Great post as usual. Our why is almost the same as yours. We came from Texas where summers of over 100 degrees last 6 months and I hated it. Then 2016 came and I was horrified that a person with the character of DJT was elected. And then, his presidency was even more horrifying. Then Covid hit and the way it was handled cost so many more lives than it should have. Every day there was just another horrifying story and I was done. When Covid ended, my husband announced to me he was retiring, so I said that means we are getting out of this hell hole. I somehow had the foresight to know that despite Biden winning, we would have four more years of Trump and his antics and then 2024 would be a shit show. It was as predicted. We made one trip here to check the weather, sold everything we had, bought our tickets and were gone. We have two grown sons who said go and have fun. For so many reasons, we are so happy we made the decision to move to Lisbon. But the biggest one is the peace we feel in our daily lives compared to the way we felt in the USA. We are about to take our last trip there to see our boys for at least the next four years and unfortunately, I fear longer. But there is not one thing I miss about the USA except my children and they’ll just have to fly to us now.
Hi Nancy, I enjoyed your post - I always do. Our story, ever so briefly, is that we both retired, were living in Scotland and felt we had another move left in us. (We have moved a lot over the years, lived in France and worked all over Europe.) So we moved back down to England - originally from Liverpool so we were 'moving back' so to speak. We settled in rural Shropshire, not far from where J.R.R Tolkien used to walk. (He used our part of Shropshire as a model for 'The Shire' and we lived only a couple of miles from Baggins Farm. (Absolutely true! I could send you the photo.)
So, after six years there we got tired of eternal winter, we even thought of changing our name to Stark (Winter is coming!) So we started looking around again. Spain, France, Cyprus but eventually settled on Portugal.
But... and this is your point... we had two kids. (No grandkids at that time) Our son was living in Germany and our daughter was finishing her PhD in Bristol. When my wife asked her how she would feel about us moving, this was her reply...
'Mum. don't stay for us; and don't move to be closer to us. We don't intend to stay in the UK forever and if you moved home to be close to us we would feel like we deserted you.' So that was a huge weight removed.
The why was the weather, not the heat but the light, the blue skies and warm breezes.
The other why was Brexit. How could any country do something so stupid. We chose to be European over British and will in time become citizens of this lovely country.
The bonus is that as we started to fully commit to living here and learning the language we found the people to be so wonderfully accepting and encouraging and we are just so happy to have adopted, and been accepted by, this country.
Thanks for this Nancy. Once again your letter resonates volumes.
As two gay dads of two black boys the YouTube video took me to our greatest fear. I honestly don’t know what I would do if one of our boys was shot by a cop for any reason.
Our move wasn’t political more for an adventure. We came with the intention of moving back at some point but in light of recent turns of events who knows.
Side note Portugal was nice but we still wanted more from this adventure and we recently moved to Barcelona and are very happy here.
Looking forward to the rest of this thought provoking series.
We could not afford to retire in the U.S. The projected costs of Medicare, cost of living and rising property tax rates was alarming. The threat of death from gun violence, or just tolerating road-raging ugly people was debilitating. Another plus with Portugal, compared to North Carolina, was the chances are very slim of the weather killing us or destroying our home or reeking havoc with the infrastructure.
I love this, thank you for sharing. I've done big moves many times in the past, the two biggest being moving to Canada on my own and then moving back to Germany with my husband. Both times I sold everything and went with only two suitcases. My "why's" were pretty easy to figure out or let's say I didn't have to think about them. Moving to Canada was this indescribable urge - I moved away from family, left a job that I loved to accept a role that was far below my level of education and outside my area of expertise. I could never put into words why I wanted to move. My true why only revealed itself after, I honestly believe that I was destined to find my husband there. And now moving back to Germany, the why was giving my husband (who is Canadian) the opportunity to live abroad for the first time in his life and experiencing life in Europe.
