5 Realities of Being Location Independent That No-one Else Will Tell You
Photo by MumbleyJoe
It could be said that being location independent is one of the lifestyles that so many are striving to design for themselves – particularly since Tim Ferriss popularised the concept of “lifestyle design” and made it all seem so possible for everyone.
And yet whilst it has never seemed easier (is it easy?!?) to create this kind of lifestyle, there are certain realities that few people will point out to you…preferring instead to highlight the glamour, excitement and fabulous-ness of it all and how anyone can do it.
I won’t disagree – travelling to wherever takes our fancy and running a business from wherever we are, feels like a privilege every day we do it; the kind of lifestyle I don’t think I’d ever even dreamed of because I just wasn’t sure it was possible but here I am living it.
Nonetheless, there are realities that make this kind of lifestyle seem not only less attractive but downright unappealing to people who haven’t thought it through with any seriousness.
So just what realities am I talking about?
Be prepared for pangs of loneliness, lack of friends and a very slow social life
Unless you are one of those gregarious types who instantly attracts people to you the minute you step into a room, location independent living can at times be lonely.
Halfway across the world from your friends and social network, you have to rely on internet communications to keep in touch or make a big effort to make new friends wherever you go.
And even when you do make new friends, it’s not the same as being able to pop down the road to your mate’s house for a good old moan - you have to be so darn nice so they want to be your friend in the first place!
Constant decision-making will wear you down
One of the characteristics that marked out first few months as LIPs (and even before we left the UK), was the constant need to make decisions about our future travel plans.
Should we go here or there? When should we go? Which day should we fly? Where should we stay? It was quite frankly exhausting and not something we’d been prepared for at all.
The reality is that unless you plan to (and can) stay in each place for 4-6 months, you’re probably going to be making these decisions every 3-4 months. If you’ve only ever lived in one or two places and rarely moved house, then this is going to come as a bit of a shock.
You’ll sometimes think (wish) you are on a permanent vacation; but you’re not - and don’t you forget it!
If you are, then you’re not a LIP…you’re either retired or a billionaire! Unfortunately, most of us LIPs still need to work in some way to earn an income…which means that whilst you’d love to be out there on safari every day, surfing at the beach or trekking in the jungle, you will have to balance your desire to experience the places you visit with the need to earn a living.
This can be frustrating…after all what’s the point in living in the Caribbean and not being able to go island hopping every week? But the need to earn a living at times, has to outweigh the urge to explore otherwise…
It can be more expensive than staying at home
One of the drivers for many LIPs is to be able to live in a lower cost country and experience a better quality of life; that was certainly a key motivation for us to begin with.
However if you’re not careful about planning your itinerary and watching your expenses, it can sometimes end up being more expensive than you planned.
I’ve yet to do a full reconciliation and comparison of how much we spent last year as LIPs versus what we’ve had spent if we had stayed in the UK, but due to our rather erratic itinerary and a few mistakes which we’ve finally learned from, I’m not sure we’ll have actually saved any money. I’ll share the analysis here when I’ve done it.
Your business will be affected
I’ve written about this before (how to maintain focus on your business whilst you travel the world) but before we left, we naively believed our business wouldn’t suffer at all and that we’d be in full control to mitigate any impacts on the business that might arise.
Whilst there’s been no major issue, departure of clients or a drastic reduction in income, the impact on our business has been more subtle…
From the times we’ve been too tired, too excited or too stressed to work caused by travelling or planning our travels, to the times when we’ve just not been able to find a comfortable productive environment to work in because we haven’t been in our own home office and had to make do with the furniture in the rental apartment.
It’s a difficult thing to qualify…one of the things I’m comparing it to is what we’d have achieved had we stayed in one place; but even this is not a fair comparison because the travel has reaped so many other benefits.
One thing is clear though…your business will certainly be affected by your location independent lifestyle; whether this is negatively or positively, will largely depend upon how organised, how motivated and how disciplined you are to make it work for you.
A few last words…do not misread this post – it is not designed to discourage any of you who are actively pursuing this kind of lifestyle, nor is it designed to put you off, if you’re just flirting with the idea.
It is however designed to ensure you make your decisions by being as fully informed as possible and that you understand the good and the bad realities of living this kind of lifestyle as a location independent professional.
Coming up in the monthly business ezine I write for our business - “Business Success Secrets” - is an article on how to use a blog for business, even when you won’t or can’t blog regularly. If you’re interested, sign up here >>>
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Comments
Hi Joanna - you’re absolutely right. There have been some fast burn and slow burn positive effects on the business which I am sure would not have occurred had we not been LIPs. Am still waiting for the slow burn effects that will enable us to make “big bucks” 
but as long as we keep making enough to continue doing what we do, I’ll be happy!!
The constant reinforcement that one doesn’t have to be wealthy already to have a dream life is very encouraging to me. I mean, if you have to keep working you’re not “wealthy,” but that doesn’t mean you can’t be happy. If it takes work, so be it.
