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How Much Money do You Need to be a Digital Nomad? 

There are two ways to think about the amount of money that one needs in order to be a digital nomad. The first thing to think about is how much money is necessary in terms of just getting the startup costs taken care of. This is to say the money that is necessary to pay for one’s mode of transportation and other expenses. A few of the expense types to consider include the following: 

• Product Costs – If you are using the Internet connection in a coffee shop, you may need to purchase some of their products before they permit you to use their Wi-Fi. This is not necessarily a hard rule, but many coffee shops do frown upon those who strictly come in to use the Internet without buying anything. 
• Gasoline – You will need to budget how much money you are likely to spend on gas to get your vehicle from one spot to another. 
• Lodging – Unless you are traveling in an RV (increasingly popular), you will need to pay for lodging when you do your traveling. Typically, this is something that is paid by the night, so make sure you have extra resources in your budget to cover these costs as well. This could be one of the more expensive parts of your budget as most hotels are rather expensive per night. 
• Food – You will still need to feed yourself wherever you go, so make sure you include some money for the food that you will need to buy. You can still keep this controlled by watching how much you eat out and trying to buy groceries instead. 
• Internet Costs – It makes life a lot easier when you have an established Wi-Fi connection for yourself that you can access whenever you need. 

These are the things that you may have to pay for while you are out on the road traveling as a digital nomad. They don’t include the initial start-up costs that you ought to consider before you ever get started with the digital nomad lifestyle in the first place. This is because you need to take direct action to make sure you don’t go bust while you are out and about as a digital nomad. You should try your best to keep at least a few months worth of expenses at the ready so you have those in savings and you aren’t constantly scrambling to get your personal things in order. 

You can think about this a lot of different ways, but it is critically important to have money set aside for emergencies that may arise at any point in your life. It is quite common for some setbacks to take hold from time to time, and you need to be prepared for that reality. As long as you are putting money aside like you know you should, you will have a strong safety net in the event that something goes wrong and you need to rethink things. Make sure you know exactly how you plan to handle things if something goes wrong. 

For the most part, it is recommended that you put in the time to set aside at least a few thousand dollars to get started in the digital nomad life. Your expenses can be cut dramatically when you choose this life, but you still need to keep at least a little money off to the side so that you are prepared for anything that life may throw at you.