Thank you for your support and encouragement. I’ve witnessed a lot of negative feedback in the expat groups that I follow and I think there’s been a complete lack of compassion. Yes, I’m sure all of the negatives/warnings about making a move are legitimate, but I can tell you that making your way daily through work, family and friends and knowing that statistically more than half voted the way they did is exhausting, full of grief, disbelief and disappointment. It’s far from easy.
I would add to your list of things to work through: taxes. And to the pros: better health care. To the cons: emergency departments get less trauma experience because fewer gunshot wounds (just kidding).
I get the rage; I don't get moving as a solution. What is, is what always was. We came because we wanted to.
My teen daughter and I seriously considered Lisbon a couple of years ago. I was about to retire, on the early side, as a high school math teacher with a partial pension that was higher than Portugal’s minimum for the “retiree” visa and I have a small business as a decorator and home organizer. But the 15k Euros required in a Portuguese bank and having to have a lease signed (and to start paying for) for a flat before starting the visa application ended up being too big of a deterrent. Now I’m looking to New Zealand where my older son already lives and my daughter will be going in a few months for Uni. My kids are blessed to have triple citizenship with Ireland and New Zealand through their dad’s family (my ex) so they have lots of options. I can apply for a NZ parent visa in a few years, if my adult children make lots of money and I make it through their tiny parental visa lottery 🤞.
I still have thoughts of prepping for a future Portuguese visa, though. I love Europe, especially Portugal! But it would be even further from NZ. For now, I will relish the fact that I live in Colorado and am self-employed, past the age of child-bearing and have the time to fight for causes here.
…But I’ll still be planning my escape with the help of writers like you 🙂.
Great post! We’ve got three young kids so it certainly hasn’t been an easy transition but they are one of the reasons we wanted to move to Portugal. For our family, it’s been a humbling, challenging, amazing journey. I think our children will gain so much from this experience. Not sure they see that yet but I think and hope someday they will.
Nancy, this is noteworthy information, it’s very thorough. It certainly underlines the questions one should ask before considering leaving the USA. This last election took a toll on many of us and we anxiously await what the next 4 years will bring.
For me it is less 'why' and more 'why not?' Someone recently asked me 'why Portugal?', a question that likely is posed to any of us who have moved here. As a single man in retirement with no strong family connections pulling him back, I don't even think about what I miss because there is so much more I have yet to experience. That's not to say that it's all roses, butterflies, and cream tarts. I mean, have you walked past the dried cod in the supermarkets?! I usually end by saying that I'm content with my decision and life, but recognize that could be true of many places.
Choosing to leave the United States is a very big deal, not to be taken lightly.
This has been by far one of the biggest deals of our lives. We sometimes have to stop for a moment to acknowledge that our new life is really real.
We've only been in Porto for a few months, but so far we have zero regrets, and the only thing I miss from our life back in the states is the variety of ethnic cuisines all within a 20 minute walk from our house (we did discover an very delicious and authentic taqueria in our new neighborhood here in Porto which is a huge help).
One of the hardest parts of the move is knowing most of our friends are not able to make such a move for a variety of reasons. Our hearts go out to them as they are faced with the next administration and all that it will bring.
Excellent post as usual. It has made me start my list. I've wanted to move back to Europe for years (I lived in Germany for 4 years as a young adult). As I am now less than 3 years from retirement, and thanks to this last shit show of an election my job may not last that long (government worker who will never take an oath to the orange thing) I've decided I need to revisit my dream. I'll be in Portugal next spring to talk the Coastal Caminho. I may decide to open a bank account while I'm there. And seriously start working on the process. I doubt I will continue to be free to marry whoever I want before this next descent into madness is complete. Oh, the link for Brett and Michael just opens Carol's post again. Maybe it's just me.
Dianna...thanks for the heads up! It wasn't you, it was my mistake. It is now corrected. Thank you again. I am trying to create blog posts for December since we will be traveling nearly the entire month and complete this series. So I am a bit overwhelmed.
