My first trip to the dentist in Portugal was a pleasant surprise. I grew up with a dentist who I believe received his training from the Army in World War II and he made his living finding and filling cavities. Back then, I think they used mercury fillings. To this day I wonder how many…
Working as an expat in Portugal is one of the many moving pieces of moving abroad. For the most part, Portugal wants to see that you have brought your source of income with you. High-paying jobs are not common here. Minimum wage is around $750 a month but you can’t really live on that unless…
Quick Note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. That means if you click a link and buy something, I get a small commission at no expense to you. Thanks very much!! Moving anywhere requires planning and money. Moving abroad brings a whole new set of expenses. How Much Money Will You…
Moving abroad has a ton of moving parts and in some cases, the requirements you have to meet before qualifying to move (i.e., getting a visa) involve some financial risk. As much as you try to time events out to be as frictionless as possible, there will be duplicate expenses, hold ups, red tape, wasted…
When considering your new place to live, give solid thought to what you absolutely require as opposed to what could be classified as “nice to have.” When I decided I was FINALLY going to pull the lever and go after my goal of living outside the US, I knew it would not be a smooth…
That thing you’ve always wanted to do? I highly recommend doing it. When I decided to become a retired American expat in Portugal, I never expected to be as content as I am. Living in Europe was something I had wanted to do since I was a kid—not just visiting as a tourist, but actually…
Or What Not To Do on Your Summer Vacation Spending a night at Gatwick Airport was not on my bucket list, but I’m going to add it because now that I have done it, I hope to never do it again. The travel website Airhelp publishes a yearly ranking of airports and eight of the…
Yet another article has come out saying that Americans are flocking to Portugal in droves and the expat groups are all in a dither. That’s because the vast majority of people in the Facebook expat groups have not yet moved to Portugal—they are in the planning stages or perhaps just in the dreaming stage. That’s…
I held certain visions in my head about how life would be when I moved to Europe and one of them was that I could fly places for a few days for no other reason than to go to an event or explore. COVID lockdowns prevented that for my first year here and I found…
Today was not one of them. Some Days Are Better Than Others Saturday I was lucky enough to spend the day with a friend and two puppies that she is fostering. She picked me up at the train station, we went to a shopping center (puppies needed toys and treats), had lunch at Vilamoura Marina…