The Lunch
- Guy
- Oct 27, 2017
- 2 min read
Journal entry number Two | 26 October 2017 | Montreal
The day after The Dinner, Marie-Michèle and I met with Nicolas over lunch to discuss finances. We had no idea it would the beginning of The Next Phase...
Welcomed as kings and queens by the ever attentive and seasoned Maître D' at Ferreira Café (Damiao Santos), we talked for nearly four hours about Portugal like we had the night before. But this time the conversation focused on money. And so much more focused on our new path. We began right there and then to map out The Next Phase and haven't yet stopped at the time of this writing (March 3rd, 2018).
Marie-Michèle and I had decided two years earlier that we would take extended trips in Europe over the course of the next decade or so, taking roots in locales for 2 or 3 months at a time. This would be a welcome break from the kind of insane travel schedule we had kept in years prior, while on business trips. Moving our base of operation from Montreal to Portugal made sense then, so long as we were ready to cross the psychological rubicon that leaving Canada would represent. Having lived abroad previously (Marie-Michèle in Ecuador, Colombia and Italy and I, California's Silicon Valley), we knew what this would mean getting into.
Our subsequent research revealed the following about Portugal, which more and more people are becoming familiar with:
- Depending on where you choose to live, the cost of living can be as much as 10% to 25% lower than in Montreal.
- It is one of the world's safest countries to live in.
- The weather is much milder there than here - by a long shot - no snow, no ice, beaches everywhere.
- Dining out is much less expensive than in Montreal.
- Fado...
- Nice people.
- You can in effect go on an extended weekend in Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna, Rome or Geneva (and many other cities of course) within a couple of hours and for a few Euros on RyanAir or EasyJet.
- As a retiree able to sustain your lifestyle with your savings, and subject to several caveats, you can secure a 10-year tax break on most if not all non-Portuguese income.
...to be continued...
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