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Nancy Whiteman's avatar

Great post! There are much cheaper places to retire than Portugal and too many Americans have come with unrealistic expectations. And you are so right...while the cost of living may be at parity with the States...the feeling of peace, and the joy of new experiences nearly every day are priceless.

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Bart Nijman's avatar

Dear Carol,

Such a relatable story - even though my wife and I moved from the Netherlands (= EU) to stay in the EU in Portugal, so there are differences, the most obvious one being the absence of visa requirements. That said, though, getting there, acquiring a house and getting settled was costly nonetheless.

First off, I don’t want to complain: life in Portugal is less expensive than in the Netherlands. Also, the amount of rain versus the amount of sun both fall in favor of our new country and it’s not even a contest. Secondly, we’re not pensioners: we’re just over and just under 40, with a lot of working years ahead. So there’s a difference, too.

That being said, the cost of moving our furniture was less than buying everything new, but still: almost 10K. We brought two cars here, not a cheap drive with European gas- and toll prices. Thankfully, no import taxes but there are stamp duties to be paid, and we pay about 800 euros each for help with the incredibly complicated process of acquiring Portuguese plates on Dutch cars.

Getting NIFs, social security and healthcare as well as applying for the NHR scheme also took a big bite of the budget. You /could/ try to do it yourself, but there’s just so much paperwork that for us (as fulltime workers who don’t have that much spare time to figure it all out), paying people to help was paramount to get the process completed in a timely fashion.

Housing: friends who have been living here (both full- and part-time) for a decade or longer, tell us the housing market went up hugely since the 2008 crisis. We were lucky enough that we could sell a house in the Amsterdam area, where prices compete with the highest markets in Europe, so we had some wiggle room, but still: there seem to be not many cheap stacks of stone left in Western or Southern coastal regions. Also, the purchase process comes with a wholly different set of rules and regulations compared to the Netherlands, and much higher taxes as well. The sticker price in the realtor’s window is far from the full amount. Also: use a lawyer. Another out of pocket price tag, but you could really regret skipping this spend.

One of our “Dutch” cars is a classic, not meant for daily driving, so I too went looking for a used car. I’m used to high priced (second hand) vehicles in the NL, where car taxes are bordering on the absurd, but here, the car market is crazy. One advantage of buying used: no IVA (or VAT). And road tax is rather cheap too, at least compared to the Netherland. I bought an older diesel that would cost me over 200 euros per month in the NL while here, it’s only 170 for a full year. Gas is somewhat cheaper compared to the NL, too, although in the US it’s /a lot/ less.

When it comes to out of pocket costs, please be advised to have a good amount set aside, ‘cause you’ll need it. Those many stamps don’t move to any papers without the proper payment of all kinds of dues. But all in all, we landed good & well and we’re really happy we made the jump a year ago. Great house, still more square meters for the money than back in Amsterdam, especially in outside space, and the Portuguese people are patient, helpful and very kind. And now that the big costs and one-offs of moving are behind us, we can enjoy free sunshine almost every day, with cheap beers during more than affordable lunches and dinners.

Anyway, thanks for an article that made me go “Yes, this, yes, and that as well and yes, yes, and yes to that, too” in recognition :)

Best wishes from Moncarapacho, Algarve!

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