Barry Schneider and Nancy Corley didn’t set out to retire abroad.
Schneider, already late in his career, was working part-time as a marketing consultant when the couple began experimenting with spending long periods in foreign countries. Work got in the way of enjoying their destinations, so Schneider let the work fall away earlier than he had planned.
Now, the American citizens — who maintain only a storage unit in the U.S. — are fully retired, with two income-producing properties in Portugal as well as Portuguese residencies.
When Corley and Schneider decided to seek European residency, they were traveling in Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony. Despite their extensive travels, neither had been to Portugal. At the time, Portugal offered a flexible residency option for buyers of local real estate.
In 2018, the couple bought two rental properties in Portugal and got their Golden Visas — residency that comes with purchasing local property (Portugal changed the Golden Visa program the couple used to obtain Portuguese residency in 2023, and real estate purchases no longer qualify for the program).
I caught up with Corley and Schneider as they were jetting off to Georgia to learn about the lessons they’ve gathered on their road to retired life. This is what they had to share.
You may not love where you’ve landed
It can be easy to fall in love with a foreign city at first sight. But a few days during the best time of the year may not be the best indicator of what to expect when putting down fresh roots in an unfamiliar place.
Schneider and Corley, who blog about their journey at adventurephiles.com, avoided this pitfall by easing into their retirement, spending several months at a time in different destinations instead of immediately jumping into a foreign real estate purchase. “People come for a short period and all of sudden buy something and have to figure out how to adjust to what they’ve just committed to,” Schneider says.
The pair recommend making several trips to a proposed new home, including extended stays of at least 10 days. Consider renting a place to get to know a neighborhood and its terrain before buying into it. “There’s only so much you can learn when you’re not there,” Schneider says.
That is especially true in Portugal where cities like Lisbon and Porto are built into the hills and steep slopes and cobblestone streets can make certain areas harder to get around than others, especially for people with restricted mobility.
You’re starting over
Diane Lane may have quickly stumbled into her community when she impulsively decided to buy an old villa in the Italian countryside in “Under the Tuscan Sun,” but for most people in real life, new friends don’t come so easily in a foreign country.
“You’re an outsider for a long, long time,” Schneider says. That can be especially true if you don’t speak the local language fluently.
It’s not uncommon for early friends to be other expats. “You’ll have much more in common with expats than Europeans,” he continued. “You can enjoy the European lifestyle, but you’re still somewhat of an outsider when it gets down to it.”
Corley recommends Facebook groups for meeting those first new friends in a foreign country. She’s also gotten involved with local churches, volunteer organizations, and book clubs over the years. Having that shared passion can be “a key way to start making friends locally,” she says.
You’ll miss out at home
You’ll need to get used to seeing photos of family gatherings and holiday parties you’re missing on Facebook and Instagram. And you’ll need to find a way to deal with any FOMO you might experience.
“There’s a time in everybody’s travels where they hit a low point, maybe after nine months or a year of missing this or that from their life in the U.S.,” Corley says. “You have to accept that’s going to happen because everything is different.”
Health insurance and taxes will be complicated
You may be moving to a country with more affordable healthcare and a lower tax burden, but accessing those benefits may not be easy, especially if you’re not fluent in your new country’s language and policies yet.
As nomads early in their journey, Schneider and Corley at one point had both expensive U.S. and international travel medical insurance policies. They now use Medicare in the U.S. and the public health insurance that comes with the Portuguese residency.
“I had to have a U.S. insurance policy, and then I had to have an international insurance policy, but the international insurance policy also covered the U.S., Corley says. “It was exhausting, and it was outrageously expensive.”
Qualifying for Medicare at 65 was a game changer for the couple. “We tend to do our standard medical stuff, annual checkups and things like that, in the U.S. because we’re not in any one place,” Corley says.
When it comes to taxes and legal documents, Corley and Schneider recommend hiring help. “Especially once you decide to become a resident of a country, you really need to get a lawyer,” Schneider says. Even it feels like you might be able to do it yourself, most people they know have struggled enough with taxes and government residency requirements to seek help.
You may not need private health insurance
Many American expats moving to countries like Portugal that have a public healthcare system choose to purchase additional private insurance policies. These policies can enable them to receive care more quickly and bypass the bureaucracy of government-run healthcare, but Schneider doesn’t see the value in it.
“The reality is if you are here you can do without private insurance,” he says. “The healthcare system is a typical European healthcare system, and it’s free.”
Portugal’s healthcare system is considered one of the best in the world. When he does have to contribute to his medical costs in Portugal, Schneider says he’s generally paying about 10% of what he might have expected to pay back home.
You don’t need to wait
You don’t have to wait until you’re 65 to retire and move abroad. If you’re not able to retire early with the financial security you need, consider semi-retiring abroad, as Schneider initially did, or splitting your time among places you call home.
The longer you wait, the harder you may find the transition. Traversing steep cobblestone streets is likely to feel different at 78 than at 67. “You want to do it early enough that you have your good health,” Corley says.