Moving to Portugal- do we do this?

[marthabarga]

DH and I moved back from Italy 5 years ago and I hate the uk weather, ridiculous cost of school holidays etc etc. . I'm miserable. The move back was due to bereavement but we have bought a house and have a child now so I feel stuck.
On the small chance we could both find teaching jobs in the same school, we would lose money on our house, risk his teachers pensions and I've been out of teaching since DS was born 4 years ago.
The insane cost of living, made worse by the shit weather just wears me down.
We both moved child free and with no commitments before so it seems a huge risk now. Plus I'm not sure if we'd have enough years for the state pension should we ever move back.
We have just been twice this summer and love Portugal, DH speaks Portuguese. I need blue skies and the med life style but it seems so tricky. Anyone have any advice or has done this?

I spent several teen years in Portugal (near Silves in the Algarve). My sister and her husband moved a few years prior and are still there 30 odd years later. There is a big expat community, I have a load of friends who've moved over there - lots all around the Algarve but also loads around the Alentejo area, especially the mountains, Coimbra, Porto... do you have an idea of where you would be thinking of moving? Or what kind of place - coast, mountains, big city, rural, small picturesque town?

In practical terms, does your DH have a Portuguese passport or would you have the right to live there/apply for residency? I'm not sure how it works post BREXIT! Would your DS be going to a local school or would you be looking at somewhere with links to an international (English speaking) school? From memory Portuguese schools are very play focused until age 6 or 7 so DS would have plenty of time to catch up before needing to actually do schoolwork (this may differ between schools but was definitely the case for my nephew).

If you have any specific questions I'll try to help!

Thank you.
We are both teachers so the school sorts the visas (once we have found jobs), we'd be at working at an international school as we were before your child gets a heavily discounted place so that side of it doesn't worry us.
Ideally algarve, coastal would be best.
We worked for the inspired group before and they have a number of schools in Portugal. We loved rurally in Italy with little ex pat community which in someways was nice but also a little tricky too.

We have just been to porto (again!) and loved it there but were told rental/house prices are extortionate

We did it, after Brexit, best thing we ever did. Feel free to PM me.

Ok thanks, to work? Do you still pay into uk pension as the retirement side of things concerns me? I'd go back into teaching but have recently been working in wealth management so money is a big focus for me.

I'm freelance, with clients in Portugal and the UK. My partner works for the Portuguese arm of a UK company. We don't make NI contributions any more, but we both pay into private UK pensions, as private pensions aren't really a thing here. We'll be eligible for the Portuguese state pension though, and have no plans to return to the UK. We're fully resident here, pay our taxes and social security etc here.

I would do it in your situation; life is too short to be miserable and I can tell you your feelings won’t go away. Do it now your child is young if you can both find jobs there.

Like you the English weather affects me; however we have good jobs in the UK and our kids are teens so we are not going anywhere until they finish school.

How many years of contributions to State Pension do you have? A family member of mine is in France and they can contribute to UK SP. It is a particular class of NI contribution.

Go whilst DC is little, the older they get, the more difficult it will be. You can always rent your house out in the interim if you are unsure.

I came back from Portugal on Tuesday. 28 degrees out there. Now in a fleece inside and heating on and electric blanket set. I'd love to go back.

If you can feasibly do it then I would

I would do it in a heartbeat

Even if one of you could get a job at the school, you would be aware of new posts and have established connections so nest chance to both work there.

Go for it, life's too short and what has been paid into TPs is still there, plus it would many more years to increase it. Xx

My nephew lives in Lisbon after quite a few years in the Middle East. There are a lot of ex pats there which has made it an easy move for him. When he arrived there was an advantageous tax regime but that has now been changed because of the influx and house prices have exploded. Plumbing can be a bit iffy in older properties.

I just couldn't take the weather - lovely in winter but 40 in the summer is way too hot for me.