Living Better for Less in Portugal

Discover where to live, invest, and retire in 2026’s #1 economy.

Next month, I turn 60. For anyone shopping for presents, I think I’d look tres chic wrapped in a little black Porsche.

Alas, I bring you today’s dispatch not to ask for a Porsche, but to share a few stats that, because of my pending birthday, have had me recently contemplating the affordability of my life as retirement draws much, much too close.

Those stats I’ve recently seen:

• 58% of Seniors Fear Running Out of Money—Retirement Living Journal, Nov. 2025
• 41% of US adults over the age of 50 already know they won’t be able to support the retirement lifestyle they envisioned—investment banking firm D.A. Davidson & Co., Apr. 2025.
• 5% of American retirees say they’re “living the dream;” 19% say they’re “living the nightmare.” The rest fall somewhere between uncertain, unprepared, or uncomfortably surprised by the realities of life after hanging up the lunch pale—asset-management firm Schroders, Aug. 2025.

Such stats—and there are many more like it—lead me to the data point most important to today’s dispatch:

• 34% of Americans say they’re open to moving to another country for a lower cost of living—Western & Southern Financial Group, Apr. 2025.

In other news, smooth segue incoming, The Economist placed Portugal atop the league table as the single best economy in 2025. That’s among the nearly 40 countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, which includes all the big Western economies and some up-and-coming economies such as Colombia, Chile, Turkey, and some others. (The US, for those keeping score, pulled in at #17.)

There is a reason for that, which I can tell you from personal experience as a Portuguese resident for more than two years now.

I’ve driven through every major region of Portugal, and most of the minor regions, save for the far northeast corner (which is not major by any stretch)… That these local economies are thriving is plainly obvious.

Construction cranes pop up everywhere like rusty, yellow and brown flamingos. New homes; new office buildings. Malls are ridiculously packed with consumers, and that fact isn’t reliant on days of the week or holidays. They’re just packed… all the time.

The local stock market, a new acquaintance told me recently, had a rollicking good year, up more than 20%. Employment grew faster than all of Europe and more than 2x what the US could muster. GDP clocked solid growth, and inflation fell by nearly seven percentage points, relative to last year. (US inflation expanded.)

I look around my new hometown of Braga and I see the activity even more than I saw it when living in Lisbon. I love on the side of hill, and looking out over the portion of the city I can see, there are 13 construction cranes visible just in my area, which a bedroom community to the east of Braga.

New restaurants from Lisbon are opening up in the center of the city, and when I go to the local version of City Hall for residency permit issues, the line of immigrants from the US, Europe, and Brazil is hours long. The office opens at 9 a.m., but the staff tells everyone to arrive by 6 a.m. to fight for an appointment.

People I speak with at International Living conferences routinely ask me why I left Prague and moved to Portugal.

Part of it, as I’ve noted recently, was tied to my wife’s desire to live closer to the sea again, since she grew up on the Black Sea.

The other part of it was my desire for a more affordable life.

Prague wasn’t necessarily expensive (particularly by US standards) though costs were definitely rising. It’s just that Portugal on the whole is notably cheaper.

Lisbon, to be sure, is becoming a pricier place to live. So much so that even the locals are fleeing the capital for more affordable lives in smaller cities.

Braga is a great example of just how affordable life can be in Portugal.

A life that cost nearly €7,000 per month in Prague (about $8,200) is just over €5,000 (about $5,900) in Braga. But that’s not really telling you much because you likely don’t live in Prague.

So, I’ll compare it to Birmingham, Alabama, a similarly sized city.

A lifestyle that costs me about €5,000 per month in Braga (again, about $5,900) is just over $8,900 in Birmingham, according to data from Numbeo.com, a crowd-sourced provider of cost-of-living comparisons. And honestly, I think that comp is too light.

I’m not renting an average apartment in Braga. I’m renting an uber-modern, three-bedroom house, with three full bathrooms and two half-baths, spread across more than 3,000 square feet on three floors up the side of hill, with views of forest-draped mountains… and a pool on the roof. All for €2,500 per month (about $2,900). I suspect a similar home in Sweet Home Birmingham is pricier.

Either way, my life in Portugal is substantially less expensive than the US. And the quality of the lifestyle is superior—no offence to my American compatriots. It just is what it is, and that’s a function of how Europeans live.

If that’s a lifestyle you’re even considering, now’s the time to get your bearings—and the best place to do that is Ronan McMahon’s upcoming online event, Portugal Unlocked. This Wednesday, Dec. 17 at 6 p.m. ET, he’s going live to walk you through the exact places where value still exists in Portugal—towns, wine valleys, coastal stretches, and islands that most Americans haven’t even heard of yet. He’ll cover how to buy safely, who to work with, how financing works here, and more.

And it’s not just a presentation—he’s doing a live Q&A, so you can ask about the places that matter to you. If I’d had access to this kind of intel before moving here, I would’ve saved myself thousands and a year of misfires. Don’t miss it.

As I approach 60 and look ahead, I am increasingly convinced that this is where I’ll stay rooted for a long while simply because I can afford to live better life here.

And isn’t that what retirement is ultimately about… living your best life when you finally stop working?