Survey Results – Money, Nomads, and Fears
Recently the results of a survey created by Free Pursuits and Location Independent have come out and the results are really interesting. While there is a lot in the data, I’d like to focus today on the area of money fears and realities among location independent/nomadic people and those who want to be. When asked the question, “What’s the greatest fear you have about location independent living?” there was a significant percentage of both current nomads (we’ll use this term from here on since it is brief) and aspiring nomads who named financial issues as their biggest fear. These financial issues were expressed in many ways including fear of running out of money, fear of losing their income source, fear of their businesses drying up, etc. So I wanted to take a closer look at these fears against the reported realities.
Current nomads were asked the questions, “Do you earn more or less since you became location independent?” and “Do you spend more or less since you became location independent?” Aspiring nomads were asked, “Do you think you will earn more or less when you become location independent?”, and “Do you think you will spend more or less when you become location independent?”
Current nomads reported the following:
“Do you earn more or less since you became location independent?”
13 much less
23 less
11 same
22 more
11 much more
“Do you spend more or less since you became location independent?”
24 much less
29 less
18 same
16 more
3 much more
Aspiring nomads expressed the following:
“Do you think you will earn more or less when you become location independent?”
14 much less
50 less
27 same
52 more
15 much more
“Do you think you will spend more or less when you become location independent?”
19 much less
67 less
45 same
34 more
3 much more
For those of you, who like me, are visual learners, please click below to see a 3D chart of these results compared
Download Money and Nomads
Here’s what I find interesting in these results:
If you look at the distribution of actual nomad earnings you will see that it is almost completely balanced. While 11 reported no change in income 33 reported earning more/much more and 36 reported earning less/much less. Differences between the extreme “much more/less” categories and their less extreme counterparts were also near mirror images of each other.
How does this reality compare to the image aspiring nomads have of earnings while on the road? It’s actually pretty accurate. Aspiring nomads showed a similar pattern and distribution for what they imagine they may earn while living an location independent lifestyle. The only differences were in extremities. The actual nomads have less variability in their answers while the aspiring nomads show a steeper curve in those who dream they will earn more or less as compared to earning the same.
Now let’s look at spending.
Actual nomads reported a definite reduction in spending while on the road as compared to their former life. Again, aspiring nomads have got an accurate image of this, the only differences being in the degree to which they believe they will spend less.
So, what does this all mean? We see here that there really seems to be no significant differences in earnings for actual nomads or in beliefs about earnings by aspiring nomads. As for spending, the majority of actual nomads are spending less or much less and aspiring nomads are envisioning a pretty accurate although perhaps exaggerated picture of this. In a nutshell, nomads are earning the same and spending less, and onlookers are gaining a fairly accurate picture of the reality.
We return then to the fear factor. In spite of the reality, there lurks a significant fear among actual nomads and aspiring nomads alike that the money coffers are going to dry up while they’re on the road. As a coach and former psychologist I’ve spent a lot of time speaking with people about fears and their dreams. It’s important when faced with any fear to try to sort through perception vs. reality. In other words, “You worry that you may run out of money on the road? What is the evidence that tells you this can happen?” “What about being on the road do you think makes you more likely to run out of money or work vs. if you were at home?” Now, I’m not saying that a nomad has never run out of money or work and had to come home. However, I think we can all name enough people who have run out of money or work without ever traveling or living out their dreams.
If you are among the many with this worry another question you might ask yourself would be this, “Given the worse case scenario (perhaps all your clients tell you to shove it in the same week and you are on a mountain in Timbuktu) what would you do?” “Are you really safe from losing your income if you stay home?” “Is it worth it?”
