These past few days, I’ve been reflecting a lot about my thoughts on money and how my perception has changed over the years. After doing things like quitting my job, traveling for 2 years, building passive income, seeing how other people lived around the world, and coming back to a full-time position, I’ve gained insight about myself and what money means to me. I wanted to share with you guys a bit on what I’ve discovered for myself via my own experiences.

My Thoughts on Money After Traveling as a Digital Nomad for 2 Years

My School Years…

I remember in middle school, our teacher asked us to create a collage of what we thought our future would look like. As a 13-year old bubbling with hopes and dreams and a completely naive sense of life, I had this ridiculous idea that I’d be a doctor with 10 degrees (what?), a Lamborghini, and a bunch of other unrealistic desires.

It’s just funny thinking about that collage I put together and comparing it with my life now. Maybe I thought everything was just going to come super easily and that success meant having a lot of things and titles.

With very traditional Asian parents, I was taught at an early age a basic understanding of the power of saving, investing, and seeking value when purchasing goods. But even with this knowledge about money I was still pretty relaxed about it and didn’t have a strong overall picture of money. I took some part-time jobs as a chess teacher in high school, but it was mainly to boost my extracurriculars for college. I felt satisfaction from seeing my savings increase, but I quickly felt this sense that I should spend the money I earned. So I started buying clothes and shoes, getting a taste of the whole rat race fear & desire cycle.

When I started college, all I really concerned myself with was my newfound freedom. My only goals were to get good grades and enjoy my time in college. Living in an apartment in Berkeley with no parents to lecture me and little concerns about life after school, I didn’t really care as much about money or my future. I was all about life in the now. I was making music for the fun of making music without much care about where it was all going. In ways, I was way more present, in a good way. Even though there would be ups and downs, college was probably one of the happiest times of my life. Maybe life is good before adult-life concerns of making money and important decisions…

After College

After I graduated I took a Marketing position without too much hands on experience, without actually knowing what it entailed or what I wanted to do with my life. “Adulting” happened and I was now living the cubicle life day-to-day.

Then money became much more “real”.

I was totally aware of how much time I was putting in to make the amount of money I was making. I was aware of my life trajectory and was hit with what real life was all about. I started equating my purchases to how much time was spent to make the money to purchase the items. I was smart about money though. I was interested in real estate investing and bought my first rental property. I lowered expenses by living at home. At the same time, I’d still have periods where I thought “I deserve to shop!” and would splurge from time to time. I was already fully immersed in the rat race cycle. Ultimately, money became such a big priority when it wasn’t before, especially since I knew I didn’t have enough capital to invest more and make money work for me.

Digital Nomading & Money

In 2014, I started studying alternative ways to make money online. That’s when I came across the concept of digital nomading. And I read books like Rich Dad Poor Dad and 4-Hour Workweek that fully confirmed that there were ways to achieve the freedom I want, to pursue the things I love.

My perceptions of money were dramatically shaped by those books, as I felt the way to actually build wealth was to make money work for you. I had a basic understanding of this before, but I wasn’t aware of all the ways to achieve it even without tons of capital to invest.

So I set off on this quest to become a financially free digital nomad.

The funny thing was, the more I traveled, the more money felt less important. It sounds strange and contradictory as most people assume you need a lot of cash to travel. But after visiting many beautiful countries where the US dollar goes a long way, I learned the benefits of geographic arbitrage and that travel doesn’t have to break the bank.

I realized I live in a bubble growing up in the Bay Area, but I felt super privileged and lucky to have received so much from being raised here. The salaries are crazy back home. In the Bay there is a bit of pressure to make and save a lot (which is understandable due to high costs). But perhaps while traveling, the pressures of making more money were lifted as my remote freelancing positions at the time provided me more than the average full-time incomes in many places I was traveling around. Perhaps money mattered less when thinking of income vs expenses. I started asking the question: if expenses are low in so many parts of the world, what is the need to make THAT much money? After all, I traveled for 2 years with just a carry-on suitcase in hand. I don’t shop, and I don’t need much to live. And the quality of life was pretty good around the world. With my minimalistic nature and the lowered expenses with travel, making tons of money seemed less and less important.

Not only was geographic arbitrage making money feel less important, but the lifestyles of people around the world were different. Things were simpler. Around Europe where I first started nomading, I’d see people living happily despite lower salaries. The mindsets were different. They were living life and appreciating the things they were doing. They were present, and it was something I needed to get better at doing. And suddenly the little, unimportant things mattered less.

Later Parts of Nomading

When I got to Chiang Mai, Thailand and expenses were as low as $600 a month, I became a little too comfortable. I built my income streams to around $4k a month passively and was saving a decent amount of money just living in a different location. Living in Chiang Mai was quite nice for the last 3 months I was there. The quality of life was good, and it’s crazy to think, but I could have essentially retired there. In fact, I could have probably “retired” at most of the countries I had visited, with the passive income, rental property cash flow, and nest egg I had built. I meticulously tracked my expenses for the first 9 months of my journey while moving country to country and I had only spent an average of $1,400/month including flights, accommodations, and more. Isn’t that insane?

