The Hidden Costs of Being Location-Independent That No One Talks About

As with many things in life, you won’t know how you feel about something until it’s actually in your life.

Many people dream of being a location-independent digital nomad that can live and work wherever they want, but there are hidden downsides that come even if you manage to figure out how to live the dream of making money online.

Apart from the obvious negatives like time zone conflicts and difficulty maintaining long term friendships or relationships are some that

Here is my experience as a digital nomad who has been to over 20 different countries all around the world since 2018. Hopefully you’ll be able to learn from my perspective so you can put yourself ahead of people who might have discovered these lessons too late.

The first downside that isn’t so obvious is that once you’ve figured out how to make consistent money online and you have the ability with your passport or visas to get to pretty much anywehere in the world you want is the paradox of choice.

It may seem like a gift that you could stay and work in Buenos Aires, Tokyo, or Bali, but it’s impossible for you to be in all places at once. This year, I was in all of those places, and in order to do so, I used up half a year and shifted time zones and needed to recalibrate every time I came to a location.

While this was incredibly freeing, looking back, I realized I’d be better off if I had just picked one place and stuck with it. Such travel patterns might seem fun, but they’re also incredibly destabilizing.

The price of freedom of picking wherever you want to be is a general lack of stability in your life, and the consequences are massive. Being independent in your decision making and location is empowering to an extent, but after too much time, it’s almost guaranteed to leave you lonely and unstable.

My free lifestyle of hopping all around the world has left me totally alone because no one else was following the travel plans that I had. Even when I did manage to stay somewhere a bit longer term like I did in Hawaii for 1 year, people still came and go so frequently from that place that now, years later, I don’t really hold any friends from there.

I look back on these years of digital nomadism and compare my trajectory to my peers that stayed home, and I see that I have just found myself to be much older without any stability to build a long-term future with. I’ve seen way too many friends come and go, and I find myself on special occasions like my birthday or New Year’s with no one to celebrate with since I’m somewhere totally new with no history or relationships from there.

After having been all around the world in just about every living environment you can think of, from big city to beach town and almost everything in between, I realized It’s impossible to find the perfect place.

Just like romantic partners, everyone has some flaws. We just need to figure out what our non-negotiables are.

In recent times, I have approached my destinations more like serious dating than trying to just have fun. I’m grateful that I discovered non-negotiables like solid coffee shops or coworking spaces, accessible nature (preferably an ocean with waves), and down-to-earth people that aren’t materialistic but still manage to be ambitious.

This perfect place might not exist, but I realized I can just pick one place that’s good enough, and discover the truth that solves the paradox of choice, which in itself is a paradox.

That is, when you make a commitment: whether it’s a way to make a living, a relationship, or a location to stay, we actually become more free to grow since we have a stable base to build our dream lives from, something we can never do if we’re constantly buying one way tickets.