Being free sometimes comes at a cost. Like they say, it is not always about money, but what if there was a way to live a lavish lifestyle with no strings attached? Bohemianism is undeniably a curious and interesting way of living and exploring yourself, and if you didn’t know where to start, this complete Bohemian lifestyle guide will help you get a solid foundation.

What does it mean to be a bohemian?

A person who is living a Bohemian lifestyle (bohemianism) is not following the conventional path that most people follow within a society ruled by capitalism. Bohemians wear laid-back clothes, sometimes in tune with current fashion trends and sometimes the complete opposite.

Moreover, people living this kind of lifestyle are free-spirited minds aiming at one or multiple goals, which can be the writing of a book, a painting, learning a musical instrument, meditating, and anything else that is art, philosophy, and literature related. Finally, a Bohemian person is often an adventurer, a wanderer, or in some cases, a vagabond.

What are the 5 distinct mindsets of the Bohemian?

In a 2004 book written by Laren Stover called the Bohemian Manifesto, we can discover 5 distinct categories of the Bohemian mindset:

1. Nouveau
   The Nouveau Bohemian is someone who is usually pretty rich, or rather, very comfortable financially speaking, and is looking for something different. This person will try to go against the trends and to live a more minimalistic life without spending much of his/her money.
2. Gypsy
   Gypsy bohemians are adventurers, explorers, they are looking for the best location to reach their ideal of nirvana while living abroad.
3. Beat or Drifters
   The beat tropes began during WWII, so in the 40s, and continued several years afterward. Nowadays, they are referred to as drifters, which stands for people who live a non-materialistic life, and use drugs to fulfill their artistic endeavors.
4. Zen or post-beat
   Zen people always try to find a way to convert their lifestyle to spiritualism, at least, as much as possible. They spend most of their time talking, reading, experimenting with everything about life itself while minimizing money expenses to a strict minimum.
5. Dandy
   The dandies are people who try to show off as if they had a lot of money, but in reality, they are either broke, or their minimalistic lifestyle doesn’t allow them to be as rich as what they are demonstrating. To pretend in front of others, a dandy will show a good brand of clothes or an expensive bottle of alcohol on a shelf, for example.

How bohemians make money and live their lives?

To live abroad on a small budget, or to live a life of art and freedom, doesn’t mean that you can’t work. Of course, most bohemians will need to work at one point or another. To do so, they often find freelance online jobs or part-time work that is often not being taxed nor in the books.

These kinds of jobs are often physical, like in a factory or in a field to harvest vegetables for example. That way, they hoped from one opportunity to the next, and try to avoid spending big amounts of money, unless it is absolutely necessary.

How to start living the Bohemian lifestyle?

To live the Bohemian lifestyle, also called the boho lifestyle, you need to let go of all the things you have been working for, career-wise. The point of this lifestyle is to question authority and to become somewhat of an outsider of the normal lives that people live in a money-driven society.

Of course, if you become a Bohemian, there is a good chance you are going to do drugs, to explore your art skills and unleash your creativity. Once a boho finds his or her passion project, then everything becomes clearer, as this project becomes the focal point of his/her life.

How to know if I am a bohemian?

Simply put, a bohemian hates following the rules and the popular trends. A bohemian is, in a certain way, a rebel of modern times. If you hate having a boss who tells you what to do, then it’s possible that you could be living a lifestyle that is similar on certain levels to the one of a bohemian.

Also, if you don’t being told how to behave or how to dress for a certain occasion, that can mean you have some boho tendencies. However, the previously mentioned factors are only little signs of what you could be, it doesn’t mean that you are living the Bohemian lifestyle. As we mentioned earlier, to live this lifestyle, you need to leave pretty everything behind, even money.

In conclusion, the life of a boho is not always an easy life. In fact, many people often have a pejorative opinion on such a lifestyle, which reminds us of the bad jokes people do when they are talking about hippies. Going against the flow is never an easy thing to do, but it is sometimes, the most beautiful experience one can live.