Finances as a digital nomad

A reader asked me how I manage finances as a digital nomad.

Here’s my situation:

• I’m a Canadian resident
• My business is incorporated as a Canadian company (not a provincial one)
• I live 6 months plus one day in Canada, and the rest is mostly in Spain and Poland. This is to maintain Canadian residency (and health care)
• My clients are international, so I need to invoice and accept currencies in CAD, USD, and Euro

My setup:

• I incorporated myself to have a legal buffer between myself and my business. If the company is ever sued, they cannot come after me personally
• My company’s main bank account is in Canada (RBC)
• To accept payments in other currencies, I have a Wise account in the US and Europe
• My invoicing and accounting software is Xero (premium edition), which supports multiple currencies

The combination of Xero and Wise allows me to create invoices in most major currencies and receive payment in those currencies. With Wise, when I convert Euros or USD to CAD, I get the exchange rate displayed on Google, minus a small service charge.

The takeaway
This setup is significantly better (and easier) than opening an office bank account in another country and then transfering between bank accounts. Banks have their own exchange rate, and I’ve saved thousands of dollars this way.