I Have Been a Digital Nomad for Two Years. Here Is What Nobody Warned Me About.
The Instagram version of digital nomad life is a laptop on a beach, a coconut, and a caption about freedom. The bunq Global Living Report — a survey of 7,100 people across eight countries, published in May 2026 — tells a different story.
35% of digital nomads missed weddings, births, and family events. 51% of Dutch nomads said missing family and friends was the biggest disadvantage. 47% said the lifestyle had no positive effect on their friendships. 29% reported increased mental stress. Only 11% actually had more money left over each month.
I have been doing this for two years. The data describes it. The Instagram photos omit it.
You Will Miss the Things That Matter
Not the big things — you can fly back for a wedding if you plan for it. The small things. Your friend’s birthday dinner. Your mom’s Sunday phone call that you keep missing because of the time zone. The group chat that slowly stops including you because you are never around for the spontaneous plans.
The bunq data says 35% missed major life events. That number feels low to me. I have missed dinners, weekends, illnesses, celebrations — the kind of things that do not make it into a survey about “major life events” but that accumulate until you realize you are not really in anyone’s daily life anymore.
The fix is not to stop traveling. It is to be deliberate about staying connected. Scheduled calls. Planned visits home. The friendships that survive this lifestyle are the ones you actively maintain, not the ones you assume will still be there when you get back.
You Will Be Lonelier Than You Expected
This is the most common thing nomads admit in private and never post about. You can be surrounded by people — coworking spaces are full of them — and feel completely alone. The connections are real but time-limited. The person you bond with most deeply at a coworking space in Chiang Mai leaves for Bali in two weeks. You do it again in Medellín. And again in Lisbon.
After a while, you stop investing fully in new people because you know they will leave, or you will. That is the moment loneliness stops being a temporary feeling and becomes a structural feature of your life.
The nomads who manage this best are the ones who spend longer in fewer places — three months minimum, not three weeks. They join communities, not just coworking spaces. They say yes to social invitations even when they would rather stay in and catch up on work. The community does not come to you. You build it, repeatedly, and that is exhausting in a way that is hard to explain to people who live in one place.
You Might Not Save Any Money
Only 11% of nomads in the bunq survey said they had more money left over each month. 11%. That means 89% are breaking even or worse.
The “geo-arbitrage” fantasy — earn in dollars, spend in pesos, get rich — works on paper. In practice, the hidden costs eat the savings. Equipment failures. Visa fees. Transport. Health expenses your insurance does not fully cover. The social spending that is genuinely necessary for mental health. The flights between destinations that you forgot to factor into your monthly budget.
I earn more than I did at my office job and I save less. That is not unusual. Go into this with realistic expectations about what your bank account will look like after a year.
The Good Parts Are Real Too
This article sounds bleak. It is not meant to be. The freedom is real. The experiences are real. The people you meet, the places you see, the sense that your life is genuinely yours to design — that is not Instagram fiction.
But the trade-offs are real too. Go in knowing that. Budget for the hidden costs. Schedule the calls home. Spend longer in fewer places. And do not compare your behind-the-scenes to everyone else’s highlight reel.
Statistics from the bunq Global Living Report, May 2026 (n=7,100 across 8 countries). Personal observations reflect common patterns reported in nomad communities.
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