With the power of the internet, many people are choosing to abandon the traditional, 9-5 rat race, and instead embracing a lifestyle that provides them more agency over their own life: that of the digital nomad.

This emerging lifestyle offers many benefits that simply aren’t offered by your more traditional careers. One of these freedoms is the freedom to live pretty much anywhere in the world.

Digital nomads can work from any place that has an internet connection, a freedom that many of them choose to take advantage of. There are several countries around the world that digital nomads are flocking to, including Chile, Thailand, Croatia, and Germany to name a few.

However, while the freedom to move from place to place and live anywhere is something many people crave, it can be a difficult adjustment to adapt to.

These are some tips to live abroad as a digital nomad.

Pack Light

While the freedom associated with the digital nomad lifestyle is highly sought-after, it does come with a price: minimalism. While this isn’t a strict prerequisite, it is strongly encouraged. Moving from place to place is a hassle—moving a ton of belongings makes it that much more of a headache.

People who don’t have as much as a penchant for collecting material things will have a significantly easier transition to the digital nomad lifestyle—if everything you own can fit in a suitcase, it makes relocating much less messy and cumbersome.

This doesn’t mean, however, that you have to give up everything you own to become a digital nomad—storage space can be found for a reasonable price pretty much anywhere. Rather than bring everything with you every time you move, you can keep the things that are most important to you in a storage unit in a central location and bring only the necessities with you on your travels.

Don’t Forget About Language Barriers

Another important consideration that should factor into your decision on where to live should be the native language.

Do you speak it? If not, can you learn it? If that’s not an option, is there enough of a community of people who speak your language for you to get by? Those travel pocketbooks that translate common phrases can only get you so far.

If you chose the digital nomad lifestyle because you want to see the world, it’s important to remember that you’ll still need to be able to communicate with the people around you in some capacity.

While learning languages come easily for some, for others it’s more difficult—a great start is to research countries that already have a thriving digital nomad community, these would make better options as the chances are much higher you’ll be able to find people who speak your language.

Insurance

While you hope you’ll never have to use it, travellers’ insurance can literally save your life. If you get hurt in a foreign country, it could cost a fortune for you to receive the care you need.

It’s better to be prepared than find yourself unable to pay off the debt that you’ve accrued due to medical bills piling up.

Additionally, if you do end up getting seriously sick, it would likely interfere with your ability to do your job, which would only exacerbate the potential financial problems.

Before setting out on your journey, you should definitely look into making you’re protected if the worst does happen.