I mean, geez, I’m not LIP yet but I already dread some of the more mundane tasks I have to do to make my business work. Better that than the alternative, though, eh?
Sobering thoughts indeed.
Thanks for the truth.
It is nice to be balanced and know what to “really” expect
Being location independent doesn’t necessarily mean you have to live in all sorts of exotic locals. Yes the lifestyle can be a lonely one but again that doesn’t mean you have to be alone even if you aren’t gregarious. This is a lifestyle choice, one that hopefully you went into with knowledge of what would happen.
This post was quite interesting and I look forward to reading your account of how the finances associated with the LIP lifestyle compare to the stay in one place choice.
I’ve thought a great deal about this, but for a number of reasons have chosen to keep one base of operations and travel. What I hope to end up doing is expanding the travel to where it has us spending anywhere from 2 to 6 months in different locations that vary from year to year.
Well see how it goes, but having spent long periods of time in other places, I always liked to come back to somewhere I can call home.
Great post. I admit I have all of these feelings. I think though it can be cheaper to travel in SE-Asia for instance than living in the UK/Australia/US.
The only expenses are your accommodation/food/entertainment. If I was living in one place I would have more bills to pay mobile phone/internet/rent/insurance/car etc.
Hi Lea,
thank you for the honest report. I have red Tims book recenty and been looking into this whole matter for quite some time now. What I’m still missing are some real honest insights like this one with some negative effects. Dont get me wrong, I like it and am going to do it, too, but a realistic aproach should always include the negative aspects or lets call them challenges, too.I figured that moving more often than about once a year could generat too much friction work and too much costs including loss of productivity etc. My idea is to set up a kind of base camp at a good place and then travel around in a close radius. Like living in Tokyo/ Kyoto for Japan, Buenos Aires/Florianapolis for Brasil. It probably all depends on the kind of job/business you are working on. Tims concept does not work for me the whole way I guess. Your financial insight would be extremly apreciated.
Great post, Lea. These are excellent reminders for me. We just moved to Buenos Aires last week and the first day I turned to my wife and said, “I can tell I’ll need to fight the feeling that I’m just on vacation.”
We’re certainly here to enjoy our new home, but we have to attend to the usual responsibilities as well.
Amen to that. I’ve taken several long motorcycle trips which, while great for generating writer’s material, made it very hard to run a business. The reality of coming home to a massive pile of to-do items is rather like letting the air out of all the tires. 
Even on those occasions where I did have consistent web access I was often so exhausted that I couldn’t do anything involving a brain.
I hear you!
Hi Lea,
Here are some of my thoughts about realities of being location independent:
1. Loneliness? - Nope. If you are with your partner as I am.
2. Decision making? - It is fun to decide where to go next!
3. Vacation? - If you love what you are doing, it is fun and you feel like you are on a vacation.
4. Expensive? - Yes it is. But staying at home all the time is boring. You pay extra cash for the fun and freedom.
5. The Business? - I am trying to set up my business as an autopilot money-making system. This would be the perfect option.
I hope this comment adds something valuable to your post!
Good luck!
William
Thanks all for the comments…
@William Profet - you’re right, many of these realities are simply how one chooses to look at them and I can’t personally say that any of them are frustrating enough to choose to go back to the UK and our life there. However, the purpose of the post was to give those who are not LIPs a realistic view of some of the things one might find about location independent living so people have an idea of what to expect…working from a beach under a palm tree sounds great when you’re stuck in a dull, grey office but as we all know, the grass isn’t always greener!
@Jason Van Orden - enjoy BA, it’s a great city isn’t it? Even though it didn’t suit us at the time we visited, we would like to go back one day. Where are you guys living?
@Steve - moving about as frequently as we did last year is not really something I’d recommend (if you’re trying to run a business too)…we just got it all wrong!!! This year we’re being much more savvy and it’s already making a big difference to the success of our business. Your idea sounds like a very sensible one - and it’s something we’re going to do when we get to Asia. Good luck!!
@Mike - too right…all the extra bills really add up when you’re permanently based somewhere which is what we like about being location independent - it’s easier to control your costs. You do have to bear in mind the additional costs of travel however (such as flights, insurance) which can all add up. SE Asia is most definitely cheaper than UK/Europe - we’re headed there in the next couple of months.
@Matt - Honestly? We went into this lifestyle with no knowledge whatsoever of what would happen!!! Probably not recommended (which is why I share it all here on this blog) - but we just decided what we didn’t want and what we did and jumped in with feet first and eyes closed. Not doing too badly so far though, eh??!
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Lea, thanks for sharing these realities - this is the stuff it’s really useful to know.
By the way I’m sure even though there are subtle impacts on your business there’s also a slow burn positive effect of gaining experience and indeed expertise as LIPs which will allow you to make big bucks from what you’ve learned as and when you ever decide to stop!
Joanna