Remote Coast / Barista FIRE Ideas for Traveling the World

[sayonara]

Hi - I've been on the path the FIRE for the past 5 years or so, and, working in large scale commercial real estate development in California, have gotten close to the point of being able to LeanFIRE.

I've planned for a long time to take some time off to slow travel the world, hopefully ending up spending a good amount of time in Japan and seeing where life takes me from there. But, the planning was always preliminary - I figured I would work for a couple more years to get to a passive income of around $30-$40k and then start making concrete plans to travel the world.

For some time, I've known that the company I primarily work for has been on a downhill slope, and for the past year or so I have been running the process for them to liquidate their RE holdings and wind down. As Hemingway says - first it was slowly, and then (as of these past couple of weeks) all at once. The financial situation of the company has begun to deteriorate quickly and, while the owner still likes and will need me at least as a consultant for the next few months, I'll be gone more quickly than I had been mentally prepared for.

To be honest, this first came as a shock but is actually quite a relief as I have been ready to move on for some time - and, my financial situation is such that, while the 'stash isn't quite as large as I had planned to have when FIRE'ing, it is realistically enough to LeanFIRE and move on in life. But, ideally, I would love to be able to travel the world and cover at least $10k-$20k of annual living and travel expenses by doing some sort of remote work while I'm on the road, so that I'm not pulling from the 'stash for the first couple of years. This would give me the peace of mind that I'm not drawing down the stash at least for the first while and will give me the feeling of much more freedom and flexibility in my travels.

Does anybody have experience / ideas for some sort of simple remote work that can be done anywhere in the world with a laptop and internet connection? My professional skills in real estate don't translate very well to other countries, plus the visa requirements for work are a bit tricky, so I figure it's some sort of simple job based out of the US like online customer support or something like that that I can just log in a couple days a week from wherever I am, log out and collect a (small) paycheck. As counterintuitive as it sounds for someone who has always pushed to have more responsibility, I'm feeling like I could really use some time to have a no stress/minimal responsibility small stream of income as I decompress from 10+ years of big city work.

[Metalcat]

There are just too many options for reasonable answers. Since the pandemic, so many remote work opportunities have come up in so many industries. This question is massive.

Your best bet is to get on the job search sites and do searches for remote work, then spend the time to sift through and see the themes of what's available. There's so much, it's insane.

Right now I have a dinky part time remote work job where I moderate Zoom meetings for corporations, mostly condo corporations. I was a condo president during the pandemic so that meant I had specific relevant experience.

That's just one example of how a tiny skill set that I happen to have ended up getting me a job. Like, the breadth of skills that can be used for remote work now is astronomical.

Just invest the time and start trolling the listings for what's out there and see what skills you have or are willing to learn and go from there.

I would have never in a million years have known to look for a job moderating condo meetings. That's not the kind of thing that anyone would even think of, but I set up a job alert for "remote" jobs across Canada and it just landed in my inbox one day.

Instead of trying to figure out what to look for, start looking just at what is our there and figure out where you fit best.

[Villanelle]

I have a small side gig as a freelance writer.  It might be called "sub-barista" FIRE, as it's not enough for even the slimmest FIRE budget, but it's a nice supplement.  I could scale it up somewhat, but that would mean taking clients I don't enjoy.  The primary company I work for is openly asking for people who want to take more clients, but I've found that I enjoy some of the clients and others feel like slog, and I haven't yet figured out how to determine which one will be before I take it on.  They frown on giving up clients, so for now I'm happy to stick with what I have. 

It's 100% on my own time, and I can even write ahead 2-3 months if I want. (They do ask that i don't submit that far in advance, but that just means needing internet access for about 10 minutes during a window of about 10 days around the deadline.)  So it really couldn't be any more flexible. 

There are a couple other things I do, but they aren't [yet, at least] reliable or predictable. 

It really is the ultimate FIRE part-time gig.  I got it because writing is sort of My Thing, and because I happened to be fortunate enough to have a deer friend in an editorial position.  She offered me my first published article, which lead to a couple more, and with that, I then had enough of a portfolio that all of the writing gigs that require one (which seems to be nearly all) were then open to me. So getting in was the tough part, then I fairly quickly got the steady gig I mentioned above.

So the take aways?  I guess those would be
1) work all your connections.  Let everyone you know know that you are looking for something.  If you have specifics, let them know that, but I'd say it would be best to let them know to keep you in mind in case there is anything that comes up.  Maybe it's well outside where you image you might end up being, so be open to anything.  Tell your people to be on the look out for anything, and to feel free to pass your name along to anyone else who might come across anything.

2) Be open to anything.  I said that above, but I'll be more specific since it can mean a couple different things.  First, you might consider taking less desirable things if you have a sense they might lead you to something better.  Consider them a stepping stone.  Some people might object to this--it's FIRE and the whole point is freedom from unpleasant work.  But if it gets you closer to pleasant work, it might be worth it temporarily.  And second, it means being open to all sorts of things, rather than setting your mind on what you think you should be doing or are most likely to find.    Maybe you have writing skills and assume that's the mostly likely avenue for you, for example.  But someone out there is looking for a juggling chess player, and you happen to juggle and are a 1900 rated chess player. If you were only looking for writing gigs, you'd never have found that.  So it's fine to have a focus, but don't get too focused. 

[ixtap]

Do not assume that working for a US based company gets you around visa issues. Many countries are opening up digital nomad visas specifically, but sometimes you are required to get a work visa to stay in a country working for any length of time, no matter what that work consists of. Be aware the local laws where you want to travel. For example, Japan will likely expect you to make the upper end of what you are targeting.