90 days to digital nomad journal -  Week 1 (This is going to be messy!)

Day -5

I put half of my savings fund toward my student loans, dropping my effective interest rate to 4% and decreasing the time until I am debt free! This was a big hurdle and required a lot of prayer. I wanted to make sure my decision wasn’t because of the calculations alone, but rather a step of faith. Several months ago my employer had a reduction-in-force and laid off about 1,200 people. This caused me to evaluate my game-plan and beef up my savings in anticipation of unforeseen events. Then, a few weeks ago there was a voluntary separation program. I really wanted to take part in this, but the numbers weren’t right. I wouldn’t survive past 6 months. So, cutting that savings in half was hard (What if I get laid off in the future?) and easy (Yay! Closer to debt free!!).

Day -2

I’m finding myself more and more frustrated with my job. I’m bored and want more variety. My tasks are repetitive or disinteresting. I wish that I could spend time on my hobbies during the middle of the day, then get back to work. Also, I miss teaching. If only there were a viable way to break free of this rat race.

Day -1

I just discovered the 90 days to digital nomad blog. This looks interesting. I think I’ll read up on it. Also, some of these websites that are mentioned (Fivver, PeopleperHour, and TakeALesson) have things I can do and would enjoy! And, yes, those links are referral links. Be kind and use them to sign-up if you wish.

Day 1

I’m going to do this! Nothing to lose but time and so much opportunity to gain! Even if I can’t break free of the rat race, I can pay of my student debt quicker. Best case scenario, I could make enough to leave my job and have half passive income and half active. Let’s do this! Also, I’m asking Murphy to join. He needs a break from his boring life, too.

First assignment: Write down your why.

Why do I want to be a digital nomad?

I want the flexibility to choose my own hours. I want to be rewarded for putting in more effort. I want the freedom to simultaneously pursue divergent passions and interests, e.g. I’m great in Excel and cost analyses, but I also love teaching English. I want the ability to balance tasks I can complete alone with tasks that have to be completed with other people. I want to speed up my get out of debt timeframe. I want the freedom to choose not to work (even if I don’t get paid for the time off). I want a variety of changing projects and less repetition of the same processes each week/month. I want the freedom to choose my workspace. (Another reason I really want to leave my job right now is that I have allergies and can’t use any of the bathrooms in my building due to the air fresheners. So, every time I need to go, I have to walk to the building over. It’s gotten so bad that I even have to change the path I use to leave the building so as to not walk past any bathrooms.)

Day 2 & 3

What are my monetizable skills?

It pretty much boils down to Teaching, Consulting/Encouraging, and Excel! The easiest one to break into is probably my Excel talent. I’ve sold my time before in teaching, whether ESL, EFL, or tutoring fellow students while in graduate school. However, despite my best efforts, I haven’t had much luck in the last year making money at it. In fact, it took me over 6 months just to be able to volunteer. I love my students, and I love helping them succeed, but it doesn’t seem to have proven profitable.

By the way, work is still rough. I spend a lot of time praying for God to help me endure. It’s not the end of the world, but I feel like I’m breaking.

Day 4

I went to bed praying last night. Then, on the way to work, three verses popped into my head. I love it when God works that way!

Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is deceitful above all things

and beyond cure.

Who can understand it?

Psalm 37:4

Take delight in the Lord,

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 127:1

Unless the Lord builds the house,

the builders labor in vain.

Unless the Lord watches over the city,

the guards stand watch in vain.

These words brought peace to my soul. God is good. He is ultimately in control, and I can trust him. Later in the day, I looked these verses up. (The way I remembered them was only about 90% accurate.) I found a grand surprise right after the last one God had brought to mind!

Psalm 127:2

In vain you rise early

and stay up late,

toiling for food to eat—

for he grants sleep to those he loves.

So, whether I succeed in this path or not, He will give me rest.

Now, for Day 4’s task! Creating a deliverable. This was a fairly easy task for me to decide upon. There is no spreadsheet I am more proud of than my loan analysis. It is because of this analysis and my enthusiasm for becoming debt free that many of my friends turn to me for financial advice. Some of them have even come back after a significant period of time and thanked me as they see their debt evaporate using my methodology. I’ve even sold this spreadsheet before! So, I sat down and worked on it. I made a few tweaks and simplifications. I worked on protecting cells to keep my proprietary formulas top secret! It’s a pretty nifty workbook, not just a single spreadsheet now! Annnnnd! I can alter it several different ways to a client’s specifications. Feeling like a genius!

Day 5: Find a leader.

I might’ve skipped this step, or I might’ve halfway done at some point in the past. There aren’t many styles I would like to emulate. Even Jesus didn’t create spreadsheets. Trust me, I want to be like Jesus more and more every day. However, who do I turn to that promotes financial wisdom, economic freedom, and faith? I guess I’m going to have to work on finding numerous thought leaders.

Here’s what I’ve found so far:

My coworker – she’s amazing and encourages me every day to stay the path of faith and frugality. (Hey! I like that name… wonder if I can make it the name of the blog?)

Money Nomad – this is kinda a no-brainer since it’s his blog I’m following to start this path. Also, I found that he's a fellow believer according to his about section.

Live Your Legend – cool resource I happened across and am also using free resources to help me along.

The Bible – this should be #1. God is very wise, the creator of all things, and speaks to me in the stillness of my heart. Storing these words up for LIFE!

Day 6 – Profile and Proposals

I might’ve already created a few profiles, back during days -1 and 1. So, now I’m taking my increased knowledge and confidence to update them a wee bit, tweaking the profiles so as to be more niche specific. I may have still not fully decided on a single niche. I love all the things I’m great at and I think all three of my listed here skills would do me good.

Send out a proposal? That’s scary stuff! What do I say? How do I present myself? Ok, this is the point at which I commented on Rob’s blog and you know what? He responded! And he sent me a personal email sharing links and ideas. Wow! What a great guy!

So, I've managed to send out one proposal. If these require recent postings, I may have a harder niche to monetize. If only I liked to write, knew something about web pages, or SEO (what is that?).