As we’ve recently said farewell to 2020, we reflected back on the year and thought it would be worth sharing what we managed to do in 2020 and how we felt about this very unique year. Maybe this will give you an idea to reflect back on and use it as an input to decide how you want to shape 2021. Let’s dig-in!
Our initial plans for 2020
When we started 2020, we wanted to keep an eye on a few goals / habits. You can see the entire list from my journal above, we were very ambitious indeed.
Here are the more important ones for 2020: (pre-pandemic)
Note: I will be reviewing these in more details in a post where I will be sharing our plans for 2021
- Finances: Budget for 40K in expenses (32K of living expenses + 5-8K on honeymoon like vacation + 1-4K on fun/passion projects) + Establish residency in Texas
- Health: No tech tuesdays + Practice Intermittent Fasting 16:8 daily + Practice 20 mins meditation daily + Bedtime by 10:30pm + Turn off wifi at night + No smart device in bed + Reduce plastic use.
- Passions: Rebrand blog + Growing the blog + Develop Travel Tool Phone App + Be on 10 podcasts related to nomadism/Slow travel + Attend 2 conferences about slow travel
- Relationship & Play:
- Relationship: Plan trip for our wedding anniversary + Plan monthly date nights.
- Play: Keep slow traveling through the year (Asia → Europe → USA → Asia).
- Family & community:
- Family: spend quality time with Mr. NN’s family by taking them on a month long trip to Japan + going back to California in the summer to see Mrs. NN’s family + spending time with our respective nieces and nephews.
- Community: Find our nomadic tribe + spend 1 month in a nomadic hub
2020 Year in Review
Like for the rest of the world, 2020 didn’t really go according to plan! The plans for nomads were especially impacted as we were grounded for 9.5 months of the year. We had to cancel plans to visit 14 countries and instead stayed in one – taking things one month at a time and not knowing where we would end up. But we are not complaining because we made the most of 2020 and it ended up being a wonderful year because we stayed positive, flexible, and open-minded while also being incredibly lucky. As I look back at my daily journal, here are the major highlights I’ve captured for 2020. I recommend keeping a journal as it is a great way to look back at your accomplishments!
January
January started with the New Year in Penang (a food paradise) before spending two weeks of fast travel between the mesmerizing and relaxing Cameron Highlands (wonderful tea heaven) and a busy Kuala Lumpur.
Our highlights for January: the yummy food of Penang, a half-day cooking class with the talented Chef Samuel where we appreciated all the love and hard work that goes into making a Beef Rendang, hiking through the tea plantations in Cameron Highlands, and learning about how tea is produced, splurging on a nice Chinese New Year buffet at the Four Seasons.
Useful links:
- Airbnb – Our Airbnb in Cameron Highlands (~200 USD for two)
- Airbnb – Our Airbnb in Kuala Lumpur (~275 USD for two)
February
February was spent in Da Nang (Vietnam) where we celebrated my birthday. Mrs. NN packed a day full of surprises, including a nice bike ride through the countryside, a pretty animated boat tour and a birthday cake I will never forget 🙂
Other highlights for February: meeting with a nomadic couple we met in Thailand in the fall of 2020, the wonderful vietnamese food, our weekly board game nights with other nomads and an overnight stay in Hoi An.
Useful links:
- Airbnb – Our Airbnb in Da Nang (~500 USD for two)
March
March was supposed to be one of the most relaxing months for us but then the pandemic made it the most stressful for the year.
We stayed in a gorgeous 2BR villa nested in the balinese jungle, about an hour walk away from the busy downtown area of Ubud. It was the perfect way to isolate ourselves from the crowd, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise when COVID became real. We were initially looking to extend our stay in Bali until the end of May (as we had to cancel the trip to Japan with my parents due the spread of COVID in Asia). But on March 11, we had to scratch all of our plans and decided to come shelter ourselves in Taiwan. (Best decision ever! – in hindsight)
Other highlights for March: sharing our villa with another nomadic couple, catching up with Kristy & Bryce (from Millennial-Revolution.com), splurging on Balinese massages (so good!), attending a hypnotic tea and gong meditation, spoiling ourselves with delicious raw food, meeting with Eric (from NomadOnFIRE.com) and recording a fun episode about our nomadic life.