Great post as usual. Our why is almost the same as yours. We came from Texas where summers of over 100 degrees last 6 months and I hated it. Then 2016 came and I was horrified that a person with the character of DJT was elected. And then, his presidency was even more horrifying. Then Covid hit and the way it was handled cost so many more lives than it should have. Every day there was just another horrifying story and I was done. When Covid ended, my husband announced to me he was retiring, so I said that means we are getting out of this hell hole. I somehow had the foresight to know that despite Biden winning, we would have four more years of Trump and his antics and then 2024 would be a shit show. It was as predicted. We made one trip here to check the weather, sold everything we had, bought our tickets and were gone. We have two grown sons who said go and have fun. For so many reasons, we are so happy we made the decision to move to Lisbon. But the biggest one is the peace we feel in our daily lives compared to the way we felt in the USA. We are about to take our last trip there to see our boys for at least the next four years and unfortunately, I fear longer. But there is not one thing I miss about the USA except my children and they’ll just have to fly to us now.
Hi Nancy, I enjoyed your post - I always do. Our story, ever so briefly, is that we both retired, were living in Scotland and felt we had another move left in us. (We have moved a lot over the years, lived in France and worked all over Europe.) So we moved back down to England - originally from Liverpool so we were 'moving back' so to speak. We settled in rural Shropshire, not far from where J.R.R Tolkien used to walk. (He used our part of Shropshire as a model for 'The Shire' and we lived only a couple of miles from Baggins Farm. (Absolutely true! I could send you the photo.)
So, after six years there we got tired of eternal winter, we even thought of changing our name to Stark (Winter is coming!) So we started looking around again. Spain, France, Cyprus but eventually settled on Portugal.
But... and this is your point... we had two kids. (No grandkids at that time) Our son was living in Germany and our daughter was finishing her PhD in Bristol. When my wife asked her how she would feel about us moving, this was her reply...
'Mum. don't stay for us; and don't move to be closer to us. We don't intend to stay in the UK forever and if you moved home to be close to us we would feel like we deserted you.' So that was a huge weight removed.
The why was the weather, not the heat but the light, the blue skies and warm breezes.
The other why was Brexit. How could any country do something so stupid. We chose to be European over British and will in time become citizens of this lovely country.
The bonus is that as we started to fully commit to living here and learning the language we found the people to be so wonderfully accepting and encouraging and we are just so happy to have adopted, and been accepted by, this country.
Wow, that went on longer than intended. Desculpe.
Thanks for this Nancy. Once again your letter resonates volumes.
As two gay dads of two black boys the YouTube video took me to our greatest fear. I honestly don’t know what I would do if one of our boys was shot by a cop for any reason.
Our move wasn’t political more for an adventure. We came with the intention of moving back at some point but in light of recent turns of events who knows.
Side note Portugal was nice but we still wanted more from this adventure and we recently moved to Barcelona and are very happy here.
Looking forward to the rest of this thought provoking series.
We could not afford to retire in the U.S. The projected costs of Medicare, cost of living and rising property tax rates was alarming. The threat of death from gun violence, or just tolerating road-raging ugly people was debilitating. Another plus with Portugal, compared to North Carolina, was the chances are very slim of the weather killing us or destroying our home or reeking havoc with the infrastructure.
I love this, thank you for sharing. I've done big moves many times in the past, the two biggest being moving to Canada on my own and then moving back to Germany with my husband. Both times I sold everything and went with only two suitcases. My "why's" were pretty easy to figure out or let's say I didn't have to think about them. Moving to Canada was this indescribable urge - I moved away from family, left a job that I loved to accept a role that was far below my level of education and outside my area of expertise. I could never put into words why I wanted to move. My true why only revealed itself after, I honestly believe that I was destined to find my husband there. And now moving back to Germany, the why was giving my husband (who is Canadian) the opportunity to live abroad for the first time in his life and experiencing life in Europe.
Both great whys!
