Digital Nomad Toolkit

Life as a Digital Nomad is an amazing adventure, but you need to be prepared.  We put together the Digital Nomad Toolkit to ensure you have all your needs met when pursuing this lifestyle.

You'll find everything you need from remote job boards to co-working spaces to productivity tools.  Follow these suggestions and you'll be well on your way to happily living and working abroad!

World Map

Finding Locations

Nomad List:  Nomad List does a great job providing lots of stats on the top locations, from weather to cost of living to safety.

International Living:  This site offers extensive information & research on the most desirable and affordable places to live around the world.

Budget Travel:  Provides additional ideas for affordable overseas destinations.

Freelance Work

Freelance Work

Upwork:  Upwork is a result of a merger between oDesk and eLance, resulting in the top freelancing site in the world.  They offer jobs for designers, writers, translators, marketers, and much more.

Fiverr:  While Fiverr is a smaller network than Upwork, it provides additional freelancing opportunities in design, writing, marketing and more.

99designs:  Whether you're a designer yourself or you want to hire a designer, 99designs is the best platform for design work.

Remote Jobs

Remote Jobs

We Work Remotely:  This is one of the top sites for finding jobs that you can do remotely, from programming to customer support to copywriting.

Flexjobs:  Flexjobs offers a number of telecommuting and freelance opportunities with a wide range of companies.

Working Nomads:  Created specifically for digital nomads, this site curates the top jobs for working remotely.

Entrepreneurial Tools

Entrepreneurial Tools

Websites:  If you want to build your own site, you'll need a host and a platform.  We use and recommend Bluehost for hosting.  It's very inexpensive and the customer support is excellent.  Couple that with WordPress as your platform, add a theme, and you're well on your way to creating your own blog or business site.

Another option is to use Shopify to create your own shopping portal.  You can try Shopify for free and get set up in as little as 60 seconds.  They offer a wide variety of ways to sell: Online Store, Point of Sale, Buy button, Facebook Shop, Pinterest Buyable Pins, and much more.

Communication:  No matter what your business, if you have customers, then you'll need to communicate with them.  For business email, Aweber is one of the best around.  And for social media communication, we highly recommend Buffer.

Ride Sharing:  If you don't like the idea of sitting in front of a computer all day to earn your living, you can try driving for a car share service.  It's easy to sign up as a driver for either Uber or Lyft.

Co-Working Spaces

Co-Working Spaces

Worldwide: Two of the most popular options are Nomad House and Impact Hub, both with locations around the world. Other options are Roam, currently located in Bali, Miami, and Madrid, and Surf Office in Lisbon, Canary Islands & Santa Cruz, CA.

Asia:  The top co-working spaces in SE Asia include Hubud in Bali, Punspace and Phuket STASH in Thailand, and Angkor Hub in Cambodia.

Europe:  Check out Coconat Space in Germany, Mutinerie in France, and Porto i/o in Portugal.

South America:  One of the best options is Urban Station with locations in Chile, Colombia, and Argentina.

Accommodations

Accommodations

Nomad Packages:  Remote Year is a really cool program where you live and work in 12 different cities around the world over the course of a full year.  Or check out Coworking-Camps which brings together digital nomads in inspiring & exotic locations.

Additional Nomad options include Hacker Paradise, Roam, and Co-Work Paradise.  They all vary in price, amenities, and location.

Airbnb:  If you haven't tried Airbnb yet, it's one of the most convenient and affordable ways to find a place to stay.  You can download the free app here on iTunes.

Hostels:  Another inexpensive option for housing are hostels.  The #1 hostel locator is Hostelworld with over 30 thousand hostels in 170 countries.

Financial Tools

Financial Tools

Personal Finance:  The #1 tool to help you manage your personal finances, pay your bills, and stay on budget is Mint.

Accounting:  The best resource for managing your business finances and invoices is Freshbooks.  It was a life saver when I ran my consulting business and needed to bill multiple customers and manage client meeting expenses.

Insurance:  Using eHealthInsurance can help make sure you're always covered in case of illness or accidents.

Productivity Tools

Productivity Tools

Communication Tools:  Some of the best ways to communicate with others is with Skype, Slack, Google Hangouts, and Viber.

Time Management:  RescueTime is a really cool tool to show you how you're spending your time online and provides tools to help you be productive.

Internet:  Use Boingo to connect to over 1 million Wifi hotspots worldwide.

Projects:  Try Asana for managing projects and tracking work for teams.

Cloud Storage:  Your two best options are Dropbox (free or pay for more storage) and Google Drive (free).

For more information about the Digital Nomad lifestyle, check out our How to Travel the World as a Digital Nomad blog post.

(Disclosure:  Some links above are affiliate links.  We get a small commission on these links if you sign up or make a purchase.  You get quality recommendations at no extra charge to you, so it's a win-win!)