Useful links:
- Blog – Nomad life during COVID-19: exiting Bali and home quarantining in Taiwan
- Airbnb – Our Airbnb in Ubud (~550 / month for two)
April
After surviving a mandatory two weeks home quarantine in Taipei, we were surprised by how normal life in Taiwan was and started to explore this beautiful country.
Other highlights for April: the Ba Yan River wild hot spring, hiking Huangdidian East + West peaks (a typical adventurous Taiwanese hike), eating all the food at the Shilin Night market (so good!)
Useful links:
- Blog – Pivoting as nomads & living on $20K a year in a time of crisis
- Blog – Life ‘Stuck’ in Taiwan during the coronavirus pandemic (April’s edition)
- Airbnb – Our monthly Airbnb in Taipei #1 (Wanhua district)
May
May started by celebrating our wedding anniversary at a nice Onsen in Jiaoxi during a multi-day getaway.
We started to get comfortable with the light (but effective) day to day restrictions we had to follow with regards to COVID19 in Taiwan and have been really impressed by how Taiwan is operating to keep all of its 24 millions inhabitants safe from this virus.
Other highlights for May: great snorkeling in Longdong Bay, the Stegosaurus ridge hike that offers amazing views, one of the best bike rides in Fulong along the coast and a day long kayaking trip in Su’ao bay.
Useful links:
- Blog – Taiwan: a safe haven for nomads during the coronavirus pandemic
- Blog – Life ‘Stuck’ in Taiwan during the coronavirus pandemic (May’s edition)
- Airbnb – Our monthly Airbnb in Taipei #2 (Ximen district)
June
June was our first fast travel month in Taiwan where we started to explore the entire island by staying in Hualien, Kaohsiung, and Taichung.
Other highlights for June: the beautiful Taroko National Park, a stunning bike ride in the rice fields of Chishang, diving and snorkeling on XiaoLiuqiu island (where we got to get close up with huge green sea turtles), climbing the mountain via the Alishan Railway, early sunrise above the tea plantation in Alishan, trying out the original boba (pearl) milk tea in Taiwan and biking around Sun Moon Lake.
Useful links:
- Blog – Life ‘Stuck’ in Taiwan during the coronavirus pandemic (June’s edition)
- Airbnb – Our Airbnb in Hualien
- Airbnb – Our Airbnb in Kaohsiung
- Airbnb – Our Airbnb in Taichung
July
July was back to Taipei and we were surprised by how busy the capital has become now that the summer is in full swing, with students out in the wild! We also found a bright and modern apartment in the heart of Taipei (for only $1,000 a month) where we plan to spend the entire summer.
Other highlights for July: discovering river tracing, waterfall hike to Xinfeng, hike to Yuemeikeng waterfall (in Jiaoxi), hike to Zinshan & dream lake, an evening with Belgium Youtubers Naick & Kim, and a fun day spent at the 2D Cafe of Taiwan.
Useful links:
- Blog – 2nd Year of Nomadic Travel Spending Report – Still half the cost plus unexpected pandemic change of plans
- Blog – Destination Report: Taiwan – Life ‘Stuck’ in Taiwan during the pandemic (July edition)
August
August was a turning point for us as we got approved for the Taiwan Employment Gold Card, which granted us a 3-year residency here in Taiwan. Previously, we were relying on Taiwan’s generous monthly extensions to our visitor visa.
Other highlights for August: Enjoying the wild hot spring of Wulai, hiking in Sandialong, hiking Elephant trunk, river tracing in Jinyu waterfall, hiking in a seawater pool in Keelung, meeting a French Youtuber living in Taiwan, and an epic river tracing (& BBQ) with a group of local Taiwanese.
Useful links:
- Blog – How to get a multi-year resident visa in Taiwan: the Taiwan Employment Gold Card – Part I: Online application
- Blog – How to get multi-year resident status in Taiwan through the Taiwan Employment Gold Card – Part II: Spouse application
September
September we got to connect with the gold card community in Taipei and also learn more about the program through a culture day trip.
Other highlights for September: Meeting buffalos while hiking in Pinding, biking the Taipei Metropolitan park, and getting a dermatologist appointment and light skin surgery done in Taipei inexpensively(even without local insurance).
I also got invited on a few podcasts to spread the word about the Taiwan Employment Gold Card (including episodes on NomadOnFire, JohnnyFD, Joney Talks, and The FI Show + more coming in 2021)
Useful links:
October
October might have been our best month in Taiwan as we took our second month of fast travel around the island. We based ourselves in Tainan, Kenting, and Green Island which was packed with daily highlights!
