Making an income as a nomad

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Many view the nomadic lifestyle as some sort of escape from the harsh realities of contemporary life. Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact remains that all lifestyles have ups and downs. Legitimate reasons for choosing a nomadic lifestyle are many and varied, but choosing it as a method of escaping day to day hardships will rapidly lead to disillusionment if not worse. One of the biggest requirements to making the nomadic lifestyle successful is security in ones self. That coupled with a need for new experiences and challenges can make it a very full-filling lifestyle.

One aspect that cannot be ignored, irrespective of lifestyle, is the need for resources to survive. In the contemporary western world that means income, or a stash of money. For people who are independently wealthy that's not a big issue, though for most of us it creates some unique challenges that most in contemporary society are not faced with. Fortunately traveling in your own home does make things easier than for most travelers, in that accommodation and general living expenses are kept down and you can keep more resources on hand than otherwise possible while traveling.

Obviously a standard nine to five job is going to be unsustainable if you are going to do any travel, which is the primary reason you would consider a nomadic lifestyle. So what are some options? If you are wanting to work as an employee at a work site then you would be looking at short term positions, such as seasonal work; fruit picking, farm work etc. Alternatively you may consider running your own business. There is a good case to be made for this option if you are living a nomadic lifestyle. For a start you are already likely to be independently minded and decision making is much more of an ordinary part of day to day life than normal. The running costs can also be much lower than for someone in fixed accommodation.

There are further considerations as to what sort of businesses are suitable for someone living in mobile accommodation which I will start to explore in the next post.