I move around every 4 months in the US. I stay in long-term Airbnbs (min 1 month stay). I work remote; so, the issue I mostly deal with is my working setup. No standing desk, comfortable chair, multi-monitor setup (using portable external monitor), etc.
Otherwise, the surroundings of the place I stay at is always a gamble. You never know if its a loud or safe neighborhood just by looking at the posting or street view on google maps. Sometimes there could be construction going on next door.
Eating around and exploring the country is the best part.
I spent about 4 years traveling the world working remotely, as a digital nomad you might say. Before the name was popular
Put things I didn't want to throw away into long-term storage. Had a laptop. Flew from place to place. The most important thing was securing a good internet connection in a place. If I couldn't get a good connection move on to another place, or back to a known good place.
Libraries, coffee shops, hotels, co-working spaces, all viable options for internet requirements.
Mail digitized through a mailbox service, and emailed to me.
Google voice for an international phone number that just needed internet connection
The day to day living was pretty cool. You could stay in a place as long as you want, you could leave as quick as you want. Finding people was fun. Sometimes you weren't sure about where you would be, could you book the hotel for more time? If you couldn't you had to find the next place. So you always had a plan of where you are, and where you want to go next.
I move every 2 weeks in an RV. So I roughly wake up in 26 different places over the year.
Internet is rough. But has gotten better over the years since I started.
I could imagine that socially it might be difficult for some.
But largely my routine is similar to if I were in a house/apartment:
Weekdays: work, cook/eat, walk/hike/explore, games, sleep. Weekends: groceries, cook/eat, chores/maintenance, relocate if needed, walk/hike/explore, games, sleep.
Oh - I usually remind people they’re giving up a dishwasher and laundry machines unless they’re going pretty big on their RV purchase.
Recently I’ve been parking during the summer and flying to different countries. It’s more or less the same - solid internet is a challenge and you get to work on a potential language barrier.
If I ever go that route, you bet I'm getting a dishwasher put in at the very least. I know my limits, haha.
They're available on the bigger rigs. It's just worth noting that space on any RV/trailer is a tradeoff, and appliances tend to be limited for space and weight.
How do you deal with permanent addresses? I know like some jobs want you to have a permanent address and bank accounts want you to have a permanent address.
I'd consider getting a really cheap, small chunk of rural land and boondocking there sometimes (so nobody can claim it's not actually a residence of yours).
That's a good point. Wouldn't it have to have a mailbox though? Or is that something that the post office just does if you buy a piece of property without one already there?
My residence is registered at my parents house. I’m fortunate for that – not sure what I’ll do when they pass.
The companies I work for are typically smaller - my bosses and teams usually know I’m a bit of a vagrant. When I get acquired by larger companies I’m a little more tight lipped and vigilant with VPN use.
There are mailbox services, you get a permanent address, they can email you your mail.
Banks are more sticky, they don't just want a permanent address, they want your place of residence. If you're always on the move, you can have an intended place of residence... They may not accept the commercial mailbox service addresses, and in that case most people use a friend or a relative as their official banking location, but use the mailbox service for all of the mail. I live here, but I get mail there. That works for most people
out of interest, whats the deal with banks needing to know where you sleep at night?
is it a serfdom thing?
or is it only in the case of eg. that being the place you hold a mortgage with them on?
The Patriot act required banks to know their customers, explicitly knowing their place of residence. For people who have a non-standard place of residence, digital nomads, homeless people, etc it becomes difficult
fascinating, thanks.
no doubt ushered in under some notion of "protecting" us from well funded groups, yet mysteriously didn't include a minimum threshold so poor folks with $4.25 in their account are still included in these broad sweeping laws.
Okay, that's good to know. Until we can ditch the entire banking system for crypto wallets on our phone, that bank account issue is going to be a bit of a noose around people's necks.
How do you make income if you don't mind?
