Notes on moving abroad, honestly.
What a move from the US actually takes: the money, the visa, the real steps, kept current. No hype, just the truth from people who plan these moves.
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The Afternoon Shift
Porto runs six hours ahead of Austin. Our clients will keep their day, so we shift ours: mornings become ours, and the client work starts after lunch.
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A plane ride either way
Other parents had opinions about us moving while our daughter is in college. Our answer: it is a plane ride either way. And a week we did not think about the move at all.
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The week we barely thought about Porto
A year out, life comes first. An acceptance letter in the back of a Lyft, a walk by the Willamette, and the overlap lease that lets us just GO.
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What the app could not filter for
The app told us what to think about. People who already live in Porto gave us the answers: neighborhoods, a scout trip we cut, a very large cat, and the suitcase move.
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Move the slider to zero
A week with no progress on the plan, a fix to the app, and what happened when we stopped assuming a smaller, cheaper place in Porto could not work.
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The move costs we did not know to budget for
We set our required-cash target this week. Deposits in Portugal run higher than we are used to, a US credit score counts for close to nothing there, and four cats need four humans in the cabin. Here is what was actually in the estimate and what was not.
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A week with nothing checked off
We got nothing done on the move this week. Not one box checked. Three of fifteen in Foundation, the NIF still one step from done, and why that is exactly what the runway is for.
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The best countries to retire abroad, and the two that will not have you
Every list of the best countries to retire abroad is written to be agreed with. Here is the version that tells you which ones will actually let you stay, including the two Americans most want and cannot easily have.
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We picked Porto without ever standing in it
Lisbon was an accident. Then the research disagreed, and it disagreed about the city, not the country. How we chose a place we have never set foot in, and what last week actually looked like.
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What it really costs to move abroad from the US
Rent and flights are the easy part. The visa route, both tax systems at once, and the currency you have not converted yet are what decide the first-year number.
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How to plan a move abroad from the US: the whole move, in one place
A move abroad is not a cost calculation. It is finding where you can actually go, the city and the place to live, the documents, the path, and the money, kept current and in one place.
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I'm moving from Austin to Portugal, so I built the tool I needed
The advice on moving abroad is scattered, out of date, and vague about the thing that matters most: the real, all-in cost. So I started building the place I wished existed.
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