greece while learning about the monks who lived there and continue to build it up in the name of their God. I will admit I miss the stability of knowing we would have a place to stay every night, but not the mysteriously broken garage window or the broken sprinkler system, will not be missed.

 

 

We are not the first, and we will most likely not be the last. The more we do this, the more we meet people just like us, and the more other people who know someone who now considers themselves technomads grows. Like the explorers who started traveling through the untamed and unknown of the wild west, who paved the way for others to follow, so shall we be a guiding path to others who follow.

Whether we inspire you to do the same, or simply want to vicariously experience a little of what we have or to learn from our mistakes. We welcome you on our journey.

 

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