Concerned about retirement?
About your current and future cost of living?
So was this couple before they moved to Portugal in 2020…
After years of living just outside Sacramento, California, they found themselves facing a familiar problem: rising costs, long commutes, and the growing realization that retirement might not be financially comfortable—at least not in the United States.
Even with decades of careful planning, they realized about a year in advance of retirement that maintaining their lifestyle on retirement income alone was going to be impossible.
So they revisited a dream that had been quietly waiting in the background for decades: moving to Portugal.
Today, six years after relocating to northern Portugal, Jeff and Joch say their monthly expenses are about 50% lower than they were in California. And the savings show up in nearly every part of their budget.
But what surprised them most wasn’t just the lower prices—it was the lifestyle that came with them.
Instead of worrying about stretching retirement income or dipping into their savings, Jeff and Joch now spend more time traveling around Portugal, enjoying spontaneous weekend getaways, and eating out more often than they did before.
In this interview, they walk through their actual monthly expenses, explain where the biggest savings come from, and share what life is really like after trading California’s cost of living for Portugal’s slower pace and lower prices.
If you’ve ever wondered whether moving abroad could dramatically lower your expenses, their story offers a fascinating—and very real—look at what’s possible.
Their story is about more than numbers and budgets, though, it’s about the freedom to live fully, to savor every day, and to embrace the possibilities that come when you step outside your comfort zone.
And if you’re curious to experience this wonderful country in person, Jeff, Joch, and I will gather in Lisbon in just a couple of weeks for our in-person conference, where I’ll be your MC and guide through the heart of this incredible country…
Got a question? Want to see us cover a particular topic? Write to me here.
Happy trails,
Kat Kalashian,
Editor LIOS Confidential
Video Transcript
Where are you from originally?
Kat: Hello and welcome to the Living Investor Overseas YouTube channel. I’m Kat Kalashian for Live and Invest Overseas, and today I’m joined by my two good friends in Portugal, Jeff and Joch, who have been living in northern Portugal since 2020. Is that right?
Jeff and Joch: Yeah, six years. Yeah.
Kat: Wow, happy anniversary! We’ve been in northern Portugal for six years. Well done. So, today we’re going to focus on their cost of living because they have made this incredible claim that living in Portugal has cut their monthly expenses by 50%. So, let’s dive into it and start at the beginning, basically.
Kat: So, you were living in California, right? And where exactly was that?
Jeff or Joch: Just outside of Sacramento, in a community called Elk Grove. And I was commuting, even though I was commuting only like 37 miles to my job each way, because of traffic it would take about an hour each way just to get to work.
Kat: Ugh, what a way to spend your day.
What did your monthly cost of living look like there?
Kat: And what did your monthly cost of living look like while you were living there?
Jeff or Joch: Well, it was the gasoline, the mortgage, the food, the insurance, the car payments, the car insurance, the health insurance. I mean, everything just kept adding up. We were living the grand life. But I was turning 70 in 2019 and really wanted to retire and was scratching my head trying to figure out how could we maintain this without me still working.
Kat: So, I love that you said you were living, what did you say, you were living the grand life? I was going to say you were living the grind life.
Jeff or Joch: Well, that too. I was living the grind life.
Kat: He was living the grind life. He wanted to live the grand life. Yes. So, you basically started to realize that the cost of living was becoming unsustainable, especially with retirement up ahead, and at the very least, a frustrating thing to factor in every month.
Did you move to Portugal specifically to save money?
Kat: And so, was that part of your decision-making process when you were thinking about moving to Portugal?
Jeff or Joch: Yeah. Because after Joch retired, of course, our income went down quite a bit. And we were just going off of his Social Security.
Jeff or Joch: Yeah. So, we were getting by with my job, but that’s it. We weren’t enjoying the lifestyle that we were having before, when both of us were working, and we really didn’t want to touch the nest egg. We really wanted to just be living off of the retirement benefit income, not the principal.
Jeff or Joch: Of course. But the dream actually started in 1979. I mean, I visited Portugal for work, fell in love with the country and the people, and talked about it for the next 40 years, that I’m going to return to Portugal, subliminally every day, planting that seed and watering it.
Kat: Well, at least every Thanksgiving.
Jeff or Joch: Yes.