Our highlights for October: Voting for the US presidential election (a first for Mr. NN who recently became an American citizen), biking in the national park of Taijiang, indulging on some amazing beef in the Amping district, celebrating Mrs. NN birthday, a free 2 day private tour in Tainan with a wonderful guide (thank you Lilian!), discovering all the wonders of Kenting (snorkeling, scooter rides, sushi galore…), scuba diving on Green Island and experiencing an early morning sunrise in one of the 3 seawater hot spring in the world and biking the East Coast Rift Valley in 3 days.
Useful links:
- Blog – Biking in Taiwan: Ultimate 3 Day / 200 km bike ride on the east coast (from Hualien to Taitung)
- Airbnb – Our Airbnb in Tainan
November
November gives us extra time to still enjoy dry and warm temperatures in Taipei. I’ve also started to learn some survival Chinese (finally) and begun to learn mobile app development.
Other highlights for November: Hiking to White Rock mountain, flower festival in Daxi, hiking Huangdidian mountain w/ Mrs. NN, Thanksgiving dinner with Mrs. NN’s family over video, celebrating a friend’s birthday and experiencing the full KTV experience in Taipei!
Useful links:
December
December was when we close the year. We’ve been grateful to be able to celebrate Christmas and New Year with our friends here in Taipei and enjoy phenomenal fireworks at the Taipei 101 Tower!
Other highlights for December: Mrs. NN started to make her own kombucha at home (so good!), exploring the wetlands and climbing the many logs of the Dakeng trail in Taichung (during a 3 days getaway from rainy Taipei), watching the entire season of The Queen’s Gambit(got addicted), enjoying the Christmas lights in Taipei, doing our second Costco run (thanks to friends who have the membership), hiking on Christmas eve, spending Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with friends, connecting with our family over video.
Useful links:
Closing thoughts on 2020
As 2020 has come to an end and I wrote this post, I’ve been impressed by everything we experienced in such a special year. It would be hard to realize that we did all of this while a global pandemic was raging in most parts of the world.
We’ve said many times on this blog and on the podcast we’ve been on lately, but I am going to say it again, we have been really grateful for having picked Taiwan to shelter ourselves from the pandemic! Taiwan remains one of the only countries in the world that has stayed safe and with an outstanding 250+ days streak with no local transmission(though there has been a small incident in December that broke that streak – Read more here).
Thanks to the readers who have been following our adventures. I still plan to write on the blog in 2021. I might let go of the idea of writing for every destination we explore because it is pretty time consuming and we have lots of adventures! I hope our content helps a few of you this year.
Happy New Year!
Bonus: Our top 10 most popular pages of 2020 (measured in page views)
- How to get a multi-year resident visa in Taiwan: the Taiwan Employment Gold Card
- Pros & cons of a nomadic lifestyle
- 1st Year of Nomadic Travel Spending Report – Traveling the world for half of the cost of staying home
- Traveling During a Virus Pandemic – How is the coronavirus (COVID-19) affecting us?
- Nomad life during COVID-19 – Exiting Bali and home quarantining in Taiwan
- Nomad Purse – Our free travel/budget companion for nomads
- 2nd Year of Nomadic Travel Spending Report – Still half the cost plus unexpected pandemic change of plans
- Women’s carry on packing list for long-term travel – Mrs. NN Edition
- Men’s carry on packing list for nomadic long-term travels – Mr. NN Edition
- Design your ideal life
13 Comments
Tara Red · January 5, 2021 at 1:52 am
Mr NN, I hope you will consider continuing to write about your destinations in 2021. Short or slow travel, I find your reports interesting and useful as we consider our future plans as nomads. Thanks for this summary post!
Mr. Nomad Numbers · January 5, 2021 at 2:23 am
Thank you Tara! This comment means a lot for us as these posts take time to write. We do however write them first and foremost for us as we like to look back at each year before setting our goals and intention for the new year to come. May I ask what were some of your favorite posts from us in 2020?
Tara Red · January 5, 2021 at 7:24 pm
I appreciate your destination reports and how you separate out what you did from how much it all cost. I never had Taiwan as a potential destination for our own slow travel until I read your initial posts about transitioning there after Bali.
