How to Become Location Independent (6 Ways)
I’ve been an expat since early 2019 and location independent since early 2021. After leaving the USA for adventure, I’ve traveled to over 9 new countries, learned a new language, how to drive a motorcycle, and of course dance salsa.
In this article, I’m going to share with you how I did it – how you can too.
You can check point 5 if you want to skip to how I’m personally doing the location independent lifestyle.
I traveled for years before becoming location independent. However, it was usually in short sprints to another country. In the back of my mind, the end goal was to always be abroad. After some time dedicated to this goal, I find myself in Medellin, Colombia grateful to be writing this article.
1. Be happy with less
This is one of the fastest ways to become location independent. If you can learn to be happy staying in hostels, and eating local food, then travel doesn’t have to cost a lot. If you can answer positively to this question, it maybe the biggest indicator that you should move to another country.
Work and save money for 6 months and arbitrage your currency. This way you can stretch out your travel time in an adventurous area.
For instance a full course meal in Colombia, South America can cost around $4 USD, and you can find a place to lay your head for less than $10 USD.
You can also plan your method of travel for the most economical times or methods. Instead of domestic flights or Uber rides everywhere, choose a bus to get where you want to go.
The idea here is not about glam, but an adventure. In the end, the adage of “buy experience, not things” is the key to meaningful spending.
- Time to become location independent: 6 – 9 months
- Amount saved: $10,000 USD
- Longevity of being a digital nomad: 1 year
- Upside: Freedom to adventure in a short amount of time
- Downside: Not a long-term play
2. Get an entry-level job
You can get an entry-level job abroad pretty quickly. Depending on where you are in your career, this may not pay as much. If the travel itch is stronger than climbing the ladder, this is a great option.
Some of these entry positions can be online such as teaching a skillset like English. Other positions can take a more traditional route like being an Au Pair.
If you’re just starting in the workforce, and have a desire to travel, this is probably going to be the most appealing path. Plus, you don’t have to have a lot saved up as you have income coming in.
The downsides of this kind of these kinds of entry-level jobs are limited upward mobility. A luxurious splurge would be a rare occurrence, as you’re mostly covering living expenses and tourist activities.
- Time to become location independent: 6 – 9 months
- Amount saved: $1,000 USD
- Longevity of being a digital nomad: Lifetime
- Upside: You can travel for a long time pretty quickly
- Downside: Minimal upward mobility
3. Choose a career with remote potential
This may take years but allows you to have the best of both worlds: a salary and having a location independent life.
If you choose a career that can be done completely on a laptop, then path out your leverage. Show better performance metrics when you’re remote over the next years and show a preference for being remote. Once your leverage is built, make the ask for remote full time.
These kinds of career-related work may sometimes require you to travel or a mailbox for items to be sent to. You can often get this worked out by having someone accept mail and forward it to wherever you are.
When it comes to travel for work, the best way to handle that objection is to opt-out into a different role, even if the salary is slightly less. This way location independence is the priority. However, if the travel is potentially somewhere cool, then why not take those trips.
- Time to become location independent: 2 to 3 years
- Amount saved: $1,000 USD
- Longevity of being a digital nomad: Lifetime
- Upside: You can live large and for a long time by arbitraging your currency in another country.
- Downside: Unexpected need to fly to the USA for career requirements.
4. Become a location independent entrepreneur
This is probably my favorite way on how to become location independent. You have the most agency with this option. What I mean by that is you set your hours when you want to work. So if you meet people on adventures, you can be flexible with when you are working. Owning your time is the top factor for having a location independent lifestyle.
It is a double-edged sword, however. Having agency means you are responsible for how much money you can make, or how much money you don’t make. In some ways, this is the ultimate test on whether or not you have developed a skill set that serves what people need.
There are two paths you can take to become a location independent entrepreneur:
- Freelancer – This type of entrepreneur trades time for money. The upside is you can start earning an income pretty quickly. You can do this by displaying your skillset on different market platforms. Fiverr or Upwork are usual platforms where you can create a portfolio and advertise what you do. Ideally, you’d want to drive your potential customers to your platform like an email list.
- Business Owner – This type of entrepreneur also trades time for money at first. But the difference between an owner and a freelancer is creating automated systems. As an owner, the goal of a business is to create an organism that doesn’t need detailed input from you. This type of business takes time to grow. Think years here.
Here are some business ideas, remote jobs and job opportunities to become a remote worker:
- Graphic design
- SEO based digital marketing
- Video-based digital marketing
- Freelance writer
- Web developer
- Virtual assistant
- Teaching english online
- Online project manager
- Social media managers
- Sell online courses
Because having your own business can come with surprises while you move the needle to higher profit margins, it can cost money to keep it running. Your saving expenses may need to be higher, even if you have revenue already coming in.
I still think this is more worthwhile because of the unlimited upside and you’re developing a skillset of knowing how to give people what they need.
- Time to become location independent: 6 months to 2 years
- Amount saved: $10,000 USD
- Longevity of being a digital nomad: Lifetime
- Upside: Unlimited potential for more money and time agency
- Downside: Entrepreneurship has fewer prescriptions for success
5. Location independent lifestyle combo
This article is not an exhaustive list. So you can mix and match any of the above to your current career, side hustles, or savings and make it work.
For example, I have a couple of income streams as part of my entrepreneurial endeavors:
- Portfolio of Websites
- Rental Properties
These two income streams can cover most of my rental expenses. But over time, the goal is to cover and surpass my total living expenses.
My primary source of income is:
- My tech career
I have been in tech space for about 8 years now. At around year 5, I gathered credentials to be employable in any major city in the USA, as well as other specific countries. Now, I have a remote job where I can work from my laptop from anywhere with an internet connection.