Kat: So, as you’re saying, it was partially lifestyle-motivated, but also you realized that in this new lifestyle you were looking at in Portugal…
Did you know beforehand that you would be saving a significant amount of money?
Kat: Did you know beforehand that you would be saving a significant amount of money, or was that a bonus?
Jeff or Joch: You know, we figured it out as we were researching. And once we did start doing the research, that’s when we realized, gee, the dream for 40 years can actually satisfy all of the concerns of downsizing so much, because in order to stay in California, we would have had to downsize so much. And Jeff would have to keep working for another 20 years and would not be able to stop when I stopped.
Jeff or Joch: Yeah. And so that’s what really, all of a sudden, everything clicked into place once we really looked into Portugal seriously. The bonuses came afterwards when we arrived, and they were surprise bonuses, like the cost of groceries, the cost of health care, stuff like that. That was a huge surprise for us.
Jeff or Joch: Yeah. And that’s when Jeff, like once or twice every three months, would say, you know, it’s really working.
Kat: It’s helpful to reconfirm with yourself.
Jeff or Joch: Yeah. Because in both of our minds we kept worrying that it would be too good to be true.
Kat: Is this all just crazy? And I think so many people have that thought before and after they try and make this move. All right, so you mentioned you first arrived in Portugal and you had these big financial surprises. You mentioned groceries and health care.
What was the biggest financial surprise when you first arrived in Portugal?
Kat: So, are those the top two things that you found as something kind of shocking at how low the costs could be?
Jeff or Joch: The health care came later, like in 2022. But what really surprised us, yeah, was the cost of pharmaceuticals and groceries.
Kat: Oh my God.
Jeff or Joch: Recently we had a visit with some friends, actually, Galen and Nora.
Kat: Yeah, I knew them at the conference.
Jeff or Joch: And they told us when they recently visited the States, it was, I mean, you couldn’t even afford a bag of groceries for $50. And here for €50, €60, I can get a few bags of groceries.
Jeff or Joch: Five or six.
Kat: Yeah, and it’s all right. And so, are you shopping at the markets, you know, the actual live markets, or are you supermarket shopping?
Jeff or Joch: Supermarket shopping.
Jeff or Joch: Yeah. That’s right.
Kat: Well, see, that’s a huge testimonial. That’s where we do the comparison. But similarly, when you start going to the markets for the fresh produce and everything, but at the supermarkets they’ve got all the fresh as well.
Jeff or Joch: But the farm-fresh produce at the markets is even less expensive.
Jeff or Joch: Yeah. As long as you’re able to get there at the right time on the right day.
Kat: Exactly. Exactly. I feel that pain. With kids now, I don’t have time to do the markets anymore. But still, I find like supermarket living can be so much more affordable here in Europe if you’re spending wisely, if you know the right neighborhood to go to, the right shop to go to. Of course you can pay. You can overpay easily, just like you can anywhere. But, once you start living in a place, you discover where you want to return to and where you only went once.
Jeff or Joch: Yeah. Like Continente and…
Kat: Exactly.
Jeff or Joch: Favorite. Coffee also is at the Mercadona, you know. It’s just something like that.
Kat: Yeah. No, I have the same thing. Like, I know this is where I bought my dog food. This is where the cat litter was the cheapest. You know?
Jeff or Joch: Yeah. Yeah.
Kat: All right, so housing is usually the biggest expense in anybody’s line items.
What were you paying for housing in California versus now?
Kat: What were you paying in housing in California versus what you pay now, if you don’t mind sharing?
Jeff or Joch: Our mortgage in California versus our mortgage, and we have just a very small mortgage and we only have a couple more years to go, whereas in California we still had 20 years to go, is half of what it was.
Kat: Wow. Great. That’s huge. Well, another big point to make there is that you were able to get financing. As two foreign residents, I know you’re no longer foreign residents, but at the time, I presume you still were, and you were able to get a mortgage as a foreigner. And it was on nice terms for a much shorter term. And so that in itself is a nice takeaway.
Jeff or Joch: And it also really helped establish us even stronger with the banking system over here, as opposed to just coming in, dumping everything out of savings and plowing it into the house.
Kat: Right.