Thank you for your support and encouragement. I’ve witnessed a lot of negative feedback in the expat groups that I follow and I think there’s been a complete lack of compassion. Yes, I’m sure all of the negatives/warnings about making a move are legitimate, but I can tell you that making your way daily through work, family and friends and knowing that statistically more than half voted the way they did is exhausting, full of grief, disbelief and disappointment. It’s far from easy.
I would add to your list of things to work through: taxes. And to the pros: better health care. To the cons: emergency departments get less trauma experience because fewer gunshot wounds (just kidding).
I get the rage; I don't get moving as a solution. What is, is what always was. We came because we wanted to.
Glad you are doing this!
My teen daughter and I seriously considered Lisbon a couple of years ago. I was about to retire, on the early side, as a high school math teacher with a partial pension that was higher than Portugal’s minimum for the “retiree” visa and I have a small business as a decorator and home organizer. But the 15k Euros required in a Portuguese bank and having to have a lease signed (and to start paying for) for a flat before starting the visa application ended up being too big of a deterrent. Now I’m looking to New Zealand where my older son already lives and my daughter will be going in a few months for Uni. My kids are blessed to have triple citizenship with Ireland and New Zealand through their dad’s family (my ex) so they have lots of options. I can apply for a NZ parent visa in a few years, if my adult children make lots of money and I make it through their tiny parental visa lottery 🤞.
I still have thoughts of prepping for a future Portuguese visa, though. I love Europe, especially Portugal! But it would be even further from NZ. For now, I will relish the fact that I live in Colorado and am self-employed, past the age of child-bearing and have the time to fight for causes here.
…But I’ll still be planning my escape with the help of writers like you 🙂.
Great post! We’ve got three young kids so it certainly hasn’t been an easy transition but they are one of the reasons we wanted to move to Portugal. For our family, it’s been a humbling, challenging, amazing journey. I think our children will gain so much from this experience. Not sure they see that yet but I think and hope someday they will.
Nancy, this is noteworthy information, it’s very thorough. It certainly underlines the questions one should ask before considering leaving the USA. This last election took a toll on many of us and we anxiously await what the next 4 years will bring.
For me it is less 'why' and more 'why not?' Someone recently asked me 'why Portugal?', a question that likely is posed to any of us who have moved here. As a single man in retirement with no strong family connections pulling him back, I don't even think about what I miss because there is so much more I have yet to experience. That's not to say that it's all roses, butterflies, and cream tarts. I mean, have you walked past the dried cod in the supermarkets?! I usually end by saying that I'm content with my decision and life, but recognize that could be true of many places.
Thanks for the mention Nancy 😊
Choosing to leave the United States is a very big deal, not to be taken lightly.
This has been by far one of the biggest deals of our lives. We sometimes have to stop for a moment to acknowledge that our new life is really real.
We've only been in Porto for a few months, but so far we have zero regrets, and the only thing I miss from our life back in the states is the variety of ethnic cuisines all within a 20 minute walk from our house (we did discover an very delicious and authentic taqueria in our new neighborhood here in Porto which is a huge help).
One of the hardest parts of the move is knowing most of our friends are not able to make such a move for a variety of reasons. Our hearts go out to them as they are faced with the next administration and all that it will bring.
My pleasure...
Excellent post as usual. It has made me start my list. I've wanted to move back to Europe for years (I lived in Germany for 4 years as a young adult). As I am now less than 3 years from retirement, and thanks to this last shit show of an election my job may not last that long (government worker who will never take an oath to the orange thing) I've decided I need to revisit my dream. I'll be in Portugal next spring to talk the Coastal Caminho. I may decide to open a bank account while I'm there. And seriously start working on the process. I doubt I will continue to be free to marry whoever I want before this next descent into madness is complete. Oh, the link for Brett and Michael just opens Carol's post again. Maybe it's just me.
Dianna...thanks for the heads up! It wasn't you, it was my mistake. It is now corrected. Thank you again. I am trying to create blog posts for December since we will be traveling nearly the entire month and complete this series. So I am a bit overwhelmed.
Hello! I am also an American living in Portugal!