Mr. Nomad Numbers · January 18, 2021 at 10:56 am
Thank you, Tara! Taiwan has never been on our radar as well until the pandemic forced us to come here which turned out to be actually a “good” thing for us 🙂
Steve · January 5, 2021 at 2:39 am
I’ll be curious to hear about benefits of establishing residency in Texas. I’m assuming a reduction in states tax, but would likely lose your ACA subsidy.
Mr. Nomad Numbers · January 5, 2021 at 3:09 am
This was mostly a tax reduction play for us as nomads. Since we left California in 2018, the only tax we still pay in the USA is to the state of California. We don’t pay any Federal tax due to how our passive income is setup. And since we don’t live in California anymore we don’t think it’s fair for us to keep paying tax that we can’t really get any benefit from. As for the ACA, now that we’ve established residency in Taiwan (Thanks to the Taiwan Employment Gold Card – https://www.nomadnumbers.com/taiwan-employment-gold-card-application-guide/), this won’t be an issue for us anymore as we won’t need to buy US healthcare anymore. And since we realized how cheap and good healthcare outside of the USA is, we won’t miss that (https://www.nomadnumbers.com/the-true-cost-of-healthcare-as-nomads/).
Now for people that would be still resident in the USA and spend quite a bunch of time there, this move might not be as relevant for them.
What is your current situation Steve and are you considering establishing residency in one of the few US state with no state tax?
Steven D Maggio · January 7, 2021 at 2:17 am
These are all good points. The only reason to keep residency in a higher tax state would be for the ACA subsidy. When you come back through the US, I’m assuming you’ll use the expat insurance (with the limit of $1M or whatever) for the 90 days or less?
How did you go about establishing residency in Texas? Are you going to do a post on that? I thought you had to live there for 6+ months.
We are going to pull the trigger at the end of 2021 (maybe Q1, 2022 waiting for bonuses/max out one more year of IRA). We are planning on doing largely the same thing as you two for a few years(slow travel), then see if we want to settle down or move back to the US. That is why your content is so informational for us.
Mr. Nomad Numbers · January 18, 2021 at 10:59 am
Hi Steven. We haven’t actually been able to establish residence in Texas because of COVID-19. That being said our plan was to use a company like Escapees RV Club (https://www.escapees.com/) which makes it pretty easy to change your domicile. Now that we have become (full-time) Taiwanese residents in Taiwan, it is easier for us to be US ex-pats and not have to file any state tax as long as we have proof of residence outside of the USA. The slow travel life has been amazing for us so I’m sure it’s gonna be good for you two as well, assuming in the month to come the COVID-19 situation will improve and you can more freely access to the place you want to travel to!
Joe · January 11, 2021 at 5:14 pm
I hope you guys feel a bit guilty about having such a good year. The rest of the world was terrible.
Taiwan did really well with COVID.
I’m heading to Thailand this week. They did pretty well most of 2020, but they had several bad outbreaks recently. Their Myanmar border is very porous so the virus got in that way.
Hopefully, 2021 will be better for everyone. What’s your plan this year? Some travel once things improve?
Mr. Nomad Numbers · January 18, 2021 at 11:03 am
Yeah, and it is actually very hard for us to put our heads around how “terrible” the situation has been. From talking to our friends and family things have been “okay” and none of them got COVID (luckily). But we think we are gonna get a strong reality check once we will leave Taiwan! Things here are so “2019 normal” that we actually don’t think much about COVID-19 on a daily basis, to be honest, and keep exploring. As for 2021, we want to see our family but this is will depend on how well, fast, and effective the vaccine rollout goes so hard to say. Besides that happy to get stuck here all of 2021 as there are plenty of places we still haven’t explored! Looking forward to hearing about your adventure in Thailand. How long will you be staying?
Jof · April 26, 2021 at 8:46 pm
Hi.
How about tax in France as you are a french citizen. What taxes do you pay?
Mr. Nomad Numbers · April 27, 2021 at 3:16 am
Hi Jof. As a French citizen living overseas, the only income that is taxable is income made in France, which for me is real estate I own in France. Most French citizen living overseas doesn’t own any tax to France once they live the country. Hope this helps!
2020 Year-End Spending Report - Still traveling the world for half the cost of staying home during a pandemic! — Nomad Numbers · January 18, 2021 at 2:19 pm
[…] shelter from the pandemic and have not suffered the effect of the pandemic here (so far!).Actually, we had a wonderful year in Taiwan where we still managed to cook some amazing meals at home + eat out at restaurants to enjoy the […]