9 Helpful Books for Digital Nomads

With the rise of globalization and opportunities to work virtually, virtual jobs are on the rise. Especially during a pandemic, many people prefer to or are forced into working at home. Being a digital nomad comes with a lot of benefits, like the ability to work wherever you want, independence and – hopefully – fewer meetings! Nevertheless, we understand that being a digital nomad can be challenging as well: constantly being on the lookout for new clients, work overload, an unpredictable demand in job markets, and uncertainties with paychecks. In other words, even though the opportunity to work virtually is attractive, people should know how to manage it to avoid the stress that comes with it. To ease the life of our potential virtual teachers, we came up with a list of books for digital nomads to help you get started.

Read more: 7 Challenges to Becoming a Digital Nomad

You Need a Budget by Jesse Mecham

We all know that managing your finances, especially, when you are not sure of the size of the paycheck you are going to get. Moreover, living the life you want comes with costs. There is an unlimited amount of stuff you can spend money on and just one limited paycheck. To live your best life and at the same time be able to save up and pay your bills, you need to know how to budget. Jesse Mecham’s book You Need a Budget is exactly the textbook you need to learn budgeting skills. In simple steps, Mecham explains how to separate incoming paychecks, pay debt and credits, as well as, save up for a rainy day. He shares with you a technique that helps even in uncertain times to be confident about your income. More importantly, there is no magic to it – just a couple of questions you need to truthfully answer.

The One-page Financial Plan: a Simple Way to Be Smart about Money by Carl Richards

While Mecham teaches you how to save up money for your dreams, Carl Richards, a Certified Financial Planner, explains what to do next and what your options are if you do not want to just save. Right from the start, Richards challenges his readers with a question of WHY they need money. With his simple sketches, he leads them through all the steps of budgeting money, from managing debts to investing. There are no scary and difficult words about the financial stability of the market, nor is there a requirement to use Richard’s advice from this book. Just two things you need to do: read it and apply it.

Mindfulness for Stress Management by Dr. Robert Schachter

We don’t know about you,  but even talking about money and investments stresses us out! Becoming a digital nomad comes with a lot of responsibilities, accompanied by stress and exhaustion. Often people feel the need to work 24 hours a day to bring stability into their lives. While stability is great and all, this can very easily lead to exhanustion and burnout. Sometimes we just need to stop. That is exactly what Dr Robert Schachter’s book, Mindfulness for Stress Management, offers. His book is filled with many science-backed techniques for managing stress. He differentiates the sources of stress and tackles them individually, giving a diverse guidebook to making sense of chaos in our souls and hearts.

Sleep Smarter: 21 Essential Strategies to Sleep Your Way to A Better Body, Better Health, and Bigger Success by Shawn Stevenson

Managing stress is important, but you cannot get better if you don’t sleep. With the rise of the sleepless mindset, where adults believe catching up on their work is worth getting only four hours of sleep, we want to underline the importance of adequate sleep. Sleep is not just about lying in bed for eight hours. It stabilizes your hormones and lets your body process information, rest, build strength, iand mprove the neural system. That is why it is so crucial to get your needed hours of sleep. Shawn Stevenson understands the importance of it. In his book,  Sleep Smarter, he talks about how sleeping changed his body and health. He suggests his readers experiment and see for themselves what a difference a good nights sleep will bring to their lives.

Invest Like a Pro by Jesse Mecham

You probably wonder why there is another book about finances and again from Mecham. This time, the book explains the basics of investments. You probably will not believe this, but you CAN know what to buy and what to sell on the stock market, the reasons why funds provide more stability than single stocks and why investments are not only for the chosen ones – even if you’re not in the finance business. In simple terms, Mecham paves the way for readers into the investing world, allowing them to exploit it to their advantage.

The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns (Little Books. Big Profits) by John Bogle

You may have heard that investing is risky and complicated. Partially, this is true. Because many brokers work on short term investments, which means buying and selling in a short period, they have high risks of losing money. However, we are talking about investing as a long-term venture. John Bogle, the author of The Little Book of Common Sense Investing, approaches investing in the same way. He believes that to take advantage of investments, you don’t need to be a broker from Wall Street, nor do you need to play big. Bogle explains that investing can work if you invest constantly, but in small shares, expecting a return in the long run. He slowly and painlessly leads his readers into the depths of stocks and markets, on the way to explaining how long-term investments work and why everybody needs them.

The Lost Art of Doing Nothing: How the Dutch Unwind with Niksen by Maartje Willems illustrated by Lona Aalders

Stop!

Breathe in and out!

Now let’s move on.

The Lost Art of Doing Nothing is simple but revolutionary concept. With beautiful illustrations and a sense of humour, Lona Aalders cuts through the belief of constant productivity and encourages us to stop just for a little bit. Her book is a breath of fresh air in the crowd of all self-improving and productive books. If not for the message, you should read her book just for illustrations, which already offer calmness and peace for a couple of seconds.

The Kama Sutra of Public Speaking: 10 chapters on how to give and receive maximum pleasure from a public performance by Radislav Gandapas

As an English teacher, you cannot run away from being the centre of attention. Always in front of the class, always trying to capture the attention of students to share your knowledge with them. The Karma Sutra of Public Speaking is a book that explains how to become more successful at grabbing the attention of people, how to translate joy through your words and how to become a better communicator. Radislav Gandapas shares his knowledge on how to be more confident, interesting,  and intriguing as a public speaker. Believing that everybody should know how to effectively communicate in front of the crowd, he educates you on how to juggle with the attention of people. With his book, you can make sure that even the most disagreeable and disengaged student/parent/client will listen to you.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo

We could not talk about improving your life and miss mentioning Marie Kondo’s book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. You cannot take a handle on your life if everything around you is a mess. Kondo’s approach does not only makes sure that you clean up a messy environment but at the same time her philosophical technique works on ordering the values in your life.

Happy reading!

Read more: The Digital Nomad Visa: A Ticket to Your Best Life