Why we’re moving to Portugal
This post is for our friends and since it is on Medium, it could be shared with a large audience who doesn’t know us yet.
To those who know us well this decision may seem odd or hasty. In some ways it is if you consider that Becca has lived her entire life in Texas and Dave has been here for about 40 years. As others are also experiencing, the past couple of years has been a wake up call. We were led to ask ourselves new questions as others lost friends, families, and jobs. We lost routines and it identified unexamined habits. What if those same things happened to us? What are we doing in our life and with our life? And how much life (where there is quality of life) do we have left? We’re both hitting milestone birthdays next year.
Our life was on autopilot and full of comfort and familiarity before the pandemic. As Becca’s work moved home and the variety of interactions in her life deteriorated, so did her health. Dave left his part time job. He was also having more back pain with no relief and we had to face facts that his mobility was diminishing. We had a new routine, and it was lacking even when the restrictions lifted. Adam Grant hit it straight on when he termed it “languishing” earlier this year.
The first big question that started the ball rolling is answering what would happen if Becca retired now and we took advantage of the mobility Dave has left. That leads to problems to be solved. Things like having enough money and the vital health insurance that keeps a diabetic from becoming destitute (Becca is a Type 1) mattered since Medicare is several years away for her.
It became apparent quickly that there were too many trap doors here. Health insurance would be unattainable or so expensive it would leave us with no budget for living. Having chronic health conditions put this out of reach.
This is the part of the story that some of you will embrace, and others may give it an eye roll, but it’s what happened for us. Becca has a mind like a filing cabinet where she can take things in and they come back when she needs them. In this case the prior reading she did on great places to retire surfaced and she remembered Portugal was on it. In all of our global travels we hadn’t made it there yet, but it was time to open that file and have a look around. We also believe that this was in conjunction with some prompting by the Holy Spirit as she was in the middle of a study about the different ways God speaks to us. This strange dream about relocating to a foreign land was something we felt led to explore.
Portugal offered this…
An area of the coast that looks like Southern California. That was Dave’s retirement dream but we knew we’d never be able to afford California real estate or taxes.
We could afford to live in that coastal area of Portugal. The real estate is affordable and with the red hot housing market in Texas we could buy a property for cash there. We would have to downsize, but for us less space and stuff is a fair trade for the beach. The apartment (yes, no house) we bought is in Armação de Pêra and is 4 blocks from the beach in a village of roughly 8,000 people.
A low cost of living for most things. The Portuguese wage is low and taxes are high. It is a tougher place to live as a Portuguese citizen but fairly easy as an expatriate retiree. Our money would last there.
Accessibility to health care. The national system is ranked higher than the US, but yes, you have to see the doctor they assign you and wait longer than desired. We also didn’t pay into this and it is not aligned with our values to burden it unduly. We can and will supplement with affordable private expat insurance and have more control and choices with no wait.
Access to amazing travel. We both love to travel and we have enjoyed Europe the most. With Dave’s back we can’t fly coach without great pain for him so we previously had to save up vacation days and major dollars to make it over there. Now we have short 2 hour flights to those destinations and can go for a weekend or weekday. Just exploring the rest of Portugal will be exciting as it is diverse and beautiful.
English is widely spoken. We are learning Portuguese and we intentionally looked for areas with expats so we could have a diverse variety of friends from different countries. Being able to locate an English speaking church was also important to us and there are several. We want to build a community of friends there and get to know the local culture of friendly people. And when we got on the ground, we learned the Portuguese are so kind and go out of their way to help. These warm people are part of the attraction for sure.
Easier immigration and tax management. Portugal has less burdensome requirements for immigration and a dual tax treaty with the US where we won’t be overly taxed. They also give new residents a 10 year tax hiatus.
Our life stage allows us flexibility and we’re fortunate that we have family that wants to travel and has the means to do it. Covid has taught us how to stay in touch with the people we care about when we are at a distance.
It is also important to us to convey that we’re not leaving to make a political statement about or against America. Does the unrest here make it easier? Of course, but it wasn’t the driving factor in our decision. We might be back in a few years when we’re both able to access Medicare or we feel led to make another change. Right now we’re headed to Portugal because we feel led to be there. We’re excited to see what is in store.
In another post we will share more about our exploration trip. Those of you who believe in God, Universe alignments or just good fortune will like the stories. We are people of faith and believe it is a God thing 🙂
We’ll keep you posted…
