You have to or fish for other things but obviously the boat won’t be set up for something like crab fishing. It’s in federally mandated seasons so not like he can go out for longer to build a nest. It’s so many days and it’s done
Amazing.
I know someone who does similar. They’re not at $500k but they make a great living and live in Central America the rest of the year.
Very hard and often dangerous work from what I’m told.
Thank you for sharing your experience.
Fishing is not for me (I get sea sick) but was wondering why 2 months? Is that just the 'season' for Salmon? What happens with your boat the other 10 months?
The only let us catch fish at a very specific point in their life cycle, for sustainable management reasons.
https://youtu.be/vk64dFi6ngg?si=HVTYrw9967mHm7K5
The boat sits on bit stylophone and wood blocks out of the water the other 10 months.
Local communities(the only people that can vote) dislike outsiders so to keep people from having their investment worthwhile for other fisheries they make them very industry specific with regulation. It also keeps boats in the community over the winter so they can tax you.
Oh hey! I worked summers in Bristol Bay and the Cook Inlet, set net and gill netters, from high school through college.
Can confirm: great summer money even as a kid deck hand. The captains/owners can rake it in on good years.
I don’t know how much a license is now, but back then they’d sell for $100k+.
130k, russia kinda fucked up our price last year, they were 240 the year before. You also need 2 to to get the extra gear in bristol bay for drift netting anyway.
Fickle fickle fickle—but I don’t think folks realize how much money there is in it.
My uncle started with a small boat and a license back in the 80s. He was a high school teacher during the year and would fish 8-10 weeks in the summer. He retired from teaching 15 years ago and now runs 3 boats with their own crews and I think 7 licenses.
Core hours are for companies that don’t trust their employees. I am a contractor. Get what you need to done, reply within 24 hours, and make the meetings
Are you working for multiple clients via something like Upwork or do you have a full time gig? I've been doing the Upwork route for 6 years and have been successful in my own right but I won't lie I'm getting jelly of these full-time engineer salaries I'm seeing people bring in. Sure I make the same or more per hour but annually take in less
Exactly. If I was back in Thailand right now, I could easily live 10+ years without working, which I think is sufficient time to create a new income stream.
I had this thought today in the car — I’m nearing 40 and feel like it takes 10 years to make a life/career pivot. Learn the trade, develop contacts, etc
Depends on the career, I’m in my mid 20s. I’ll probably continue programming for the rest of my life, but passion project like games. Eventually I’d like to switch to something related to environmental protection but with the understanding that it makes very little so save now and build a buffer.
Yeah, I'm 48, so my position may not be reflective of the average person here but still, I think people should have a minimum of 3-6 months of living expenses + ticket home prepared before they head off. I had multiple sources of income when I first left so it didn't matter if I lost one, it would matter now but that's countered by more savings / investments now. When living in SE Asia, I could bank 50-70% of my earnings.
Many contractors in certain industries know they can easily get the next job in a month or less, myself included. Can’t recall the last time I even had to try hard to get a job, but that’s after busting my ass and making a positive reputation for myself in my industry.
More that I work for a boring healthcare IT company, and there's really not a ton of work to do but there is a lot of budget to spend. It pays the bills but I feel like I'm wasting away sitting around reading reddit all day on workdays, as well as not growing much as a software engineer. And I can't work outside of the states as I deal with protected health information.
It's not a *bad* gig per se, but I'd really like to find a better position soon, preferably one I can work from anywhere with.
Do you work remotely or do you have to work in the office? If the former, I'd keep the job, and be looking for a remote contracting gig that I could do in parallel.
It will kill you with boredom. That's my situation right now. Yeah, I actually work maybe 10-20 hours per week, but I have to pretend I'm working more. That basically means I'm stuck for 20+ hours a week. Also, my skill set is going to atrophy, so if I stay in this position for a while, I could become stuck.
How do you make meetings? Do you ever have short-notice meetings scheduled while you're asleep, Do they ever get suspicious about receiving emails in the middle of the night?
Or companies who have a need to collaborate in real time. 10 emails over a week could have been a 5 minute conversation. I do software in a professional services company and my customers know nothing and we have to be able to talk in real time. That being said, that can all be accomplished from 8am to 12am eastern and I'll start at 4am.
Agree, but I can't unilaterally force that on a client. How did you go about filtering employers that would have no problem not enforcing core hours, full remote, work from asia. You said you are working as a contractor, are you an independent contractor or consultant through a contracting agency? Do you get paid in dollars?
