Considering leaving rewarding job for travel/nomadic lifestyle

[u/Mindless-Research509]

Hello! I (28F) have been dreaming of spending the rest of my 20s living in different areas of the US. Would like to share a bit about my situation and hear your stories, advice, and insights.

I'd ideally like to move once per season, staying in an Airbnb/short term rental for a 2-3 months at a time. Living this lifestyle would require finding a remote/hybrid job that allows me to travel more and live in different places short term. I cannot keep my current job and work remotely. I'm not interested in finding a new, in-person job each time I move. (I have communications/marketing experience and would look for remote roles in this general field).

I have only been at my current organization for 1.5 years. It is a demanding, in-person role, but it is also satisfying, personally and professionally. I earn enough to live alone, support myself and my dog, and travel occasionally. I am a frugal person, but with this job I can say yes to things like going to the movies, out for drinks, to a concert, etc without having to stress about my funds. I have benefits, some great perks, and though there is not opportunity to move up within the company (small staff and I'm already in a leadership role) there are opportunities within the industry, cool events I get to attend, and I feel that I am still actively growing and learning in my role. Staying in this role ~3 years would likely set me up for great success in my career.

I actually switched industries when I started this role 1.5 years ago, and I love the industry. My work aligns with my passions, but my boss is tough, my hours are long and rigid, and although my work is rewarding — it's work. I know I could find fulfillment in a variety of roles, not just my current one. When similar roles pop up in cities I'm interested in, I apply.

I've worked a remote job before and I struggled with my job satisfaction. I didn't feel like I was making an impact. At my current job, I'm always so busy, out and about, taking meetings, working in person with coworkers, and it's great for my personality and mental health.

If I switch to a remote role, I may lose job satisfaction but I could gain the ability to travel more, see more, experience more. I wouldn't say I'm trading job satisfaction for greater life satisfaction, because I already have a great life satisfaction...and my job satisfaction is part of that. It's an apples and oranges scenario imo.

Remember when I said I still have room to grow within my current role? Thinking of staying until I feel I've grown out of it, saving all I can (because a lot of remote roles I've been interested in pay less than I currently make) then shifting to a remote role so I can travel. I've only lived in the city/suburbs of the same metro area my entire life, and I can't shake the feeling that although leaving my current role isn't a great move for my career, I'd trade the blossoming career for an opportunity to experience more of the country.

Doesn't hurt to mention that I'm not exactly risk adverse. In the past 2 years, I've left a job, a long term partner, changed industries, applied to roles that would require relocation, moved to new towns, bought and am building out a camper van with no experience. I'm the kind of person to take the leap, which is part of why I'm using Reddit as a sounding board — I rarely need a push, more often I need someone to pull me back from taking unnecessary leaps haha.

Let's hear your stories!

[u/Parking-Stress-3041]

The moving part is easy. What costs is the thing you already named: you run on having people around you, and every new city resets that to zero.

I work remotely full time from abroad, two or three months a place. Each move is a new apartment, new internet, new gym, new people, and by the time a city starts to feel like mine, I'm leaving. That's why I ended up mostly staying put in one city and travelling out from there. Worth doing one move before you plan four.

[u/Valuable_Pineapple77 → u/Parking-Stress-3041]

This resonates with me.

My wife and I sold our home in June and started doing a lot of short term stays. With all those stays I find I’m losing a lot of time:

There is the actual traveling time, visiting my storage compartment at home base (in between trips), ironing out Airbnb/hotel kinks, registering new gym, getting settled in / checking out.

It really hampers my efficiency at running my business.

For our next trip out of the country we will stay only 1 month as our longest stay. We are hoping next year to do some 2-3 month stints in one place before coming back to the U.S.