But in Chiang Mai, I saw tons of expats taking advantage of the cheap way of living and sort of “bumming it”, which freaked me out and got me thinking for a while. Although I think it’s a great way to live, it wasn’t my truth to chill when I had a lot of things I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to create and make a difference in the world. I realized that for a while, I wasn’t feeling fulfilled with my passive income streams and that I wanted to focus on something greater. The whole point of passive income was to free up time to do the things I loved/was passionate about. But I hadn’t even figured out that one thing I wanted to pursue. I started asking questions like “what do I want to do with my life?” and “where do I ultimately want to live?”

I ended up returning to the Bay Area, with a feeling that I might settle down at home. I relate to people better back in the Bay, and my friends and family – the people who understood me the most – are all there. I felt I needed to be around people who inspire me and motivate me to be better in the areas of my life I cared about. And this move would possibly grow me closer to learning the skills I wanted to learn and finding the fulfilling work I wanted to pursue. I grew this newfound appreciation for where I was from.

How I Think About Money Now

My thoughts about the importance of money have changed a lot over time. Here’s what my current ideas are – not saying they are right or wrong. This is just based off of my experiences going from full-time work, to having enough passive income to live abroad without working, to coming back to the Bay with a new job that I’m happy about.

1. Money should not be your number one priority in life

Even though I could have essentially “retired” abroad, I was not feeling fulfilled. The work I was doing to build passive income was not making me feel accomplished. I wasn’t doing anything I was passionate about nor was I helping anyone. You’ve probably seen this venn diagram:

Grabbed the above image from a Google search, credits to Mine 2 Shine

To get to the star point is extremely difficult but doable. If you’re not enjoying what you’re doing or helping others in what you’re doing, it’s always going to feel like work and you’ll most likely be longing for something more. It’s cliche but true, that money isn’t going to provide happiness.

2. But money still matters

To be honest, money has become more important now that I’m back. I’m back to the crazy expenses of the Bay Area, where $100k salaries and $1 mill homes are average/low. Rent is around $3k/month if you’re living by yourself. And the more I think about how much it takes to raise a family here (in the event that I want one) the more I freak out about how much I need to make and save. It’s said that because of inflation, college tuition for top universities in America may rise to even $500k by the time my (possible) future kids grew up.

So money still matters. You still need money to cover your expenses, and a lot of times having money lets you make more money passively. Money can be a tool to provide you the freedom to find meaning. It lets you build and pursue your business ideas without worry. It lets you invest. And the more cashflow that comes in, the more you save, the more your expenses are covered, and the less “stuck” you can feel.

It does feel like a huge tradeoff now that I know what’s out there – that I could just retire overseas, relaxing beachside in Portugal or fishing in Thailand. But I currently have this need to be a useful/impactful person and feel that my heart is in the Bay, at least for now. My fulfillment won’t come from using financial freedom to do nothing with my life.

Money matters, but shouldn’t be your number one priority. It’s secondary to your personal fulfillment/happiness.

3. Think bigger picture

I think there are a few parts to this whole bigger picture thinking…

Remember that money is a social construct – never let money control you. We forget that money didn’t exist many years ago and that it’s a social construct. It becomes more of a real thing because society wants you to own the nice clothing, bags, cars, and shoes, and wants you to acquire that house, family, and white picket fence. But thinking bigger picture, we actually have the option to start a brand new life. It might not seem like it, and sometimes responsibility might take precedence, but as human beings we have choices. We could go off to a whole different country and take advantage of geographic arbitrage. Or, we can even go completely against what society says and build our own home and farm or fish for food…we really do have opportunity no matter if we choose to see it or not. We fail to recognize that the world is our oyster.

Try to find your “flow”, fall in love with what you do, and money will come as a byproduct. Though I talk about freedom a lot, I realized the best way to live a life true to yourself is to learn skills in things you’re passionate about, create, and build your brand. Maybe you decide you want to be an artist. Even if you’re just starting and getting paid zilch, if you’re passionate about it and stick with it, you’ll be able to make a career out of what you love. In this day and age, there are so many ways to monetize. I have a friend who switched from web design to his actual love: illustration & animation. In the beginning it was harder to get work, but as he continued with it, built his style, and improved upon his portfolio and skills, he started picking up clients left and right.

I realized that this is the dream.

I was losing sight of that “flow” state you get when you’re just so in love with what you do that nothing else matters and time passes quickly, even when money isn’t in the picture. I reflected on how I wasn’t exactly mastering any specific skill, creating, or building a brand. And now I’m more convinced that following my gut and my passions trumps freedom and money. Cause when you’re that good at what you do, money becomes a byproduct, the gains become exponential, and people start seeking you out.

Financial freedom is just one part of the equation. I still whole-heartedly advocate financial freedom. I believe in making money work for you, and I believe life decisions are easier when money isn’t a determining factor in them. But when you’re doing something you love, work isn’t work. If you’re working a job you love and you’re living in a place you call home, surrounded by all the love in the world, there’s nothing you need to break away from. Having gotten a taste of the “retired” life I realized freedom is just a part of the equation. Perhaps as humans, we need purpose, meaning, and something to work towards. If we don’t have that, we feel lost. Therefore, I think beyond financial independence, we need to answer the questions of “what do you love to do” and “what do you wake up feeling excited about”?

Conclusion

I don’t believe money buys you full happiness. There are studies that demonstrate that beyond a yearly salary of $70,000 – $75,000, money doesn’t make you that much happier. It’s more of a tool to cover your expenses and buy freedom.

So instead, our life purpose needs to transcend money. That awakened state comes from following our gut/our inner being.

Ultimately, we create our own purpose and meaning. We create our own happiness.