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I know three different people who sold their homes, moved into sailboats, and set out to be waterborne digital nomads, sailing around the world and doing freela

I know three different people who sold their homes, moved into sailboats, and set out to be waterborne digital nomads, sailing around the world and doing freelance work to support themselves. I know one guy who did the same thing, but with #vanlife. In all these cases, without exception, they regretted it within a year. My advice is, before you liquidate your assets, quit your job, upend your life... give it a dry run. Try it for a month or two first. See if you still like it. If you don't, call it a long vacation and re-evaluate.

wccrawford 3y ago
I think that most people can't give it a dry run without that liquidation, though. Having a normal job gets in the way of that lifestyle and is virtually guaranteed to sour the experience. Obvious not all of them like it, but I think even fewer would like it if they don't commit to it outright. It's definitely not for me. I need a lot more stability than that.
- karaterobot 3y ago
  > I think that most people can't give it a dry run without that liquidation, though. Having a normal job gets in the way of that lifestyle and is virtually guaranteed to sour the experience. I was thinking you'd probably take your standard 3-5 weeks of yearly PTO, plus however much unpaid time off you could get your company to agree to. That would make for a good month, month-and-a-half, or possibly two months test. And, I think if at all possible you should try to work while traveling, either your current job or some freelance work, because that would be part of the actual experience you're testing. > It's definitely not for me. I need a lot more stability than that. Same here. I like sleeping in my bed and making pizza, and taking showers any time I want. Also, as a designer, it's kind of a non-starter for me, since I can't seem to get by without a gigantic monitor.
  - wccrawford 3y ago
    I don't know about other places, but I can't take even 2 weeks off at a time without getting special approval. There's no way I could take my entire year's PTO at once. And they won't allow any unpaid time.
ghaff 3y ago
I know a few people who didn't really commit to it but, yeah, they didn't really last that long. And, especially as you get older, there are also just a lot of practical issues with not having a home base. And, if you do have a home base, then you need to worry about maintenance and checking in on that base. My personal take is that I can easily see heading off to someplace for a month. Maybe two. But probably not much interest in more than that.
munificent 3y ago
> In all these cases, without exception, they regretted it within a year. Did they regret that they did it at all, or did they want to stop because they realized they would regret it they kept doing it? Have you talked to them after they've gone back to a stable life for a while to see if they still regret it? I can definitely see it being a bad idea overall. But I can also imagine someone realizing "This isn't as great as I imagined, and I'm done but I'm still glad I got it out of my system and made a lot of memories."
- ilyt 3y ago
  I doubt they hated every single second of it. Probably just novelty wore off
- karaterobot 3y ago
  Yeah, I think they probably have mixed feelings about it, good and bad. But it's safe to say it did not work out the way they hoped it would.

wccrawford 3y ago

I think that most people can't give it a dry run without that liquidation, though. Having a normal job gets in the way of that lifestyle and is virtually guaranteed to sour the experience. Obvious not all of them like it, but I think even fewer would like it if they don't commit to it outright. It's definitely not for me. I need a lot more stability than that.

karaterobot 3y ago
> I think that most people can't give it a dry run without that liquidation, though. Having a normal job gets in the way of that lifestyle and is virtually guaranteed to sour the experience. I was thinking you'd probably take your standard 3-5 weeks of yearly PTO, plus however much unpaid time off you could get your company to agree to. That would make for a good month, month-and-a-half, or possibly two months test. And, I think if at all possible you should try to work while traveling, either your current job or some freelance work, because that would be part of the actual experience you're testing. > It's definitely not for me. I need a lot more stability than that. Same here. I like sleeping in my bed and making pizza, and taking showers any time I want. Also, as a designer, it's kind of a non-starter for me, since I can't seem to get by without a gigantic monitor.
- wccrawford 3y ago
  I don't know about other places, but I can't take even 2 weeks off at a time without getting special approval. There's no way I could take my entire year's PTO at once. And they won't allow any unpaid time.

ghaff 3y ago

I know a few people who didn't really commit to it but, yeah, they didn't really last that long. And, especially as you get older, there are also just a lot of practical issues with not having a home base. And, if you do have a home base, then you need to worry about maintenance and checking in on that base. My personal take is that I can easily see heading off to someplace for a month. Maybe two. But probably not much interest in more than that.

munificent 3y ago

> In all these cases, without exception, they regretted it within a year. Did they regret that they did it at all, or did they want to stop because they realized they would regret it they kept doing it? Have you talked to them after they've gone back to a stable life for a while to see if they still regret it? I can definitely see it being a bad idea overall. But I can also imagine someone realizing "This isn't as great as I imagined, and I'm done but I'm still glad I got it out of my system and made a lot of memories."

ilyt 3y ago
I doubt they hated every single second of it. Probably just novelty wore off
karaterobot 3y ago
Yeah, I think they probably have mixed feelings about it, good and bad. But it's safe to say it did not work out the way they hoped it would.