Welcome to the 21st century people, an age where wifi is everywhere, you can get a flight for the same price as a branded T Shirt, and yes, you can work anywhere – if you make the right choices anyway.

Articles like the ones you’ll read here on E9-5 are often construed as painting an idealistic view of the world. Those awful over-exaggerated inspirational posters, you know the ones, well this isn’t one of them. To make your work remote, you’re probably going to have to make some sacrifices, get to the top of a niche or an area of expertise, and make a success of your chosen career. I’ve got news for you, it’s not going to be easy, but you knew that anyway. No get rich quick schemes or live the ultimate lifestyle in 24 hours bullsh** here, just a realistic view of remote work.

That said, it is easier to work anywhere now than it has ever been in the past. Remember, I’m not talking about making your fortune and getting out, and I’m not even talking about building enough residual income to keep yourself going 11 months of the year abroad (though if you can manage that, great).

So how do I get out of the rat race and work anywhere in the world?

First thing’s first, you need to evaluate the situation you’re currently in. Now, if you’re working a nine to five for somebody else, getting to that cocktail on a beach far away might seem further away, and unfortunately, it probably is. I’m not going to sit here and preach to you about how you should leave your job and work for yourself, but if you’re looking for the ultimate freedom in your working life, this might just have to be something you consider. Not prepared to do so? Then read Tim Ferriss’ Four Hour Work Week. He has loads of interesting ideas about how you can wrench yourself out of the office, even with a boss.

If you’re working for yourself, or looking to, there are some ways to start to get to the beach in the sun. Here are a bunch of them (in my trademark bullet point style, of course).

• Make meetings as unnecessary as possible. “Uh, sorry Susan I cant make my 3 o’clock appointment today, I’m water boarding”. Nope, not gonna work. Meetings are a tie, and you need to find a way to be without them. You might lose the odd client, but that’s the price you’re going to have to pay. In the modern world, people are becoming more accepting of video conferencing. Suit up and skype them from a ‘foreign meeting room’ (your apartment in Thailand, if you like), and hope they can cope with not being able to shake your hand.
• Outsource. Again, this is very Tim Ferriss, but you probably already know that you can hire virtual assistants to handle loads of tasks that you might not want to do, or that will be tough for you to find time to do amongst your traveling. Hiring staff in the Philippines for example, to work as your “V.A’s” can be a superb and affordable tactic to take loads of your workload away.
• Build your income around your freedom. Of course, for the self employed, this is easier. For example, someone looking for a musical career can make production music from their macbook pro while traveling, and selling it online, picking up their income through paypal. Sorted. Start a blog, take stock photography, start an eCommerce business and hire someone at home to do the shipping while you travel. If you’re flexible enough to be able to try and model your career still, do it with a get-out plan ready to jump on a plane.

The world is changing, and office space isn’t cheap. Remote work does require trust from employers, but if you dont have an employer this is less of an issue. As the world adapts to mobile technology and an online lifestyle, more and more options open up for working anywhere in the world. Keep your finger on the pulse and make sure you take your slice of the pie.