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This post is the first in a new series which profiles some of the more creative ways of earning a location independent income. If you would like to be featured, please get in touch with me by email.
The posts in this series are not intended as “How To…” guides but are mainly to show you how creative you could be when it comes to thinking about ways to earn a location independent income.
Whilst some of the examples may be completely unsuited to you and your skills, perhaps they’ll get your creative juices flowing and open up unexplored avenues and lines of thinking when it comes to your own personal and professional ventures.
The guys featured today don’t earn their income via the usual methods of affiliate websites, blogging, online consulting or virtual coaching, they earn their income by…
…playing poker. Here’s what they have to say:
LI: Can you explain what you do for a living and how you earn the income to live wherever you want?
We are professional poker players. I’ve been playing since High School, but only had the ability to make enough money to support myself since the 1st or 2nd year of University. I play online and when I want to cash out, I have checks sent home to my parents who deposit them into my bank account.
LI: How did you get into this?
I got into poker in High School, playing in small games ($5 or $10 buy-ins) with a few friends. Of the friends I played with in High School, a couple of them have also continued to play and are traveling, with overlapping itineraries, with me. As we played a lot, our understanding of the game grew and we found out that the game was very popular online, but our online opponents’ knowledge of the game was significantly lower then ours.
Poker has taught me a lot of things about investing and variance. Compared to other remote occupations I think it’s quite unique. However, I think that whilst things like online consulting will still be around 5 to 10 years from now, I’m not so sure online poker will be around as it is today, in even as little as 3 years time. It’s one reason I’m considering stopping at the end of this year.
LI: Where have you been to so far?
While traveling I’ve been to Argentina (mostly Buenos Aires but also Mendoza, Patagonia – El Calafate, and Iguazu Falls), Chile, Uruguay, Peru (including Macchu Pichu), Japan (Tokyo, Kyoto, Kobe and Hiroshima), Hong Kong, Australia (Sydney) and New Zealand (North Island).
LI: If you feel comfortable sharing, can you give us an idea of how much you earn doing this?
Over the past 2 years I’ve made around $80-90k/year. My hourly rate over those 2 years was roughly $150/hr, which doesn’t include time not playing when I was thinking about the game/ discussing it with friends.
But whilst extrapolating $150/hr to say a 40hr week gives a fairly big number, I have been too busy with other things (having a life!) to ever be able to play that much.
At the request of the interviewees, I’ve withheld names and any personal details to ensure their privacy.
Now that’s a great story!
Yah – had a friend who earns income like this while he’s at uni. Freaked out his flatmates that his food and rent money was made gambling.
Speaking of earning money gambling, I made ~5% per round betting on MotoGP last year. Just like poker, forex, or any other sort of ’speculation’, if you’re (a certain amount) better than the ‘average’ then you can earn. I liked to refer to my bets as investments rather than gambles…
(Note that 5% didn’t actually translate to appreciable income – and there are questions about how well it would scale.)
I would like to see more of this type of article. I know that there are a lot of unique ways to make money, usually you just need a particular passion for something.
Good story and it just goes to show you that if you are good at something you can usually get paid pretty well at it.
I would love to have some more examples too. I will send you some when I find them.
I did meet one guy who had been traveling for about 5 years. He traded in the financial markets. I am sorry I don’t have more information on who he was but basically this is what he did:
He logged in at the hostel every day and read the news. Every couple of days, or when he needed money, he would place an order. I don’t think he did day trading as much as he was a swing trader. The difference is that in swing trading the position is held for a day or two or longer.
That is how he made his money. About an hour or two a day, then he just let it ride. The rest of the time he explored whatever town he was in.
I will try to find people who are doing this full time and send you some more info.
Hello to all,
Interesting post. We need to know more about such people and how they acquired their skills. But why not also profile those working in fields not so far out as well? I’d think most people would be interested in hearing about anyone able to be totally free.
It’s always great to hear other ways of earning income and staying location independent. While I’m currently doing a little bit of everything(forex,poker,stocks and it consulting), I would be really interested to see if there are people doing something outside gambling, it or financials.
But poker is certainly fun way to make a living!
I think it would be extra-neat to hear of people who are location-independent and earning in ways that don’t require upfront money, as forex, trading and poker do. Many people would like to get into things but don’t have the cash upfront, or special expertise.
It is pretty amazing isn’t it? I was amazed when I heard people did this.
@Coach Kip – I’d like too see more too, Bryan – just need to keep finding good examples ;)