Hello.
The term “hobo” has been thrown around forever, often with a negative connotation. So let me clear the record on what it actually means; hobo is the short hand for a person who is homeward bound. Now define what “home” means to you, and the title of the blog starts to reveal a deeper meaning.
I’m Michael Hulleman, the guy behind Hobo with a Laptop. I’ve mastered the art of nomad travel for over a decade, mostly in Asia. During the pandemic I settled in the Philippines, started a family –I am the proud father of two boys, and have since regained the itch to continue exploring.
This blog is about where I go, what inspires me, and explains in detail the numerous ways how I consistently make money online that’s required to foot the bill on a travel-intensive lifestyle, month after month, 10+ years and counting.
Start here to engineer your own location independence.
At the bottom of everything, Hobo with a Laptop is about helping people like you make money online while you live wherever, and however, you want to. I help people earn life-building income online as they leave home for whatever reason that motivates them. I’m usually your first few important steps, and happy to be as much.
Hobo with a Laptop has been around since 2013, but things really started, in earnest, in February 2017. It blew up on the scene with credibility-boosting endorsements by greats like Mark Manson and Expert Vagabond in its very busy first quarter of 2017.
After unlocking success relatively quickly, Hobo with a Laptop went on a hiatus in February 2019 –that’s only two years of work, and the site has passively floated in and out of six figures in the time since I took a step back –in November 2023, I’ll be back at it.
What’s Your Glitch and
What’s Your Super-Human Power?
Digital nomadism solved a lot of unique problems created by Western economies and culture, and as the next generation come onto the scene these same challenges have evolved drastically.
Being a digital nomad used to be about getting ahead; earning dollars and spending pesos. The majority of us leveraged geoabritrage to move mountains and reach our peak potential with very little.
Today, people choose to become nomadic for a host of new reasons –economic migrants, nomad travel, van life, passport bros looking for love untainted by 4th-wave nonsense, tiny house life, anyone working remotely, and the freedom focused all have something in common –we all gotta’ eat. Been there, done all that. Still doing that. It’s baked into this cake.
Every nomad type I meet, I ask them what their glitch is, and what’s their superpower? As the ladies say; “who hurt you?”. What made you pick up a one-way ticket to anywhere but there, and how do you foot the bill? What skills do you have? Can we collaborate?
Hobo with a Laptop aims to provide a little bit of therapy for both open-ended questions.
If you don’t have overtly commercial intent and you’re authentic, I’d love to be your megaphone. Contribute to Hobo with a Laptop by leaving me a voicemail here.
For me, it was a good friend jumping in front of a train that snapped me out of drone zone normie life back around 2009-ish. Imagine getting the voicemail days or weeks after it’s over. You hear about it, then you check your phone and you’re the last call they made. Total head fuck. Life is all too short, for some of us.
Today, it’s because the 7 years I had with my Filipina wife and mother of my children turned into a common statistic, with common causes, and common outcomes. Her face is everywhere on this website. It’s going to take months to purge and go back to what Hobo was when it started.
As a result, Hobo with a Laptop will reflect these life changes and include social commentary on related topics from the male perspective –in addition to remaining true to what made Hobo with a Laptop so successful from the very beginning.
And you’re looking at my superpower. This blog has greased the wheels and opened doors, it’s made this digital nomad lifestyle possible. Sooner you start a blog yourself, sooner you reap the profits of being known internationally like I am.
Who’s Mike Hulleman?
Mike’s been a Canadian digital nomad since the age of 18, long before there was a term for it. He’s now lived in Asia for roughly a decade.
Before that, he wrapped up his Toronto-based career as an enterprise ecommerce professional who worked with Fortune 500 brands and a team of 20+ skilled developers.
In his early twenties he was art director for the Burlington Jazz & Blues Festival, a freelance web designer, ecommerce consultant, and trained sales professionals in the tech industry.
Since he went ‘full nomad’ in 2013, he’s moonlighted as a film extra, become a best-selling author, professional copywriter, comedian, and occasionally helps brands tackle their digital marketing.
Got a Question For Me? Leave me a voicemail. Buy me a coffee if you dig my content. (I thank every donor, personally –always have).