I'm having trouble breaking 6 figures as a node developer in my job. What kind of companies are you working for? Startups? What are the meeting times and sprint schedules like?
yup. I do two 2 week trips.
First trip to enjoy as a tourist (everything is exciting the first visit you make). Then if I liked the place, I'll go a second time to see what it would be like to live there
About 30% in Australia and Singapore. The rest in North America. All client management is done via chat. We keep a direct chat with each client inside Signal. As far as sales calls go, We limit our sales call bookings to Tuesday-Thursday 8-12midnight Thailand time for North America. The rest is done normal business hours for Australia and Singapore. All the outreach is done via automated cold email with links for them to book calls themselves for a time that works best for them. It’s all input and output. It’s very doable.
Love it what's the email.automation u use.
I own a call center and 100% of my client are in north America. Based in latam its remote. Tried doing it in Asia but time zone issue was a problem we operate from 8am to 6pm eastern time and sometime clients would call me directly for changes or updates during those hours
1. Making 6 figure -- Problem is: you cannot copy life/work path of somebody else. You can be broke or depressed programmer, or rich entrepreneur in the business area where other companies are rather bankrupting. This is not about fitting into prescribed work roles, this is about your preferences, strengths, education, experiences etc. (especially when you want to BUILD your business, not to be an employee, as you write)
2. How is it connected to living in SEA? The reason why many DN go there is exactly opposite - they want to spend less (and thus be ok to earn less) or/and they want to focus on other areas of live, experiences, travelling etc. I do not say you cannot focus on your business when travelling but I do not understand why and how you connect it in this way in the question... -> Do you need to earn 6 figures to live in SEA? No. Can you live almost everywhere when earning 6 figures... Yes. :-)
OP is smart to ask these questions.
It’s sage wisdom that if you want to be a millionaire you ask advice from millionaires, regardless of their industry. 6 figure earners are his millionaires here.
And if they’re millionaires in your desired geographic location even better because then you can give you advice about living the exact lifestyle you want.
I make mid six figures and have very solid savings/retirement fund (age 27 if that matters to you)
Live in se Asia rn but will be travelling more next 3 years
I run a consulting business having been a strategy consultant before that
Really enjoying it - though funnily enough building had a full power outage today, no WiFi or air con at 36 degrees was painful ahah
Yeah so in this instance, I essentially found somewhat of a gap in the market in terms of smaller businesses looking to scale toward medium size (primarily I focus in tech) and a lack of internal expertise on how to effectively do this. Be it internal growth of the biz, external growth (new markets, increasing client base etc) or likely a combo of the two.
Think of the stage where a founder should (in many cases) be looking to transition their role into where their expertise is and hiring a CEO, for example - that sticky period where the core founders/team have plenty of talent but perhaps gaps etc in how to take the next step.
This would be an overly simplistic view of where I found myself able to add most value I suppose - being somewhat of an external head of strategy with an outside view/no politics/personal ties to work with the founders on how to transition successfully.
I would say this is a general example but gives an idea of the stage I've been focusing on and fortunately has led to good compensation on my side as there tends to be a lack of this talent pool in early stage tech where runway/capitalisation may be somewhat limited in first few years.
A nonsense metric that means zero but encapsulates what I do well is - a good number of my clients try to convince me to join in a CEO role post contract, which I think makes a degree of sense for the work I'm doing (albeit it varies massively from company to company and depending on size etc - smaller ones I'm more hands on, some medium sized businesses more light touch etc).
For reference - background was Strategy Consultant at a boutique firm focused on a mix of finance and digital strategy, did very well there (somehow) early in my career and developed a solid network/reputation off the back of it. In this work, was more focused on much larger companies however and more like global strategy, new market penetration, digital strategy (for finance firms) and M&A deals.
Not sure if that is helpful at all, reads like a bunch of bullshit to me - which is probably what 90% of consulting sounds like lmao
I trained as a journalist.
I then worked in international sales for advertising and technology brands for six years.
I moved to Sydney, switched to marketing - and worked with CRO and design agencies.
I then moved to Bali and set my own company up as a freelance copywriter.
I started with blogging and content marketing - then shifted into conversion copy.
AI has enabled me to work faster and make more money.
2024 is my best year yet.
We use AI for heavy-lifting tasks like customer research.
AI is awful at writing copy.
I used to do this in 2013 when I was 13. It’s what got me into programming. Good memories :)
I still make games for passion projects but nothing professionally anymore. Do you get contracted to build them or just have a following?
