How do you avoid getting charged large fees by your bank when withdrawing overseas?

As a follow up to my previous question (I guess I don’t have the right to post links here?), but on a larger scale: if living as a nomad in a place for, say, more than a month (which will be beneficial for the sake of getting work done), how to you prevent yourself from getting too involved in the local society?

I find that every time I stay somewhere for a significant amount of time, I naturally start to settle into the idea that I’ll be there permanently, or at least long term. I guess this is human nature: wanting to have a stable lifestyle, with stable friends, relationship, workplace, recreational activities, etc. But, indeed, that is not my goal-- I believe the benefits of the nomadic lifestyle are far greater at this stage in my life…

So, for those of you who have successfully avoided settling somewhere time despite staying for months at a time, what strategies do you use to stay afloat, as in, not getting too deeply integrated locally?

On New Year’s Day this year, I was refused entry to the UK due to not having proof of funds, an outward-bound plane ticket (I was road-tripping out with a friend via car) and not being able to prove that I had indeed canceled the lease on the apartment I had leased during a prior recent trip.

I haven’t had any entry issues to any of the several countries I’ve visited after, but now I’m applying for a 462 visa (work and holiday) visa in Australia, and since Australia and the UK share an immigration info system, I want to make sure getting refused entry won’t keep me from getting a visa. None of the issues that cropped up in the UK (the proof of funds, the plane ticket, and the apartment) will be an issue in Australia, as I’ve never traveled there before, don’t know anyone and will have proof of more than sufficient funds for the trip and an outbound plane ticket.

Anybody have any suggestions on how to make the approval process go as smoothly as possible?

Many thanks in advance!

Hi everybody!

I just joined this community because I’m currently in a place in life where I can live the digital nomad lifestyle and I feel like I would really be missing out if I didn’t catch this opportunity. I work fully remotely, no fixed hours, I currently live in northern Italy and I basically have no partner or kids.

So, the question is… where to? I would love to hear the advice of more experienced digital nomads!
Laptop and internet is enough for me to work but I need decent internet for conferencing and I really have to put in the hours: some days are more relaxed, others I’ll have to work all day and night.
I enjoy more temperate climates, so no torrid heat or unbearable humidity, if possible.
I like decent food but I’m very adaptable in terms of tastes: anything is fine as long as quality is good and sanitary conditions are acceptable.
I absolutely do not enjoy the club life and would just rather go hiking during the weekends and pubs (or breweries) during the evenings. I’m a social person though and I don’t particularly enjoy places where people are too introverted (been in Seattle for four months… the freeze is real); I really look forward to making friends or acquaintances wherever I end up.
I enjoy decent transportation so places where there’s a viable metro system or Uber actually works would be nice.
I prefer places with a bit more of history and culture (this is one of the reasons why I absolutely loved Portugal, for example).
I’d like to spend under $3k average per month for rent, food and going out.

For now I was thinking either:

• Staying close to home for a first experience, so something like Vienna or Berlin
• South East Asia; I’ve been to Hong Kong a few times before, now I was thinking either Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi, or possibly Thailand
• South America, especially Colombia. I also have some people I know in Bogota and in Medellin, which I think would be a plus

When? Ideally I would leave anywhere from mid to late March and stay away for 2 or 3 months.

Sorry for the long read, I hope to get some input. Thank you for your time, if we ever meet in person I owe you a beer (or whatever you’d prefer).

We just finished our first stint around South East Asia and somehow survived 3 days of way too many flights, leaving me to feel like death.

Too much shitty airplane food, not enough sleep, big time difference from Mexico to SEA.

Anyone have tips to prevent that more in the future (aside from better flight plans)? More importantly, how do I recover faster from this horror?

I am an English/American currently in Israel, and heading in a week to Georgia/Armenia for two weeks and then want to head to Russia for a week.
As I am only in Israel for another week, would it be possible to apply for the visa in Israel and ask to receive it in Armenia (my last stop before I want to go to Russia)?
Or perhaps there is another better option that I have available?

Hey guys,
My question might be blunt ahah but … how do you get your stuff stolen?
Do you stay in hostels, or shady hotels? Or do you get robbed?
I stopped using hostel with outsiders and I pretty much only use budget hotel now.
I have heard about an app that take screenshots of your room and send it to you if it detects movement too so you can alert the hotel staff.
I don’t want to make everybody paranoiac too ;).

