Whether you’re looking to sell your house and become a digital nomad, or you simply want the ability to travel the country for several weeks out of the year, there are ways to make it happen.
Traditionally, CPAs have been relegated to musty offices and cubicles – essentially chained to desks. But in recent years, the emergence of new virtual technologies and the global acceptance of remote working has given rise to new possibilities. Even accountants now have the ability to travel the world while working.
Tips for traveling accountants
When it comes to remote working and digital nomadism, people seem to gravitate toward the same professions. This includes niches like freelance writing, photography, or teaching English as a second language. But the reality is that almost anyone can travel the world these days and still enjoy a lucrative career.
Having said that, your chosen profession may require a bit more preparation and intentionality to make it work. As an accountant, here are some things you’ll need to consider:
1. Choose the right track
Traveling is not common for accountants. So if you want to be a “traveling accountant,” you’ll need to be very intentional from the start. Don’t just assume you’ll be able to travel one day – work hard to make it happen.
This begins with simple things like your education. Make sure you’re taking your CPA exam prep seriously by choosing a CPA review course that sets you up to ace the exam. In doing so, you can reduce the amount of time it takes to become a CPA and jumpstart your career.
Secondly, make sure you select the right path. For example, internal auditors at large firms get to travel more than most accountants. They’ll often be called on to visit multiple locations throughout the country (or even internationally).
Depending on the company you work for, there may be other paths that offer the potential for travel. And, believe it or not, many accountants don’t want to travel. So if you make it clear that this is something you’re interested in, it could put you on the fast track.
2. Consider freelancing
As you gain experience as an accountant, you may discover that the best path to traveling is to go the freelancing route. In order to make this happen, you’ll need to optimize for lifestyle design (which basically means figuring out the best ways to free up time and mobility).
If you want to do tax prep and other seasonal types of work for clients, you could take the approach of loading up in February through May (working crazy hours) and then taking off several weeks or months afterward to travel. Or, if most of your client meetings are handled via Zoom anyway, it’s possible that you can travel the world all year round without missing a beat. You’ll just have to figure out what the proper lifestyle design looks like for you.
3. Be as resourceful as possible
If you aren’t careful, traveling can be very expensive – eating away all of your earnings as an accountant and leaving you broke. That’s why we recommend being very resourceful with how you travel.
If you’re traveling on someone else’s dime – either your employer or a client – use your client-reimbursed expenses to rack up credit card signup bonuses and rewards points. This essentially allows you to get paid to travel. And if nothing else, it’ll offset some of the expenses that are not reimbursable.
Another strategy is to take advantage of something known as “in lieu of” travel. This is where you fly somewhere else at the end of a trip in lieu of traveling home. Most clients won’t care where you’re going (so long as the cost is comparable). So why not use this as a way of traveling to different cities on the cheap?
4. Document your experiences
There aren’t a ton of traveling accountants out there, so you could actually make a name for yourself. Try launching a blog and/or Instagram account and documenting your experiences. If you pick up an online following, the web traffic could turn into a monetizable source of income that allows you to travel even more.
Adding it all up
Whether you’re looking to sell your house and become a digital nomad, or you simply want the ability to travel the country for several weeks out of the year, there are ways to make it happen.
Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash
