Moving to portugal

[ChildFreeAndOhSoHappy]

Short backstory, we have been in the UK for almost 10 years. I am American and I wanted to move here after some time country hopping abroad together. My husband is british and never wanted to move back to the UK but he did it for me.

Anyway, we were in the process of buying a house here and just had so many issues come up, everything that could go wrong did, and 2.5 years after putting the offer in we have only just now gotten close to exchange. Only, now we are both wondering why are we even trying so hard to be here? We have no real ties to the country (other than his family) but certainly no real love for the uk. So we have decided to move to Portugal. I'm lucky enough to be in a highly paid remote job that will allow me to get NHR 2.0 in portugal. Has anybody else done this and moved their family to portugal? Do you love it? My husband is highly qualified but works in an industry which is less likely to hire full time employees on a remote basis, though contacting is getting more and more popular and this is what he would do. So while we would be moving there initially on my salary alone, I have no doubt he could find work, it just may take time. On the other side of it, the job he would be leaving in the uk is not unsubstantial, he makes well over 100k, although after taxes here its meh. Anyway, can we make this work with one job? The cost of living is lower, the quality of life is higher, the taxes are much lower and my salary is still in the top 1% for portugal. Plus we have a very big chunk of money which we were going to sink into a million pound house in the UK which we won't be now so we have savings. It all feels super doable to me but curious if anybody has done the same and what their experiences were.

I did it, it was a great decision. summer can be hot but the winters are much better than in the UK.

I get that the house purchase has been difficult but I wouldn't make a big decision at an emotionally difficult time.

Consider getting some independent financial advice before basing your decision on your own calculations. I think your maths is wrong re your partner's taxes, or you're confusing tax with personal pension contributions. £100k after tax is £68,561. That means he pays £31,439 in tax & NI, i.e. 31.43% - not 50%.

Gross income £100,000.00
Personal Allowance £12,570.00
Taxable Income £87,430.00
Income Tax at 20% £7,540.00
Income Tax at 40% £19,888.40
National Insurance £4,010.60
Take-home pay £68,561.00

Don't stay anywhere you're not happy, but I don't think you should stay in Europe if you hate paying taxes, they generally have progressive tax systems - and subsequently good public services, e.g. Nordic countries and the Netherlands.

Awesome, thank you so much. I will send you a pm.

Thanks for this, his income however isn't 100, its 140 and his taxes are very high, much less than the 20% he would qualify for in portugal. It def doesn't feel like paying such high taxes is it worth it in the UK and we are both quite resentful of it tbh. Yes, all of Europe has high taxes but portugal has a 10 year tax incentive that makes them much less than most of Europe. Also, I genuinely see no pro to living in the UK. We decided to purchase the house bc we thought we were stuck here, not bc we wanted to stay here. We really should have looked at our options sooner and only recently realised that portugal was a viable option.

£140k makes it 38.58%. Still not 50%. And it never will be, because that's not how the UK tax system works (currently).

Would you move away again after 10 year once the tax incentive runs out? If you're happy with never settling anywhere and always moving around to get the best deal that's up to you, it just seems such a faff.

Scotland has all of the same issues as England. Crap weather, high taxes, low salaries and housing options that we aren't fond of. Scotland offers none of the benefits we would move to portugal for and my husband couldn't keep his job there either, he has to be able to commute to London 3 days a week to keep it.

Employment isn't really a worry though. My job is secure and my husband would be looking at global contracts.

We are looking for somewhere to settle for good, not just move around, and the idea of settling for good in the UK sounds dreadful. As mentioned, we have a chunk of money for the house that we were going to buy in the UK that we can now spend in portugal. On top of that we have a load of crypto assets that we could easily retire on that we will pay no tax on in portugal vs 24% in the uk. In addition to that there is also no inheritance tax in portugal. So, after those 10 years of savings from much lower taxes with the addition of our assets that we also won't pay taxes on, we wont have to move and will already be living in one of the countries we hoped to retire in. This would be a much less likely scenario in the uk where we would likely just spend our lives working to live. Hard pass.

Maybe a faff for you, but moving somewhere new and having a new adventure in a nicer country with a much better quality of life and lower cost of living doesn't sound like a faff to me. I get some people think the UK is great though and that's cool for you, I personally am done with it and not hopeful of the future in this country.

Unless you or your partner speak the language you will find it hard to deal with life admin and integrate/make friends.

Your partner will be unemployed and as people have mentioned the heat could be a factor if your body is not used to living in warmer climates.

Have you thought of what would happen if you lost your remote job?

I am not saying don't do it but you need to do your research before you make the move to see whether this is a good long term option.

I’m biased because I’m from Portugal, I find quality of life much better there than here but it depends a lot on what you’re looking for and where you’re moving. If you move to costal places up north, say Porto (where I’m from), you don’t have the extreme heat you find down south. I feel there’s an increase hostility against foreigners with high salaries that pay much less taxes than locals though (Americans specifically getting a lot of hate)

Is it easy to get to lisbon from Porto? Also, we are both youngish, child free and vegan so we would be looking to be close to a city which offers a good nightlife and has good high end restaurants that cater to vegans. Can you get this outside of Lisbon? I realise a non vegan might find this hard to answer and I could do some research online which I will, but always good to get a local's perspective.

Also, curious what you find better in the UK than Portugal?

Pros and cons here:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/27/lisbon-portugal-digital-
nomads-foreign-remote-workers-integration

There's a good train service between Porto & Lisbon - takes about 3 hours.

Well it is not true he loses 50%
Take home on 100k is about 68k. In UK
So he wants to give up >5k net a month .

But if you happy then go for it
What is the worst that can happen?
He does not get a job ?

Portugal is already much hotter than UK and consistently from june to September.

But if you like 30 degrees summers and can enjoy the beach etc and Portugal lifestyle why not? Just keep some savings in hand.

That's interesting. What do you think has changed most? I lived there for 16 years and loved it but we moved back to the UK 10 years ago because DD has SN and there was no provision for her.

I have friends who still live there and have no plans to move back but they have had various issues, particularly with the Portuguese education system.

I still love it and go back sometimes but I wouldn't move back permanently.

Employment

Where we are has been overdeveloped with million euro villas, pushing lower earners out of the housing game and destroying the character of the area

It’s not what we came here for

Extremely easy, you can fly, get a train or bus. You have what you’re looking for in both cities but Lisbon, being bigger and the capital, has more offer but is also much busier.

We moved to Cascais, Portugal two years ago and we absolutely love it. The quality of life and cost of living is so much better than the UK. We have made lots of expat friends easily and you don’t need to speak to the language. It’s hot here in the summer but we have a lovely cooling breeze in Cascais and it’s not normally more than 24 degrees ish. I’m extremely pale and I manage. The autumn and spring is lovely, the winter a little cold (but not like the uk). Good luck!

Awesome, sounds great and I can't wait! We are also looking at cascais but open to diff areas. Big expat community def a plus though!

Do you not plan to learn the language and integrate? @flipflop256

Nice, thanks. We are def open to exploring all options. I'm certainly sure we can get something better than what we were looking at here house wise, for a much lower price.