[kufu]

Hi guys,

I was reading this forum since few months and I'd like to ask for your perspective on my situation.

I'm in mid 20s and am currently working in IT company and am enjoying both the job and salary ($100k+ which is quite good for the entry level job I guess). Since some time however I started thinking that working at the office is not what I'd like to do in a long run. I'm software developer, but am thinking of a ways to become location independent (still software developer - programming is my real passion and that's what I want to do in the following years at least). I'd like to connect work with entertainment, living in some interesting country, traveling and spending enjoyable time with lovely girls.

I'm sure some of you guys have gone through this already or might have some input anyway, so am asking for your advises.

First of all, do you think it's a reasonable idea to quit well paying job with good perspectives and relocate? There's obviously quite a lot of risk involved...

What would be the best way to find the location independent software development job (of course I'd be fine with lower salary)?
Do you know what companies allow full time remote work and are fun to work in?

I'd appreciate your input!
Cheers!

[Beyond Borders]

Any chance you can talk the company you're with into letting you go remote? Even in another position or part-time?

[eradicator]

It sounds like you have your dream job. Maybe you could just travel to nice locations in your off time?(if you cant do as beyond borders suggests and get your current company to let you move to another country and keep working for them)

[cibo]

Im a consultant. Be more proactive about asking for remote work. I've done 70% of my time last year remotely even when working for a client.

[Beyond Borders]

Whatever you do, I would not walk away from this job empty-handed if I were you. Stick around at least long enough to leverage it into something else first. Start applying for remote positions with other companies while you're still there, with the aim to get out of it. Every job is a stepping stone.

Or, pick up a copy of "Your Money or Your Life" and "Early Retirement Extreme," learn to live on nothing so you can save every dime, and hang around for two years saving up cash - while building a virtual business in all the spare time you gain by not running amuk every weekend.

In two years, you could walk away with a nice chunk of savings, some great skills, and a freelance or some other type of biz in your back pocket.

[WestIndianArchie]

redacted

[iknowexactly]

I agree with WIA-- you've got it out of order--what you should do is
KEEP your nice job AND become location independent

1) KEEP your nice job
2) Bust ass nights and weekends to establish other income stream
3) THEN quit the nice job when you don't need it anymore.

I've done the exact thing WIA did, and went from a cush job at headquarters looking out the window at a park, to traveling for a while spending savings, to working in the field in a shit environment, because headquarters did not want a traitor back.

I tried to retire on 1200 per month passive income, but 1600 or 2000 would have been more plausible.
But what I also DON'T recommend is killing yourself until 60-65 to make 4k passive income before retiring, because even 18 year olds don't get you hot enough once you're old.

[Neo]

I recently posted a similar thread about savings and income goals for travel, I'm with everyone else on this, be patient and keep the money rolling in for now. Work on location independent side gigs and do the math.

Where do you want to live and how much will it cost? What's your 'buffer zone' for savings? 6 months, 1 year? Will you be earning enough on the road to fund your lifestyle?

I've thought about this, and I'd be much more comfortable being location independent with enough money to go a year or more without having to change my lifestyle.

The other thing I'd recommend is to be the stellar employee at your current job. It's difficult if you don't like your job, but lie your ass off if you have to. Play the political game to keep the bonuses and the raises coming in. It's really not that hard to stand out even if you don't give a shit. Do what it takes to get as much cash as possible.

[Isaac Jordan]

Here's my recommendation, based on being in a similar situation (in my mid-20's at a big corporation that I'm trying to leave):

1) Don't quit. Start stacking paper and cutting expenses. If you haven't already, save up at least a year's worth of living expenses and keep it relatively liquid. This is what enables you to complete step 2).

2) Start pushing boundaries at work. Try working from home one day and see if anyone notices. If no one says anything, keep pushing. Try staying home every other Monday, then every Monday, then every Monday and every other Friday, then every Monday and Friday, and so on.

You'd be surprised how much you can get away with when you stop asking and just start taking. And because you completed step 1) and saved up a ton of money, you're not worried about getting fired for pushing too much.

3) Work on creating your own business. Don't just look for another job that might have the lifestyle you want-CREATE the lifestyle you want.

You're in the perfect position here. You're well on the way to mastering a difficult and valuable skill, and you're in a position where you're constantly exposed to clients who will pay you to solve their problems with those skills.

(And even better, your skill is scalable-all you need to do is come up with one single good idea, because with software you can scale up to a large numbers of clients.)

Try and get as much time in as possible with those clients and figure out where you can provide value. Ask them about how they run their businesses, what are their biggest problems, if they could wave a magic wand and change something about their business what would it be, where do they spend a lot of time that they wish they didn't have to, etc. Start problem-hunting. Once you've identified a unique problem, create a solution and get to marketing.

4) After you've established a solid income stream (and replenished your savings if you had to dip into them to start the business), quit your job.

[Tigre]

If possible, start by working from home one day per week with your current employer. Discover all the issues that come with working remotely and find the best solutions you can.

Examine their setup and see what's possible without pushing the boundaries too much. How's their existing work from home infrastructure? Are any other employees working part-time or working from home?

Relationships are key. Figure out who are the three key decision makers who would need to give the green light to you being remote, or who could veto your plan. Make sure you nurture those relationships. That doesn't mean brown nosing. More like being ultra-professional. And give respect to get respect.

Software development is a knowledge industry. If you've been working at your company for a while, they've made an investment in you. You're familiar with their systems and their methodologies. It would cost them money to train a new person to the standard you've already attained.

If you work in a niche product where there's a scarcity of experience, even better. You're not easily replaced.

You might also be surprised how easy it is to leave your job on good terms and ping the company at a later date to return to them. So don't burn your bridges if you do leave your job. Do it with the utmost diplomacy because you want to follow your dream right now, but you love your current job and you're only leaving reluctantly.

If your home city has high salaries, try and build the groundwork with a local employer and then transition to remote. If it's not possible with your current company, you can begin to network with a view to changing jobs locally.

If there's a local professional users group for your niche (eg SAP users group), join it and go to their networking meetings. Find out what projects are starting and ongoing locally in your area of expertise. Get in contact with headhunting agencies and have them contact you with opportunities for contract work.

In the interim, you can ask about the possibilities for unpaid leave. For example, work 9 months or the year and travel 3 months. The 3 months is made up of your standard annual leave days + unpaid leave. Even if they can't grant the full amount of unpaid leave you ask for, you might be able to get something.

[invictusiii]

I just ran across a job board last week that has nothing but job listings for remote web development and design work. It seems like it would be perfect for someone in your situation.

http://weworkremotely.com

[kufu]

Thanks for your great input. I've got some quality answers here.

Looks like there was a common pattern which appeared in most of the answers.

0) Save some buffer: 6-12 months of living expenses
1) Try to transition from local to remote worker at your current job (small steps)
2) if 1 doesn't work, find the new remote job/establish fundamentals of your business, THEN quit your current job

that's totally reasonable approach and I fully agree with it.
I'll try to work on transitioning to remote worker, however doing side job is not possible in my case (visa issues) - could be valid option for someone else though.

The most important output I got from your answers is not to hurry and carefully realize the plan of becoming location independent without recklessly putting myself into trouble when I would end up in worse situation that I'm now.

Also, thanks for link invictusiii, looks good.