Jeff or Joch: So, as opposed to a 20-year mortgage still going on in the United States, we had a nine-year mortgage here at a much more competitive rate.
Jeff or Joch: Yeah. And we’re just a couple of years away from the end of that.
Kat: Wow. That’s crazy. Yeah, the difference is crazy.
Kat: All right, so one of the things that really gets to many people living in Europe, maybe not where you are but at least for me, up here in northern Europe, in Paris, we use our heating quite a bit. We don’t have AC, but we do use our heating quite a bit. And the utilities can get pretty onerous during those high periods of time when we’re using the heating every day.
Kat: So, let’s specify. You guys are in northern Portugal, which is a much cooler climate than in the Algarve, which is where many, many expats go, where you’d probably be using air conditioning every day.
Kat: So, what does your utility usage look like in terms of, do you have AC? Do you need AC or heating?
What does your utility usage look like?
Jeff or Joch: We do not have AC. We don’t need it. We don’t need it because we are close to the coast. We do have a ceiling fan over the bed because I like that breeze on the warm summer nights.
Jeff or Joch: But the heating is very adequate here. We use radiant heat, and our high month for gas would be about €100.
Kat: Oh wow, that’s good.
Jeff or Joch: And our low months for gas would be about €30, because we do use gas for hot water as well as for the radiant heat and the heat in the wintertime. But again, northern Portugal really is only about 10 to 20 degrees cooler in the winter and in the summer than it is south of us. We’re right on the coast, three blocks away from the ocean. So, we really do take full advantage of the cooling factor of the ocean in the summertime. So, our summers are very, very comfortable.
Jeff or Joch: And what’s nice is this is one of the first days this spring that we’ve been able to have our windows venting and enjoy the sunshine. It’s been a pretty rainy winter this past winter, so…
Kat: It has, all over Europe. And I have heard this from Portugal and Spain to the UK to where I am in France. Everywhere on the continent has gotten so much more rain this year. And, I’m with you. We just got spring in Paris a couple weeks ago, and I’m hoping it’s not an early spring that turns back into winter and then goes into summer because, right now, it’s quite nice to have some sunshine and some heat.
Kat: So, how many months would you say you use your heating? Two, three, four?
Jeff or Joch: I would say December, January, February, and even three or four months a year. But we’ve got it set so that it will only kick on in the morning to warm the place up and in the evening again to warm the place up if it’s gotten too cold in the evening. Just like in the States, if you use common sense and keep your thermostat at a reasonable temperature.
Jeff or Joch: It doesn’t, like Joch said, our thermostat is set at a reasonable temperature. And like he said, the place gets warmed up in the morning. And sometimes if it gets really cold, deeply cold, in those long winter nights, like in December at night. But it is unusual. And what’s nice is our place is well insulated, so that once the place gets warmed up, it’s like that for a while.
Jeff or Joch: Yeah. And the same thing when it cools down in the summertime. I mean, you open up the windows in the evening and get all the cool air into the apartment, and then in the daytime, you know, if it’s going to be a really hot day, you know, we can have a couple of days where it’s over 80 degrees. But right now, I mean, right now it’s about 70 degrees, right? It’s a beautiful day, in the Fahrenheit game anyhow, so we really have figured out how to do it. Our electric bills also are maybe about €30, €40 a month.
Jeff or Joch: And they’re pretty consistent year-round.
Kat: Oh. That’s great. Yeah. Good for you guys. But yeah, that is something to note about European homes. The majority of them are a good bit older than homes in America, and they are built much, much thicker out of stone. And stone is a great insulator. And even if it is just concrete, my building was built in the 70s. But it’s got, you know, three-foot-thick concrete walls on the outside. And when the temperature changes outside, it takes a few days for it to change inside, you know.
Jeff or Joch: Same thing here. Ours is new construction, but every wall, not only the outside walls, but all of the walls between rooms in the apartment are made from ceramic block that’s filled with concrete. So, it’s solid concrete walls. I mean, if a hurricane comes through, and we did have hurricane-force winds earlier this winter, nothing’s moving.
Jeff or Joch: Yeah, our place is safe.
Kat: Yeah. Good to hear.
Kat: So, let’s do a little comparison, because you basically mentioned that pretty much every factor of your budget has decreased since living there.
