I quit my job in Miami to work remotely and travel the world in secret

• A telecommuter from Miami has secretly moved to South America without the knowledge of his employer.
• It has allowed him and his husband to save money and pursue a more exciting lifestyle, he said.
• Here’s why he recommends other remote workers try the same, as journalist Hannah Towey put it.

This say-to-say essay is based on conversations with a Miami remote worker. He asked to remain anonymous to protect his work, but its use has been verified by Insider with documentation. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

My husband and I quit our in-person jobs to take on remote positions and secretly moved to South America about four months ago.

Our Miami budget was getting tighter and tighter every month. Over the past two years, remote work has brought a massive influx of new residents to Miami, including Californians and New Yorkers, whose much higher salaries (based on their local areas) have skyrocketed the local cost of living. Unfortunately, our Miami-based salaries haven’t gone up in head either.

Our rent went from $2,150 per month to $2,700 per month, thanks to the “generous” landlord. He said he could have charged closer to $3,200 and could have gotten it with the current market.

We were unable to repay our debt (it was around $41,000 and growing with interest). We were keeping pace, but not very effectively. It was just like a weight tied around our ankles.

These price increases, coupled with post-pandemic inflation and our general inability to really attack our debt month after month, gave us the idea to continue living abroad in order to 1) enjoy a style enjoyable, travel-based lifestyle with something new and exciting to do every weekend, while at the same time 2) being able to catch up on debt and build adequate savings.

This is where this experiment ended up. We realized we could actually spend a lot less money and at the same time live a more fun lifestyle where we’re not in the same place every weekend.

We used Reddit to learn how to become “digital nomads” and hide our location from our employers

Anonymous

We did some research before we started and eventually found a Reddit section dedicated to “digital nomads”. This was our main point of instruction on how to implement the proper technology to keep our location private from our bosses.

We use an external VPN router through which my work computer connects. Paying for the VPN software itself would not be enough, as the work computer would easily allow the company to see that the software was installed. We needed it to be an external router with the location set to Miami in order to trick the computer into thinking it’s still based in the US. A few months later, and it seems to do the trick.

We also did a ton of research on different countries. We needed a country that had a time zone similar to Miami. It didn’t have to be exact, but it had to be close enough. We didn’t want to start in Southeast Asia with a 12 hour time difference.

On top of that, we really dug around to see what the prices were like in each city. For example, Costa Rica has a relatively strong economy, so you don’t see as much benefit from currency exchange. Another huge factor was just the weather.

We ended up in Quito, Ecuador. It was the first city in which we landed and where we set up our base. You could get lunch for $2.50 each day. You would spend less money for that whole week than on a single meal in Miami.

We had already moved abroad when I accepted my current position. I paid over $1000 in flights to pick up my new work computer (which was mailed to Florida where I was supposed to be) and then fly to South America.

Our reasoning for wasting so much money on thefts to recover a work computer? It made even more sense financially than continuing to live in Miami, where the basic cost of living was already thousands of dollars each month. (Our rent in South America, averaging all our Airbnb nights so far, is hovering around $500 per month).

It’s as if we’ve succeeded in realizing a dream that we didn’t even realize existed. We didn’t realize. that you could travel the world and make more money than living in one city.

There are fun and sometimes awkward moments when trying to fly under the radar at work

Anonymous

My boss and my colleagues have no idea. It’s a bit surreal.

There are fun and sometimes awkward moments when trying to fly under the radar at work. Like my co-workers noticing my tendency to wear long-sleeved clothes during casual video meetings: “oh, it’s because my husband has the air conditioning on!” (that’s because we’re up in the Andes and it’s 40 degrees outside), or the usual question “how was your weekend?

“Did you and your husband do anything fun?”

“Oh, not much, I just went to the beach and all that” (in fact, we attempted to climb a 20,000 foot active snow-capped volcano using ice picks, crampons, 4 layers of clothing and other snow climbing gear).

What’s one thing Ecuador has that Florida doesn’t? Earthquake. It was a huge thing that I was not prepared for. I have never been the victim of an earthquake in my life and in July there was an earthquake in the south of the country and the tremors reached Quito.

I had a video call with a client and all he can see is my face starts to freak out and I look around looking up and down the house is shaking. I had to let him know “actually this week I’m in Ecuador”. I tried to blow it off and make it seem like it was no big deal and I was just on vacation. Which turned into a lot of laughs and hopefully not something he was too concerned about.

One of my October homework assignments was to make sure I prepared a story for what we did “in Miami” for Halloween.

My only regret is that I wish we had started doing this two years ago.

anonymous

I recommend people do this because it’s potentially a once-in-a-lifetime thing that previous generations didn’t have access to. In the end, it’s your job. It’s your job. If you’re doing the amount of work you’re supposed to do, I think it’s completely ethical. Wish we had started it sooner. My husband and I probably would have put thousands of dollars in our pockets over the past two years if we had done this sooner.

We are about to leave Peru for Aruba and then return home for two weeks to see my parents. From there we hope to jump to Brazil and after that we hope to start in Spain and then drive up the coast there.

My wife and I joke that since my business is entirely remote, I may not be the only one quietly overseas and entertaining a ruse. What if I meet my boss in the middle of Peru?