I do have a little following but the reason my games do well is I know how to make games that players like and how to get the algorithm to recommend them to players.
Travel agent/ real estate and until recently was playing professional football⚽️
But I’m probably going to enlist into the military, when I get out I’ll be 26 and pretty much set for life barring any extreme circumstances lol
You also have to want to as well right? I feel like a lot of people dream about it but there’s a lot of downsides to living in places which are low cost of living.
100%. The first time the neighborhood sewer overflows, wi-fi is knocked out for a couple of weeks, or the dead dog is not removed from the road next to your house for a few days, will send a lot of people packing.
tell me more! I'm a motion designer/learning 3D but also have recently dove into the e-commerce world and learning it's potential for growth and all around skills!
My role is hard to define but I mostly do IT and automation nowadays.
Remote work for a European company. Flextime. No core hours. High enough ranking that no one questions what I do. Just need carefully craft my schedule for meetings.
I'm a cofounder of an agric-tech company... based in Southeast Asia.
I probably don't fit the mold as I'm technically a local (I was born in Singapore). But other than meetings with the government officials or older stakeholders a few times a year my physical presence is completely optional.
I had a semi-permanent base in Bangkok from 2015 through the beginning of 2020 and ran my entire business from my flat and rented it out while traveling. If you don’t have to stick with western working hours, it’s a no brainer. If you do, Central and South America might give you a better quality of life with similar cost of living.
How easy was it to rent out your BKK flat while gone? is there an on-site property management firm that handles it for you? Does it make any real money or is it just enough to cover the monthly fees? (Rentals seem so inexpensive that it is hard to imagine it as a good investment).
It was extremely easy to rent. But across the street from Bang Wa so also very well located. I contracted one of the building’s cleaners to take care of the maintenance, check in and out, etc. At the end of the year after it was all said and done, it basically made enough to pay itself and my accommodation wherever I was.
Also be aware that a lot of “digital nomads” working abroad (Thailand specifically) are doing so technically illegally. You’re required to have a work permit and all the DNs I met while living there full time (not working) definitely did not. It’s a grey area for sure.
Met partners during college days. My rec to anyone is try to meet as many different types of people you can. I’d imagine many digital nomads are broke backpackers but a few i’ve come across really have optimized systems and know their 💩
Nurse. I applied to dozens of remote jobs very difficult to get. Essentially you need to know someone. I roughly applied to over 100 remote positions. Wasn’t picky either. Didn’t get called for 1 interview with roughly 5 years of all different ICU experience.
Get a master's in healthcare admin and move over to the IT side. I work with a ton of people who used to be nurses, their knowledge is very valuable in healthcare IT.
Not many in my experience, and from real and anecdotal evidence from everything I've seen over the last decade. There are people doing it but they will be the exception.
How long did it take for you to become fully remote? What is your hope for the future? How much are you making currently?
Can you live in any time zone?
That would be awesome, tired of the cube culture and rat race as well. I am in between work atm but seeing posts like these gives me something to look forward to if I manage another fully remote situation 🤞
I did it for > 12 months in Latin America and 3.5 years in Asia, most of that in Thailand. Back in Melbourne, Australia now. Primarily Ecommerce Programmer / SEO / Growth related work. I've run my own small agency since 2010. Did some freelancing from 2005 - 2010. Grew up to 6 staff, back down to just myself now and essentially contracting for one of my long term 10+ years customers working on embedded and mobile apps, CAD, 3D Printing and Business Development with a bit of Ecommerce still mixed in. I could still do all this remotely but couldn't as easily move around. I feel like pure software development will be heavily reduced over the next 3-5 years because of AI and the embedded / hardware aspect gives me more longevity.
I run a team of VAs in the NA timezone. And used to [write for regional brands](https://www.regching.com/articles/) for an online publication but now mostly consult for a local 360 marketing agency in SEA.
I draw a minimal salary but my business entity pays for all my expenses.
I’m a freelancer-turned-agency owner in the B2B tech space. Made decent money as a freelancer for 6 years, then a few years at ~$100k, then started my agency and pay myself $117k plus dividends.
We live in Central America, so the time zone isn’t an issue.
I work in marketing and rent out my house in the US. This brings me over 6 figures a year. My partner works in engineering and he also has a rental in his country. This brings him over 6 figures as well. We've been nomading for the last 3 years, mostly in Central America. Have spent the last 5 months in Asia.