Bali was at the top of my short-list of places to go DM for 1-3 months until I saw it had the “Zyka” tag on Nomad List . I’m not super read-up on the whole state of Zyka, other than occurrences of infection being on a decline (for now), but I am a worrisome enough person about such things that it has got me reconsidering. Though, it still seems to not be stopping the rate of DMs visiting Bali…

Is there cause for large concern here, or I am just being a nut? …It’s been known to happen pretty frequently over such things

Would it be advisable or wacky to lug an external monitor from the US in hopes of avoiding coworking costs by working from Airbnb with decent wifi? I’m not sold on coworking spaces, and like the solitude of coding away in my own little airbnb space. One screen is limiting to productivity, hence the love of an external monitor. Thoughts?

Hi,
I wondered how everybody deals with getting data on their phone in each country they travel. Is there a way around it? It is always such a pain having to buy and activate sim cards everywhere. I have tried the company “worldsim” and had an international sim for a while, but they where terrible and ended up to be super expensive.

So… Trump is Prez. The world looks to the US as a role model. He doesn’t think Climate Change is real. We’re !@#$ed.

Canadian Citizen here. Was considering Costa Rica for a long term solution, but they won’t deal with the impact as well. We were always fond of NZ and my parents spend at least 3 months of the year there along with knowing some citizens.

Questions:

1. How can we gain a Permanent Residency Visa? It seems the Skilled Migrant Category makes the most sense as I am a Systems Analyst (by NAFTA requirments) and my wife could probably qualify as a Nutritionist/Naturopath/Counsellor. Anyone have experience with this path?
2. I currently work for a US non-profit remotely. Does NZ allow for this? do I need a job in NZ to be considered for the Skilled Migrant Category? Can I work for the US org while my Permanent Residency is processed?

Thanks!

I’m ticking off my lists before I venture off again and am starting to purchase stuff like 4G Routers, Wireless speakers, Mice, etc.

The only thing is… all of the stuff is shipped from Asia in the first place. Are all these gadgets readily available in a place like Bangkok and is it worth waiting to save on costs?

If I stay somewhere for a while I usually get hard bottled bulk water containers, but often I have to rely on cheap plastic water bottles, which isn’t good from both a health and environmental perspective. Have used a drink bottle with a filter but can’t say I trusted it, and it was a little annoying. Any better options in use?

Hi,
I have a property in the UK that collects rental money to a UK account. I moved recently to Fiji and have residency in Fiji now. I wonder if I need to pay taxes on the property in the UK or if there is a structure I can set up that avoids the tax legally? or does anybody now who to go to for advice?

What method do you use to get paid by your employer abroad? I’ve used wire transfers and PayPal, but come to realize there are lots of fees some more obvious than others.

For example, with PayPal, often there is an international transfer fee of 3.4% or more, then on top of that PayPal takes a 2.5% spread on the currency exchange rate.

I’m planning to move to Spain this year, but Spain has a wealth tax for worldwide assets over 700.000€ if you are classified as a resident which I want to avoid.

I’ll try to be a short as possible:

• I am a german citizen and I’m renting a flat in London, UK but haven’t stayed there a single day in 2016. (110 days in different countries in Asia, 10 days in Spain, 30 days in germany)
• I own a flat in germany that I rent out to tenants (limited tax liability for the rental income in germany), but besides that I don’t have any income except for a few dividends from my stocks
• I am planning to fly to Thailand for 2 months beginning of December 2016

Although I am renting the UK flat until December 2016 I prefer not to be in UK, which would mean that I would not be classified as a UK-resident because I would not meet any of the automatic UK or sufficient tie tests.

I’d like to move to Spain as soon as possible but would be willing to stay out of it for x weeks to avoid being classified as a resident and save wealth tax.

Can anyone help me in this matter? whats my best line?

In Colombia, I have heard people telling me that once you have a work visa you can enter and not care about what happen if you get fired.
Unlike the USA where if you lose your job, you are *****ed.
Is it a possibility to get a job, get in, open a bank account(not sure if that’s a good idea since it’s not going to receive a consistent flow of cash from a Colombian company), then quit and work as a freelance remote.

Does anyone know of a service where I can buy SIM cards for countries before actually getting to the country? My mobile coverage doesn’t work most places out of the US (or it’s an exorbitant cost). I just want to land in the country, and pop in a SIM card right at the airport.

This is probably a weird question but yeah… I want to get dental braces to fix the gaps on my teeth but I travel each month to a different city/country and I know I would need adjustments/tightening on the braces once in a while.

I guess I would have to visit a different orthodontist every time depending on where I am. What’s your opinion?