Navigating Currency Fluctuations as a Digital Nomad

Let me get one thing off my chest straight out: There is a particular feeling that comes with checking my PocketSmith dashboard in a specific situation. This feeling is rather like taking the first sip of a very good cup of coffee. It’s warm. It’s comforting. There’s a bit of a thrill to it. And it is, more than anything else, intensely satisfying. That specific situation is when I’ve been dealing with clients in multiple countries within the last month.

Because then, when I check my dedicated Freelancing dashboard, I see three or four different currencies smiling back at me.

In any given month, I can be dealing with clients in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Depending on where I’m living at the time (Recently: The Shetland Islands, UK. Currently: Back home in NZ), my everyday expenses might be in another currency yet again.

It’s a bit like juggling four balls at the same time

The balls are worth different amounts depending on their dips and peaks, economic timing, global markets, and (some would swear) how close to a full moon we are. Now, I’m not great at juggling. I can never watch every ball at the same time, and if I take on too many, I’m liable to drop some. When I’m already dealing with multiple projects and multiple clients, trying to actively track multiple currencies and time them to make the most of their peaks would be madness.

So I don’t.

Keep it simple

The market will drop. It will recover. It always does. That’s not to say I’m completely ignorant of currency shifts, but nobody has time to watch those micro-fluctuations (unless you’re in, say, investment banking or share trading. I’m not.) I certainly don’t have time, and neither do my clients. I’m here to make things easy for my clients. So, to streamline matters and give us one less thing to think about, I charge them hourly and in their own currency.

I’m in a fortunate position, admittedly. The countries my clients are based in have stronger currencies than my home country of New Zealand. I haven’t yet been in the reverse position; I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. In the meantime, I work out all my expenses in a single currency (the local one), and I leave the global currency conversions to my tax agent, Hnry.

Diversify that income

We’ve all lived through downturns and recessions, right? We all know someone who’s gone to work at 8am and found themselves out of a job by lunchtime. So we talk about spreading the risk. Investing in broad-based index funds rather than single shares. Picking up a side hustle so you’re not reliant on a single source of income.

I charge international clients in their home currency for much the same reason. I’m diversifying my income, not just across projects and niches, but across global currencies.

Could I charge my clients entirely in my home/tax currency of NZD? Sure. But why would I? I have a global client base, an invoicing system capable of auto-techno-magically handling dozens of currencies, and custom budgeting software that effortlessly reflects those numbers. There will always be rises and dips in global economic markets. That’s just the nature of the beast. But at least, by spreading my income between multiple currencies, I’m making the most of the rises and spreading the impact of the dips.

Live like a local

With income in four different currencies, it frees me up to live everyday life in the local currency. I can ride out changes in countries and changes in living costs. A train ticket from Newquay to the Cotswolds might cost £70 ($140NZD), but it gets me where I want to go. Paying a little more for an airport hotel in Toronto is worth it: The free breakfast doubles as lunch, and there’s no need to pay for public transit when I can take the free shuttle to my next flight. Groceries at Tesco (UK) are cheaper than Walmart (USA), and both are cheaper than New World (NZ.) We live and we travel and we work and we learn.

Find the balance

I’m still juggling four balls. I don’t expect them to stay static, so I’m not surprised at an unexpected drop or lift. After all, I’m on the move just as much as those fluctuating currencies are. One rises and another dips. One falls, and the next one rises. I don’t keep a close eye on them. It’s enough for me that they’re there, spinning in the air, and they’re not crashing to the floor.

Global clients demand global solutions, and as a digital nomad, I have a global office. Let me tell you, when I check my dashboard and see those four currencies smiling back at me… it’s the best feeling in the world.

Rachel E. Wilson is an author and freelance writer based in New Zealand. She has been, variously, administrator at an ESOL non-profit, transcriber for a historian, and technical document controller at a french fry factory. She has a keen interest in financial literacy and design, and a growing collection of houseplants (pun intended).