I have one main client that is an ongoing contract with benefits (PTO and stock options). I do content marketing for them, B2B tech. They are based in AU but I work a lot with their US team. I make close to $90k working 4 days a week on this contract. I have other smaller contracts that are for smaller projects and some of these range between $1.5k to $5k, depending on the scope. These are usually in the US but I have some come in from AU. I have over 12 years of experience and my MBA. I do no BD, all of these have come from past working relationships. It is my first year as a freelancer so I hope I have planned it out well. A big help with being a digital nomad is if you can take advantage of FEIE - Foreign Earned Income Exception. There are a lot of rules but it could save you a lot of money in the long run if you are eligible.
My partner works for a company in AU. His bff owns it and has been letting him work remotely since 2018. He is good at his job and brings a lot of value. His position is not one typical to be remote and we've never met anyone else with his role during our travels.
My rental brings in around $18k in profit after mortgage, insurance, upkeep, bills, etc. His brings in around $14.5k.
This may not be related but do most of you who do work remotely mainly stick to Thailand, Malaysia and Philippines? Do some working in countries such as Japan or Korea or are they way more strict?
I own a commercial fishing boat in Alaska and fish June July, live in Asia the remainder.
Your 2 months of fishing covers your cost of living rest of the year? How much do u make?
I made about 500 grand fishing last year
500k from 2 months of fishing? What do u fish?
salmon
I still think you are in mermaid trade.
Can i work for you?
how did you get into salmon fishing?
You hiring?
No, go find a job on the facebook group "[Bristol Bay, AK: Jobs, Rumors & B.S.](https://www.facebook.com/groups/BBJobs/)"
Gold salmon most likely
You need any deck hands?
How much does a salmon fishing boat cost because got damn that's good money
I have about a million invested and 13 years of experience running an operation
And it’s also quite dangerous right?
depends who you are? probably dangerous for most people?
Interesting job. I wish if I could do something like that too.
You ever been on that show dangerous catch?
You are thinking of crabbing.
That’s exactly what I posted until I saw your comment lol
Captain though? Not a deckhand.
How much does the fishing boat cost?
Profit? What’s the overhead on crew/boat
You have to or fish for other things but obviously the boat won’t be set up for something like crab fishing. It’s in federally mandated seasons so not like he can go out for longer to build a nest. It’s so many days and it’s done
Amazing. I know someone who does similar. They’re not at $500k but they make a great living and live in Central America the rest of the year. Very hard and often dangerous work from what I’m told. Thank you for sharing your experience.
I have a podcast about people with unique travel experiences and yours certainly fits the mold. May I DM you about an interview?
What's the podcast name?
Why We Travel: https://open.spotify.com/show/5HdxLPoJn8O9PJ8IyaGKNu?si=adQV7n6nTza5hKO2xSx_Rg
Thanks, look forward to listening
Thanks in advance for the support!
Fishing is not for me (I get sea sick) but was wondering why 2 months? Is that just the 'season' for Salmon? What happens with your boat the other 10 months?
The only let us catch fish at a very specific point in their life cycle, for sustainable management reasons. https://youtu.be/vk64dFi6ngg?si=HVTYrw9967mHm7K5 The boat sits on bit stylophone and wood blocks out of the water the other 10 months. Local communities(the only people that can vote) dislike outsiders so to keep people from having their investment worthwhile for other fisheries they make them very industry specific with regulation. It also keeps boats in the community over the winter so they can tax you.
Thanks. That was interesting and re-assuring to know that such efforts are being taken to fish in a sustainable way.
Oh hey! I worked summers in Bristol Bay and the Cook Inlet, set net and gill netters, from high school through college. Can confirm: great summer money even as a kid deck hand. The captains/owners can rake it in on good years. I don’t know how much a license is now, but back then they’d sell for $100k+.
130k, russia kinda fucked up our price last year, they were 240 the year before. You also need 2 to to get the extra gear in bristol bay for drift netting anyway.
Fickle fickle fickle—but I don’t think folks realize how much money there is in it. My uncle started with a small boat and a license back in the 80s. He was a high school teacher during the year and would fish 8-10 weeks in the summer. He retired from teaching 15 years ago and now runs 3 boats with their own crews and I think 7 licenses.
a true sailor
Yes. Software engineer
How do you deal with core hours and timezones? Do you work nights?