Where have you noticed the biggest savings?
Kat: Where have you noticed the biggest savings? Is it housing, health care, groceries? You know, where are you noticing that giant big chunk that’s coming out?
Jeff or Joch: I think the two big chunks are housing and health care insurance. We were paying through the nose for health care insurance, even through my employer. My share of cost. Yeah.
Jeff or Joch: And, I mean, it was pretty obscene, a significant amount of money coming out of our budget for that. And we do not pay that as much here. We pay like half for him. More than half.
Jeff or Joch: More than half for him. Yeah. We pay a quarter for me of what we were paying in the States.
Kat: Yeah. Wow.
Jeff or Joch: And the same thing with taxes on real estate. Real estate taxes are negligible. Even when we purchased. But after purchase, the annual real estate taxes are negligible. And so, we’re saving a lot of money there too.
Kat: That’s great. Excellent. Okay.
Are there any big changes in your lives?
Kat: So, do you notice any big changes in your lives, little luxuries, little splurges? Where is it that you’re able to enjoy this extra budget that you’ve got every month? Are you, you know, eating out more, maybe traveling more? Where is that stuff? How are you enjoying that extra payout?
Jeff or Joch: We’re doing both.
Jeff or Joch: Yeah, eating out more and traveling more. I mean, we just took a little three-day escape to Bragança, which is on the Spanish border in northern Portugal. We went to the Podence festival, Entrudo, and it was really a spur of the moment. Booked a hotel for a couple of nights and rented a car and popped up and had a wonderful time exploring.
Kat: I saw your photos from that. Thank you for this, because it looked like a fun experience.
Jeff or Joch: Yeah, we wanted to see a traditional Celtic carnival, and it was really cool.
Kat: Very cool, very cool. Even if it was drizzly and rainy.
Jeff or Joch: Yeah.
Kat: I mean, like we said, you’ve got to put up with that in the winter, even if you’re in Portugal or Spain, sometimes there’s a rainy winter.
Are there any things that cost more in Portugal than in the U.S.?
Kat: So, is there anything in Portugal that costs more, that you weren’t expecting, or something that you are finding costs more in Portugal? And how are you mitigating that?
Jeff or Joch: Yes. I would say electronics are a good 25% more.
Jeff or Joch: Yeah. Getting an iPad here. I’m very tempted, when it’s time for me to replace my MacBook, to go back to the States.
Kat: Or Canada, maybe.
Jeff or Joch: Canada. Electronics are pretty expensive here. So are cars, especially if they’re an import like a Japanese or American car. And then of course, gas can be expensive, especially now under the current situation. And maintenance of cars can be a little bit on the pricey side too. But the nice thing is, we’ve been able to find really good mechanics here that don’t try to take advantage of us and try to upsell.
Jeff or Joch: They, you know, our mechanic pretty much tells us, no, you don’t need that. But you do need this. And I ask, well, how much is it going to cost? I’m not sure. And then usually he comes back and it’s a little bit less than what I thought it was going to be because I’m thinking like United States, right?
Kat: Right.
Jeff or Joch: And truth of the matter is, with the amount of automobile insurance that we were paying, because Sacramento has the highest car insurance in the States. It’s in the States’ second-worst drivers in the U.S. Pretty close. So, at least that’s how it was explained to us by our insurance person six years ago.
Kat: Well, that’s very good to know. So, if you can avoid owning a car, that will be one of the major expenses gone. And I completely agree. When it comes to electronics, every time we take a big trip back to the U.S., we do a household census on all our electronics. What’s in good working order? How many years old is it? How much do we think it would cost to get a new refurbished one? How much could we get back if we traded it in when we go there? It almost never makes sense to buy a new electronic in Europe. In my experience, I’ve just never seen it be a profitable experience.
Jeff or Joch: I think that’s a great suggestion. We’ve not been back to the States in six years, so it’s probably time that we got a little electronics wish list. I’m thinking that six years is enough time for, you know, planned obsolescence. I think you’ve got an in.
Jeff or Joch: Well, everybody keeps coming to us. So, why go back?
Kat: Yes. There you go, we’re going to wrap it up there for today. And thank you guys so much for sharing everything about how you have cut your monthly expenses by half living in Portugal. Thanks for joining me today.
