What are the Pros and Cons of Life as a Travelling Digital Nomad Worldschooling Family in SE Asia?

More and more people started to re-think their life strategy after being touched by so much grief and coming to the stark realisation that life is extremely precious.  You could be here one day.  Gone the next!

Being paid good money for long hours and hard work starts to lose its attraction when the opportunity cost is good health and happiness.  The concept of ‘time’ being more important as a currency than ‘money was on the rise for so many hardworking families.  Coupled with a growing global visa system for Nomads and internet connectivity becoming widely available everywhere you went, this growing family travel culture change was here to stay.  At the end of that blog I just mentioned, I quoted someone saying:

"The future belongs to creators. To Digital Nomads. To Travellers. To Thinkers. To Artists. To Writers. To Wanderers. To professionals and families who are brave enough to try a new way."

We love that quote!

In July 2022, we took off as a family of 7 and left the UK on the adventure of a lifetime. 

Our family of seven decided to embrace a new travel lifestyle that many others were too afraid to try.  Don’t get me wrong, it has come with its ups and downs.  Our lowest point being Jayden our eldest child deciding to return back to the UK after 4 months.

Now as a family of 6, we carried on with our adventure and have never looked back (safe in the knowledge of knowing that Jayden is living happily back in the UK under the care of his grandparents).

For the first year of our journey, we were fortunate enough to not have to rely on income generated through Nomad work as we had sold all our belongings which funded this leg of our trip.  At the 12 month junction, we knew that had to change if we wanted to continue this amazing adventure.

Both Dionne and I have always had our eyes peeled for opportunities to create income as we travel but after hours and hours of research, video calls with funnel marketers, we were yet to find something that seemed solidly genuine and suited our skill sets and energy levels.  Plus having 4 young kids made this search even more difficult!

We don’t have the savings readily available to create more passive income through investments so this left us with the only viable alternative… Nadeem goes back to work in the familiar territory he used to work in - retail financial services.  Nadeem was lucky enough to find a role within days of starting my search.

He was even luckier to be offered a role that suited our travel lifestyle.  3 days a week and 100% remote.  Being 100% remote means he can work from anywhere he chooses to which enabled our worldschooling journey to continue.  Perfect!!

The Nomadic travel lifestyle can suit singles, couples and families, almost anyone.  Of course, the nature of the work has to be one that suits an individual and their own circumstances whether that be slow or fast travel.  Our views are based on our own journey as a family and how we have found it.  We have made some adjustments to cater for the hours Nadeem needs to invest for his job but it’s a small price to pay for continuing this amazing lifestyle.

Without stating the obvious, this lifestyle enables us to travel and see the world in all its glory!  One of the most significant advantages of our lifestyle is the unparalleled cultural immersion we all experience.  Southeast Asia is so good for that.  It’s rich history, diverse traditions and vibrant communities provide an invaluable education that goes beyond textbooks for our children.  Living in different countries opens our children's minds to a world of possibilities. They grow up with a global perspective, understanding and appreciating the differences in people, cultures, and traditions. This broadening of horizons is an invaluable gift that will shape their outlook on life.

Worldschooling has allowed our children to learn from the world around them. Just a few examples - History lessons come to life at ancient temples, Math is applied in local markets, and language skills improve through daily interactions. This hands-on, experiential learning has proven to be an incredibly effective and memorable educational approach.  Check out our blog on how things have worked out for us trying to worldschool our children (Click here to read).

One of the fundamental reasons for leaving a long tiring stressed out Western world life behind you.  As a digital nomad, you still have a job to do but you are closer to your family.  You can break up your workload to fit in spending quality time with your family.  Most remote worker employers actively encourage this.  A happy worker is a productive worker.

It does depend on where you travel too.  If you are coming from a part of the world such as North America and Europe,  generally, your money will stretch further.  Southeast Asia is known for its affordability and as a single-income family, we've found that our budget stretches a lot further here. Lower living costs mean we can allocate more funds for experiences, exploring new places, and investing in our children's education.  Including fun stuff like going to theme/water parks, cinema visits, eating out etc. Check out our blog on budgeting and costs of SE Asia family lifestyle compared to our old life back in the UK (Click here to read). 

Southeast Asia is full of like-minded travel families who we share so much in common with.   Before we choose our next destination, we do our research to find out what worldschooling families are out there.  These could either be families who travel regularly or those who have settled long term.  We make these connections before we arrive and it helps us to settle in quickly upon arrival.  Both the kids and adults then have others to meet up with both for education and social purposes.

In the early parts of our travel adventure, our excitement to see this world had us staying in different places around one month at a time.  Although a month can feel like a long time, in our world it went by quickly!  The nomadic lifestyle can be chaotic, making it challenging to establish a stable and consistent routine for our children when it comes to homeschooling.  We have learned that the optimum time for us is at least 3 months staying in one place.

Building social skills and maintaining relationships is a really important part of our children’s development.  Constantly moving from one place to another can make it difficult for our children (and us parents!) to form lasting friendships.  Joining a community where we stay is precious and rewarding for us whether that be with locals, expats or travelling worldschooling families.

Travel is amazing and what we are doing is very much what we love but it doesn’t stop you missing certain things about your home country (certain types of food, our parents, etc).  Over time, you learn to cope with this but certain times of the year can trigger those cravings.  For us, we always carry a heavy heart knowing our teenage son Jayden is not with us and 6,000 miles away.

This does not apply to everyone but I thought it would be worth a mention.  Job security may be not as certain when a digital nomad travels and works especially if they freelancing and taking on temporary work/short contracts.  Income may be good one month and non-existent for another month.  It makes budgeting and future planning a bit more difficult and risky.  In my opinion, it’s a risk worth taking!  Some families always have savings to call upon in hard times.  Others invest and create passive income streams which can supplement nomad work.  The end goal for us is to create 100% passive income to support our worldschooling adventure and give up the need to work as a digital nomad.

To counteract the lack of stability, we've learned to create a sense of "home" wherever we go.  A comfortable home, implement routines and constant communication help our children feel secure amidst the ever-changing surroundings.  For us, this is much easier achieved when we stay somewhere for a minimum of 3 months.

To address socialization concerns, we actively seek out communities of fellow travelling families.  We do this before we arrive at our destination (Facebook Groups mainly) and sometimes the size and warmth of these groups can dictate where we choose to travel.  We actually played a significant role in building up the current community we live in here on Koh Lanta right now using the Facebook groups.  Being part of a community, making connections with other families, our children making new friends, coming together as families to foster and nurture a worldschooling environment.  This is what makes a place great for us.  If our children are happy and developing, then we are happy!

Flexibility is key in addressing the challenges of worldschooling. Embracing the unpredictable nature of this lifestyle has allowed us to adapt and learn from each experience, turning challenges into opportunities for growth.

For us the answer is a resounding YES!  Our two years in Southeast Asia have had their challenges but as a family, we have benefitted immensely.  Our children have flourished and as a family we have bonded in ways that were not possible in our old life.  We are funding this lifestyle with less income and our quality of life has gone up massively.  No stress.  No tension.  We are not time constrained anymore. We are not financially free but we feel better than ever both physically and mentally.  Long may this lifestyle continue!