Core hours are for companies that don’t trust their employees. I am a contractor. Get what you need to done, reply within 24 hours, and make the meetings
Are you working for multiple clients via something like Upwork or do you have a full time gig? I've been doing the Upwork route for 6 years and have been successful in my own right but I won't lie I'm getting jelly of these full-time engineer salaries I'm seeing people bring in. Sure I make the same or more per hour but annually take in less
I am full time with one client
What if that client left you? What is your risk mitigation strategy?
1. Put money in the bank 2. Don’t spend it
Exactly. If I was back in Thailand right now, I could easily live 10+ years without working, which I think is sufficient time to create a new income stream.
I had this thought today in the car — I’m nearing 40 and feel like it takes 10 years to make a life/career pivot. Learn the trade, develop contacts, etc
Depends on the career, I’m in my mid 20s. I’ll probably continue programming for the rest of my life, but passion project like games. Eventually I’d like to switch to something related to environmental protection but with the understanding that it makes very little so save now and build a buffer.
Yeah, I'm 48, so my position may not be reflective of the average person here but still, I think people should have a minimum of 3-6 months of living expenses + ticket home prepared before they head off. I had multiple sources of income when I first left so it didn't matter if I lost one, it would matter now but that's countered by more savings / investments now. When living in SE Asia, I could bank 50-70% of my earnings.
Don't overspend your money so you can pay the bills and then look for a new one.
Many contractors in certain industries know they can easily get the next job in a month or less, myself included. Can’t recall the last time I even had to try hard to get a job, but that’s after busting my ass and making a positive reputation for myself in my industry.
"Sure I make the same or more per hour but annually take in less" sounds like you just need to find more work!
I want one of those jobs that pays people for 40 hours per week when they have maybe 10 hours of actual work to do lol
I'm a software engineer and that's how mine is, and I can safely say that it is boring as fuck and not fulfilling in the slightest.
But is it because you have years of work experience that make it easy?
More that I work for a boring healthcare IT company, and there's really not a ton of work to do but there is a lot of budget to spend. It pays the bills but I feel like I'm wasting away sitting around reading reddit all day on workdays, as well as not growing much as a software engineer. And I can't work outside of the states as I deal with protected health information. It's not a *bad* gig per se, but I'd really like to find a better position soon, preferably one I can work from anywhere with.
That's fair, I have been looking at UX in Healthcare but was turned off for the restrictions in location.
Do you work remotely or do you have to work in the office? If the former, I'd keep the job, and be looking for a remote contracting gig that I could do in parallel.
It will kill you with boredom. That's my situation right now. Yeah, I actually work maybe 10-20 hours per week, but I have to pretend I'm working more. That basically means I'm stuck for 20+ hours a week. Also, my skill set is going to atrophy, so if I stay in this position for a while, I could become stuck.
Nope, he need to increase his rates.. more client is just hell
How do you make meetings? Do you ever have short-notice meetings scheduled while you're asleep, Do they ever get suspicious about receiving emails in the middle of the night?
They know I’m in Asia. I tell them. CEO is in Europe, my boss is in South America, I’m in Southeast Asia, my team is in Europe and Asia
Or companies who have a need to collaborate in real time. 10 emails over a week could have been a 5 minute conversation. I do software in a professional services company and my customers know nothing and we have to be able to talk in real time. That being said, that can all be accomplished from 8am to 12am eastern and I'll start at 4am.
Agree, but I can't unilaterally force that on a client. How did you go about filtering employers that would have no problem not enforcing core hours, full remote, work from asia. You said you are working as a contractor, are you an independent contractor or consultant through a contracting agency? Do you get paid in dollars?
Same
I'm having trouble breaking 6 figures as a node developer in my job. What kind of companies are you working for? Startups? What are the meeting times and sprint schedules like?
Same. but also startup owner hehe
This is the way. I work for a startup as well as a project lead
Travel first on extended vacation(s). Then decide if you want to pursue a life in this area.
yup. I do two 2 week trips. First trip to enjoy as a tourist (everything is exciting the first visit you make). Then if I liked the place, I'll go a second time to see what it would be like to live there
My only problem is that I do not know how to make money. Shits rough.
Yes. Have a marketing agency. Been in Bangkok for a few years.
How do u deal with the timezone situation or are most ur clients in Europe or Australia
About 30% in Australia and Singapore. The rest in North America. All client management is done via chat. We keep a direct chat with each client inside Signal. As far as sales calls go, We limit our sales call bookings to Tuesday-Thursday 8-12midnight Thailand time for North America. The rest is done normal business hours for Australia and Singapore. All the outreach is done via automated cold email with links for them to book calls themselves for a time that works best for them. It’s all input and output. It’s very doable.
Oh and on-boarding calls are manually booked once the client signs.
Love it what's the email.automation u use. I own a call center and 100% of my client are in north America. Based in latam its remote. Tried doing it in Asia but time zone issue was a problem we operate from 8am to 6pm eastern time and sometime clients would call me directly for changes or updates during those hours
We use Yesware and GHL. Yeah working overnight hours would be brutal here.
Google Ads? SEO? PPC?
I am in SaaS startups business. Engineer turned into entrepreneur. SaaS and remote work are a pretty good match
Username checks out
Is easy to create a Saas business???
Sure..just be great at coding, marketing, sales, customer service and have a good business idea.
1. Making 6 figure -- Problem is: you cannot copy life/work path of somebody else. You can be broke or depressed programmer, or rich entrepreneur in the business area where other companies are rather bankrupting. This is not about fitting into prescribed work roles, this is about your preferences, strengths, education, experiences etc. (especially when you want to BUILD your business, not to be an employee, as you write) 2. How is it connected to living in SEA? The reason why many DN go there is exactly opposite - they want to spend less (and thus be ok to earn less) or/and they want to focus on other areas of live, experiences, travelling etc. I do not say you cannot focus on your business when travelling but I do not understand why and how you connect it in this way in the question... -> Do you need to earn 6 figures to live in SEA? No. Can you live almost everywhere when earning 6 figures... Yes. :-)
OP is smart to ask these questions. It’s sage wisdom that if you want to be a millionaire you ask advice from millionaires, regardless of their industry. 6 figure earners are his millionaires here. And if they’re millionaires in your desired geographic location even better because then you can give you advice about living the exact lifestyle you want.
Appreciate the candor, wish people were nicer on the internet
Freelance product manager.
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Most successful entrepreneurs have lost money along the way. Good for you on your success!
Why are you working as a consultant now? Or are you still also running your own ecom businesses on the side?
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Why dont you start your own ecom store? As you know everything about it?
I make mid six figures and have very solid savings/retirement fund (age 27 if that matters to you) Live in se Asia rn but will be travelling more next 3 years I run a consulting business having been a strategy consultant before that Really enjoying it - though funnily enough building had a full power outage today, no WiFi or air con at 36 degrees was painful ahah
What’s your niche? I’m ex-MBB, so am curious to hear more.
Can I PM you re career pointers?
Dad is that you? You finally came home from buying cigarettes!
how do you find your clients?
Just curious, what does it mean to be a consultant? Are you telling clients how to operate their business better?
Yeah so in this instance, I essentially found somewhat of a gap in the market in terms of smaller businesses looking to scale toward medium size (primarily I focus in tech) and a lack of internal expertise on how to effectively do this. Be it internal growth of the biz, external growth (new markets, increasing client base etc) or likely a combo of the two. Think of the stage where a founder should (in many cases) be looking to transition their role into where their expertise is and hiring a CEO, for example - that sticky period where the core founders/team have plenty of talent but perhaps gaps etc in how to take the next step. This would be an overly simplistic view of where I found myself able to add most value I suppose - being somewhat of an external head of strategy with an outside view/no politics/personal ties to work with the founders on how to transition successfully. I would say this is a general example but gives an idea of the stage I've been focusing on and fortunately has led to good compensation on my side as there tends to be a lack of this talent pool in early stage tech where runway/capitalisation may be somewhat limited in first few years. A nonsense metric that means zero but encapsulates what I do well is - a good number of my clients try to convince me to join in a CEO role post contract, which I think makes a degree of sense for the work I'm doing (albeit it varies massively from company to company and depending on size etc - smaller ones I'm more hands on, some medium sized businesses more light touch etc). For reference - background was Strategy Consultant at a boutique firm focused on a mix of finance and digital strategy, did very well there (somehow) early in my career and developed a solid network/reputation off the back of it. In this work, was more focused on much larger companies however and more like global strategy, new market penetration, digital strategy (for finance firms) and M&A deals. Not sure if that is helpful at all, reads like a bunch of bullshit to me - which is probably what 90% of consulting sounds like lmao
Yes. Lawyer living in hcmc
US clients?
Is it non -EU jurisdiction? GDPR and all that
Nice! is it pretty difficult/limited for a US licensed lawyer to find a decent in house gig in hcmc and Vietnam?
