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Nine years ago, Michael and I left Seattle to become digital nomads, indefinitely traveling the world.
Back then, we lived on around $85,000 USD a year before taxes — which, given how expensive Seattle was even before we left, was a pretty modest lifestyle. These days, I think that same lifestyle would cost $110,000 or more.
Meanwhile, since we left America, we now live “better,” eating out far more often and depriving ourselves of less.
Our costs have risen, in part, because of inflation — and rising travel costs in general, which seem to have skyrocketed everywhere, much faster than inflation.
But as we get closer to retirement, we’re also choosing to live a bit more comfortably.
Our rising costs.
To be clear: yes, being an American able to live more affordably outside of America is classic Western privilege.
That said, we currently have a very low tolerance for nomad-bashing. We strongly assert that while travel and tourism aren’t perfect, they’ve definitely been a “net plus” for the world.
[He said defensively.]
Anyway, here are our expenses for the past year, divided into categories, with analysis for each, followed by our overall total at the end.
Lodging
Some dates overlapped, so months are used for clarity only. All figures are in USD and include all taxes, fees, and gratuities.
January - March
Puerto Vallarta Airbnb, 8 nights: $971 ($121/night)
We had two apartments in Osaka too, but one (top) was much better than the other.
December
Second Osaka Airbnb, 31 nights: $2,697 ($87/night)
Kyoto hotel, 3 nights: $209 (or $70/night)
Annual Total: $30,706 (or $2,559/month, or $84/night)
Some observations:
We spent $8,461 less on lodging this year than last year (which was $107/night), but these figures are deceptive because we didn’t take any cruises this year, and last year I included those total costs in “lodging.”
This year’s number is $6,494 more than we spent in 2024 (which was $66/night) and $14,131 more than in 2022 ($45/night). This is mostly due to the rapidly rising price of lodging worldwide, but partly because we’re choosing nicer places.
Our lodging costs — and overall cost of living — always depends a lot on whether we’re living in “affordable” or “expensive” countries. By design, we usually spend about half the year in affordable places and half in expensive ones, and that was true in 2025 as well: we spent half the year in Mexico (affordable) and the other half in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan (expensive).
For comparison purposes, our pre-nomad, pre-2018 Seattle-area housing costs were: $2700/month (mortgage + utilities): $32,400/year or $89/day. I estimate the rise in utility and tax rates would bring that to about $34,675, or $95/day, now.
As always, when examining our annual lodging costs, it’s important to note that, as nomads, our “vacation” costs are now $0 (since we’re basically always traveling). Our annual total holiday costs previously averaged around $3,500, and with the very high travel inflation rate (and our higher standards), they’d now probably be around $7,000. If we subtract that amount from the annual total, that means our annual lodging costs are over $11,000 less than our total housing costs used to be back in Seattle (and while we’re not building equity in a house, the money we made off the sale of that house is now invested, earning some return).
In addition to hotels and Airbnb apartments, we also had our usual mix of unconventional lodgings: our time-share condo back near Seattle (which is working out perfectly for our purposes); various cash deals with friends and friends of friends; and occasionally staying with friends (which is why the total number of days, above, is less than 365).
Our food costs are up pretty dramatically this year, in part because of inflation, but also because we’re simply choosing to spend more. We like fresh fruit and cheese for breakfast — what can we say? We’re also buying more prepared “deli” meals, at least outside of America. And we’re trying very hard to eliminate (cheaper) ultra-processed food from our diets and this is also driving up costs.
As in previous years, we eat out far more often now than we did when we lived in Seattle (because restaurants are so much cheaper outside of America, even in “expensive” countries). But part of the higher restaurant bill is also because, whenever we spend time in America, we want to eat out with friends — and a “nice” dinner out in America has become shockingly expensive (IMHO), quickly driving up our overall costs.
Transportation
Airfare
Seattle to Puerto Vallarta (round-trip): $0 (frequent flier miles)
Seattle to San Miguel de Allende (round-trip): $1800
Seattle to Seoul, South Korea: $500 (frequent flier miles + seat upgrade)
Seoul, South Korea, to Taipei, Taiwan: $603
Taipei, Taiwan, to Guangzhou, China: $191
Hong Kong to Tokyo, Japan: $450
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