It's a new world and the old ways are seeming very archaic. We baby boomers grew up in a time when mom and dad were so proud of owning a home and they enforced in us that owning a home is your rite of passage to adulthood and a way to secure your future. The only problem was, the reality of dual-working couples, a home that has interest rates that makes it cost much more than initial bid, and families often breaking up into two homes, usually rentals, the younger generation learned home is an anchor that sinks the parents. They have to work, if they break up, they often lose the home. They are getting wiser and some of that wisdom is rubbing off on baby boomers.
Here we are, realizing that jobs don't have to be location situated, that benefits are being taken away, hours being whittled back so companies don't have to get health insurance for employees, positions being so precarious as to give up all hope of working for the same company forever. So, what have we learned? Multiple income streams can keep us secure, jobs can be taken on the road in a virtual situation, and owning a home means owning cable tv, water, property taxes, utilities, ridiculous interest in monthly payments....
Youth are realizing if they take to the roads in converted buses and RVs, tiny homes and the like, living off grid, and working in a virtual capacity while perhaps owning an Etsy shop on the side for hand-crafted items they sell, and getting seasonal jobs where they park their home, they can save all their cash. They haven't the space to buy "things" and a fancy car means nothing when you drive your home, and anything worth watching on TV can be done through a smart tv. So long as you have a wifi connection, you're good to go. Imagine having no house payments/rent, water, property tax, electric, gardener, home repairs, cable tv, etc?
These kids will retire fast!
Converting school buses, ambulances, vans, camper trailers, RVs, or building a tiny house and planting it on your parents' property with solar and composting toilet and you are free. Free in a way your parents never taught you.
For a generation that fought for freedoms and wanted to be footloose, the digital nomad lifestyle sounds really good!
Online offers many opportunities for digital work. If you are retired, consider finally doing art and writing, photography and woodwork and being able to sell it on Facebook Marketplace or places like Etsy. You now have options to live life your way and with no debt. Some digital nomads pick up short-term work or seasonal work in different regions, run a YouTube Channel, hire themselves out to do illustration or editing, open an Etsy shop with crafted items, and more.
Digital Nomads are onto something and adaptable baby boomers are answering the call.
For more info, look at YouTube vids of converted school buses, converted RVs, tiny house living, and blogs such as this one. LINK
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