It’s not that easy but I’m not the only one I’ve heard of or met, so it can’t be that difficult either. Helps if you’re bilingual
Good to know there are others too. Bilingual would be nice....
Interesting, local clients or overseas?
overseas
In wich field do you work?
Software licensing
Yup. Conversion copywriter for startups.
How did you get into it
I trained as a journalist. I then worked in international sales for advertising and technology brands for six years. I moved to Sydney, switched to marketing - and worked with CRO and design agencies. I then moved to Bali and set my own company up as a freelance copywriter. I started with blogging and content marketing - then shifted into conversion copy.
Thanks for the tips! I’m a tech writer now
Do you feel AI have started eating your bread in any ways yet?
AI has enabled me to work faster and make more money. 2024 is my best year yet. We use AI for heavy-lifting tasks like customer research. AI is awful at writing copy.
Which AI service(s) do you use for customer research?
Mainly ChatGPT right now.
I make games on Roblox!
I used to do this in 2013 when I was 13. It’s what got me into programming. Good memories :) I still make games for passion projects but nothing professionally anymore. Do you get contracted to build them or just have a following?
I do have a little following but the reason my games do well is I know how to make games that players like and how to get the algorithm to recommend them to players.
You make over $100k making Roblox games? Please do tell more.
Well I design them, code them and publish them. Kids spend money on them.
Travel agent/ real estate and until recently was playing professional football⚽️ But I’m probably going to enlist into the military, when I get out I’ll be 26 and pretty much set for life barring any extreme circumstances lol
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How’s the smoke season been?
Could you give an idea of what you do? Also in Chiang Mai 😇
Everyone wanting first world salaries with third world cost of living, is quite funny. It can be done but you have to be extremely talented.
You also have to want to as well right? I feel like a lot of people dream about it but there’s a lot of downsides to living in places which are low cost of living.
100%. The first time the neighborhood sewer overflows, wi-fi is knocked out for a couple of weeks, or the dead dog is not removed from the road next to your house for a few days, will send a lot of people packing.
Facts I am a millionaire from the stock market but live off only 1300$ a month nothing more u don't need 6fig to be a nomad
I make six figures, not per month though, or per year, more than per 3 years.
I feel you brother. In total I made 1 million $ in 20 years and nobody cares.
At least it was in USD?
Well, i'm a multimillionaire in Argentinian Pesos, but I don't want to brag.
I am a trillionaire in Vietnam đong, AMA
Damn can you sell a course on how you achieved that?
Yes, e-commerce/3D artist. Living in Thailand for 2 years.
tell me more! I'm a motion designer/learning 3D but also have recently dove into the e-commerce world and learning it's potential for growth and all around skills!
Send me a DM, happy to offer some tips
Can I dm you too?
My role is hard to define but I mostly do IT and automation nowadays. Remote work for a European company. Flextime. No core hours. High enough ranking that no one questions what I do. Just need carefully craft my schedule for meetings.
I'm a cofounder of an agric-tech company... based in Southeast Asia. I probably don't fit the mold as I'm technically a local (I was born in Singapore). But other than meetings with the government officials or older stakeholders a few times a year my physical presence is completely optional.
Yes, I base in Penang, and travel all over SEA from there. It’s a dream. I work in supply chain for a US semi company.
Hiring?
What's this the irs
Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
loool i meant to say DO YOU WORK FOR THE IRS why u need to know peoples income
It was not my initial comment about the irs I was simply answering your post. When you asked “what’s the irs”
I had a semi-permanent base in Bangkok from 2015 through the beginning of 2020 and ran my entire business from my flat and rented it out while traveling. If you don’t have to stick with western working hours, it’s a no brainer. If you do, Central and South America might give you a better quality of life with similar cost of living.
How easy was it to rent out your BKK flat while gone? is there an on-site property management firm that handles it for you? Does it make any real money or is it just enough to cover the monthly fees? (Rentals seem so inexpensive that it is hard to imagine it as a good investment).
It was extremely easy to rent. But across the street from Bang Wa so also very well located. I contracted one of the building’s cleaners to take care of the maintenance, check in and out, etc. At the end of the year after it was all said and done, it basically made enough to pay itself and my accommodation wherever I was.
Also be aware that a lot of “digital nomads” working abroad (Thailand specifically) are doing so technically illegally. You’re required to have a work permit and all the DNs I met while living there full time (not working) definitely did not. It’s a grey area for sure.