As a side effect, I know where the best coffee shops are to work remotely from in every new country I go to. I have also met other digital nomads who are either their own boss or have a completely remote career. Location independence is probably my favorite lifestyle largely because of the people you get to meet.
Side Hustles
I mentioned previously, the idea is to cover and surpass my current living expenses with my entrepreneurial endeavors. The way I set up the systems for these endeavors requires minimal to no intervention on my part. Initially, I put a lot of effort into putting them together, but they are the point of nominal passivity.
To grow these endeavors, I will have to put more effort. But as they stand they should still be able to cover my expenses within the next year.
I like my career, but agency is more important for me. I want the responsibility of my entrepreneurial outcome for the time freedom it will give me. My focus is less on climbing the ladder 100% of the time, but diversifying into my entrepreneurial income streams. Doing this will solidify the longevity of my location independence.
- Time to become location independent: 5 years for me
- Amount saved: Enough to live off of for a few years
- Longevity of being a digital nomad: Lifetime
- Upside: I can occasionally enjoy luxuries as I’m arbitraging my remote job salary in another country.
- Downside: My meetings for my career are synchronic. For about two hours a day, I have to schedule my time for a video call.
6. Defer your plan for location independence
This point is more said to provoke thought. Often, people will have an idealized future only to put off things like a location independent lifestyle and eventually convince themselves that it’s not the future they want.
Location independence is appealing because of the freedom it gives you to live where you want. But also there is an inherent time savings factor, you should be able to do more with your time from this.
The alternate to getting on this path is staying in a traditional bubble before being location independent:
- Get a career
- Spend less than you earn
- Allocate your earnings to an index fund
- Repeat for 20 – 30 years
- Travel the world and be location independent
If you’re having a tough sacrificing comfort you’ll end up deferring your plan. Most people live 20 to 30 years to build the next egg before they can live a life of freedom to do what they want. Their portfolio may be in an index fund where they can withdraw a comfortable salary. But you’ve lost valuable time in the process.
This is my least favorite option. Instead of waiting decades to do something, why not drop the prescriptions of life and forge your own path?
Tim Ferriss puts these thoughts in a question well, “What might you do to accomplish your 10-year goals in the next 6 months…”
- Time to become location independent: 20 to 30 years
- Amount saved: $2 Million USD
- Longevity of being location independent: Lifetime
- Upside: You don’t have to worry about making money
- Downside: Your most energetic years are behind you
Location Independent Living Workshop
1. Determine what you want to do with your life
As you inspire to become a digital nomad, the best question you can ask yourself is, “What ways should I be working remotely?”
Remote workers and digital nomads have a diverse range of location independent careers or location independent businesses.
Do you want to be a digital nomad working for someone else? An employer perhaps or a roster of clients?
Or do you want to be a digital nomad with an online business? Something you can scale. This has more of a learning curve stretch. More often than not our experience with having a full time job has a simple prescribed path.
2. Figure out how much money you need to live the lifestyle that you want
A traditional office environment is the Matrix you’re trying to escape. Having a location independent career is more the lifestyle you want.
If you can be a digital nomad with a minimal budget, then you could embrace location independence much sooner. But sometimes being a digital nomad is nice because of the lifestyle arbitrage it can afford.
The idea is your lifestyle as a digital nomad will determine your expenses.
Do you want a modest lifestyle where your threshold for a daily meal is to be the equivalent of a cup of coffee, or do you live in wealthy areas and have a high cost of living? These are other questions to help clear out your thought process more.
It’s also a good idea to save up money until you’ve got enough to go nomad for at least one year.
The golden number is how much money it takes you to live the life you want, minus your current salary.
3. Start a company or find a job that will allow for remote work and travel
The most common way for location independent jobs is to turn to freelance work. It often brings a better work life balance than a day job working at a fixed address.
I’ve met digital nomads who have started their freelance career with freelance writing which gives them the flexibility of location independent work. To become successful at this, you need to niche your writing to a particular market. And with advanced digital tools, you can scale this day job into a proper online business.
There are other location independent career opportunities you can get that just requires an internet connection. I think it’s always a good idea to see if you can do this with a current job. Show yourself to have a higher metrics when working remotely. Eventually you could turn this job into a location independent career.
Creative thinkers make up an adventurous crowd who can are location independent working in the most amazing places with complete freedom.
4. Make the transition
At this point, you should have a good plan of what’s next to take on your new job or be self employed while traveling the world.
A good way to test the waters is to work remotely and take those video calls from the comfort of your own home. Then you can begin troubleshooting your needs to become completely remote anywhere in the world.
For instance do you need to setup bank accounts, or have a global account to withdraw from? What about visas? Is there a working holiday visa that you’ll need to get before you travel.
During this transition period, you can think of all the ideas and game out your play for the digital nomad lifestyle.
Common Questions for Location Independence
How do you create location independent income?
Remote jobs are the most common way to create a location independent income. You can also take an existing job and find a way to pivot into location independence. By prooving higher efficiency with remote work, you can meet your employer’s needs and your own route to become a digital nomad.
What does it mean to be location independent?
Location independence is about freedom. By solving how your expenses are met by divorcing geography from it, you’re able to live or travel where you’d like. A side effect to this is an incredible adventure.
What is a location independent job?
A location independent job is synonymous to a remote job. They are income sources where you trade time for money anywhere in the world; or more specifically without having to be confined in an office.
How can I make a living anywhere?
Finding work online is the best route for location independence. This way your expenses can be met while sipping on margaritas on the beaches of Mexico.
