On the primary of December, 2023, I celebrated six years as a full-time traveler. For over six years now, I haven’t had a set handle or a house within the conventional sense. I spent most of these years dwelling in a Ford Transit campervan, a journey I share in my newest e book, Life Performed Otherwise. Since promoting the van, I lived in a tiny home for 2 months, been a home sitter in numerous locations, stayed with buddies, and sometimes booked an Airbnb.
I like being a nomad. I like the liberty and adaptability. I like exploring new locations and assembly cool individuals. Nonetheless, it’s in all probability honest to say that, ten years in the past, I wouldn’t have been voted most definitely to finish up as a nomad. So, how did I get right here?
The making of a nomad
It began again in 2017. I had simply turned 33, and despite the fact that life was nice, I started to have doubts concerning the route I used to be heading in. I used to be very career-focused, working lengthy hours because the Head of Advertising for a tech startup. I loved it, however I wished extra from life than only a profitable profession. In some ways, it appeared apparent what my subsequent steps in my life must be: Get married, purchase a home and have youngsters. It was what all of my buddies have been doing.
Nonetheless, whereas I used to be excited for my buddies and will see the wonder within the lives they have been creating, I wasn’t positive it was the appropriate path for me. One way or the other, I simply couldn’t image myself strolling down an aisle in a white gown or elevating a bunch of little ones – a minimum of not but.
What do you do while you really feel misplaced and not sure about what to do along with your life? You go touring! And while you dwell in a tremendous nation like New Zealand, it is sensible to discover your yard as a substitute of hopping on a aircraft to faraway locations. So I made a decision to purchase a campervan, stop my job, and take a while to determine who I’m and what I would like from life.
It was imagined to be for one summer time. One summer time of journey, freedom, exploration, and escaping my busy metropolis life. That summer time became virtually 5 years on the street in my camper and life as a touring home sitter after that.
Alongside the way in which, I met unbelievable individuals, overcame challenges, admired and explored the beautiful surroundings of New Zealand, challenged society’s norms and expectations about what a lady in her 30s must be targeted on, and located the solutions I used to be in search of.
Making a dwelling as a nomad
From the very starting, I beloved the life-style, particularly the sense of freedom. Stepping away from my busy, career-focused life in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest metropolis, made me notice how a lot the stress had impacted me and the way a lot better I felt dwelling a slower, extra intentional life. Nonetheless, in all probability the primary cause I saved touring past that first summer time – the primary cause I used to be capable of – is that I found I may work remotely.
Till then, I had labored in numerous advertising and marketing roles that each one required me to be within the workplace, a minimum of more often than not. This was a couple of years earlier than Covid made distant working extra frequent. On the time, I didn’t know anybody with a distant job, so I hadn’t thought-about it an possibility.
After I informed the corporate I used to be working for again in 2017 about my plans, aspiring to resign, they requested if I might contemplate working part-time and remotely whereas I journey. To my shock, inside a couple of months on the street, I secured one other new consumer and one other one shortly after. Within the six years since, I’ve labored for dozens of firms as a digital advertising and marketing guide. As well as, I began writing for a journey journal and likewise wrote three books, together with the journey memoir Life Performed Otherwise.
Due to a superb community and glorious status, I get a number of work via phrase of mouth and referrals. Because of this, up to now, I’ve at all times had sufficient work, which is without doubt one of the important causes I’ve been capable of journey full-time for so long as I’ve. The opposite huge cause is that I dwell a easy, low-cost life.
Low-cost methods to journey
Journey is commonly deemed costly, however it doesn’t should be. Positive, if you wish to keep in luxurious resorts or do a number of excursions and actions, the prices add up shortly. Nonetheless, there are methods to journey for much less. Dwelling in my van for nearly 5 years saved me some huge cash. I needed to pay for campgrounds and van upkeep and repairs, however that was so much lower than what I used to pay for lease in Auckland. Since promoting my camper in 2022, I’ve been a full-time housesitter, which is one other means to save cash whereas touring.
I’m additionally very selective about what excursions and actions I pay for, typically choosing a free hike or bike journey as a substitute of a paid exercise. I don’t spend a lot on going out or style, and whereas most of my hobbies, like paddleboarding, kitesurfing, and biking, require pricy tools, now that I’ve it, doing them is free.
Touring primarily in New Zealand additionally means I don’t should fork out for costly airfares. This may sound boring to some, however belief me after I say that New Zealand is the type of place the place you possibly can journey for a few years with out becoming bored, particularly should you love nature and adventuring within the nice open air.
The one huge draw back
There have, in fact, been challenges through the years. I needed to write off my first campervan. Selecting a life so totally different from most of my buddies generally made me really feel lonely and disconnected. Sometimes, I doubted my selections. Typically, the fixed change was overwhelming. The pandemic introduced its personal set of challenges. Nonetheless, wanting again, all these obstacles really feel like minor blips – little pace bumps I needed to overcome to get to the place I wished to be.
There’s one important draw back to this way of life that’s greater than a bit of speedbump, and that’s the dearth of group. The true-life type of group. The sense of consolation that comes with belonging someplace, with understanding your neighborhood. The sensation of connection and belonging that, a minimum of for me, solely comes from spending a number of time with somebody.
There’s a thriving worldwide nomad group, and connecting with like-minded individuals from all around the world on-line has been superb. However it’s not the identical as having a real-life group.
So, should you’d ask me if there’s something I genuinely miss, that will be it — a real-life group.
To date, all of the issues I like about this way of life have outweighed the downsides. I’ve no want to return to the normal life I had seven years in the past. Nonetheless, the longer I dwell this manner, the stronger the urge to remain put someplace – even only for some time – and to construct up a group and have extra stability appears to get.
I do know I’m not alone on this. The lack of group appears to be the primary reply you get while you ask long-term nomads what they miss. So perhaps that’s the value you pay for the liberty, journey, and adaptability. It’s as much as every of us to resolve for ourselves if that value is ever not price it anymore. Fortunately, whereas life is brief, it’s lengthy sufficient to modify between staying put and touring a couple of occasions.
Lisa Jansen is a author and digital nomad based mostly in New Zealand. She is the creator of the journey memoir Life Performed Otherwise: One Lady’s Journey on the Street Much less Travelled, in addition to two different books. To attach with Lisa, go to her web site or observe her journey on Instagram or Fb.