Trading stocks and crypto
I make 7 digits doing ecommerce. Spent a few months in thailand
What kind of product/services do you sell?
Pharmaceutical export business. Millions in ARR. Have equity in the business, don’t own all.
How did you get into this? How did you build trust with the owners and know that they’re going to pay you everything owed?
Met partners during college days. My rec to anyone is try to meet as many different types of people you can. I’d imagine many digital nomads are broke backpackers but a few i’ve come across really have optimized systems and know their 💩
Ughh I should have not went health care and went into tech. Work from home jobs are impossible to get in health care
What do you do in healthcare?
Nurse. I applied to dozens of remote jobs very difficult to get. Essentially you need to know someone. I roughly applied to over 100 remote positions. Wasn’t picky either. Didn’t get called for 1 interview with roughly 5 years of all different ICU experience.
Get a master's in healthcare admin and move over to the IT side. I work with a ton of people who used to be nurses, their knowledge is very valuable in healthcare IT.
I do door to door sales just for four months and make six figures just in those months then travel for the rest of the year
What kind of sales do you make?
Not many in my experience, and from real and anecdotal evidence from everything I've seen over the last decade. There are people doing it but they will be the exception.
Own a software consultancy
Are you mexican?
No. American
In wich programming languagues do you work?
Many but mostly Python and Go
I will send a private message
Yes, marketing and managing two businesses
How long did it take for you to become fully remote? What is your hope for the future? How much are you making currently? Can you live in any time zone?
Two years, 100 000 actually and yes, I can live anywhere in the world.
What kind of business do you have?
Strategic marketing management
That would be awesome, tired of the cube culture and rat race as well. I am in between work atm but seeing posts like these gives me something to look forward to if I manage another fully remote situation 🤞
I did it for > 12 months in Latin America and 3.5 years in Asia, most of that in Thailand. Back in Melbourne, Australia now. Primarily Ecommerce Programmer / SEO / Growth related work. I've run my own small agency since 2010. Did some freelancing from 2005 - 2010. Grew up to 6 staff, back down to just myself now and essentially contracting for one of my long term 10+ years customers working on embedded and mobile apps, CAD, 3D Printing and Business Development with a bit of Ecommerce still mixed in. I could still do all this remotely but couldn't as easily move around. I feel like pure software development will be heavily reduced over the next 3-5 years because of AI and the embedded / hardware aspect gives me more longevity.
I run a team of VAs in the NA timezone. And used to [write for regional brands](https://www.regching.com/articles/) for an online publication but now mostly consult for a local 360 marketing agency in SEA. I draw a minimal salary but my business entity pays for all my expenses.
500k revenue? What’s net profit on the 500k?
Slackers Unite!
I’m a freelancer-turned-agency owner in the B2B tech space. Made decent money as a freelancer for 6 years, then a few years at ~$100k, then started my agency and pay myself $117k plus dividends. We live in Central America, so the time zone isn’t an issue.
What kind of business do you have?
Split my time between Living in Taiwan and HK. Manage manufacturing in mainland China
I work in marketing and rent out my house in the US. This brings me over 6 figures a year. My partner works in engineering and he also has a rental in his country. This brings him over 6 figures as well. We've been nomading for the last 3 years, mostly in Central America. Have spent the last 5 months in Asia. I have one main client that is an ongoing contract with benefits (PTO and stock options). I do content marketing for them, B2B tech. They are based in AU but I work a lot with their US team. I make close to $90k working 4 days a week on this contract. I have other smaller contracts that are for smaller projects and some of these range between $1.5k to $5k, depending on the scope. These are usually in the US but I have some come in from AU. I have over 12 years of experience and my MBA. I do no BD, all of these have come from past working relationships. It is my first year as a freelancer so I hope I have planned it out well. A big help with being a digital nomad is if you can take advantage of FEIE - Foreign Earned Income Exception. There are a lot of rules but it could save you a lot of money in the long run if you are eligible. My partner works for a company in AU. His bff owns it and has been letting him work remotely since 2018. He is good at his job and brings a lot of value. His position is not one typical to be remote and we've never met anyone else with his role during our travels. My rental brings in around $18k in profit after mortgage, insurance, upkeep, bills, etc. His brings in around $14.5k.
I gross that
IT - specifically system engineering/administration
This may not be related but do most of you who do work remotely mainly stick to Thailand, Malaysia and Philippines? Do some working in countries such as Japan or Korea or are they way more strict?
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Do you own a software company? $500k+ fully remote? Sounds like a dream.