Hey, I’m Phil
I spent the first 38 years of my life doing everything the way you’re supposed to. Grew up in Ohio, went to state school, got a decent job in logistics, bought a house in the suburbs. Good life on paper. Busy, a little loud, and honestly — after a while — kind of the same week on repeat.
Then my wife Elena and I had one of those long kitchen table conversations that changes things. Our kids were still young. We had some savings. And we kept coming back to the same question: if not now, when?
We sold the house in 2019, put what we couldn’t fit in a shipping container into storage, and moved to Europe. No exact plan. Just a direction.
That was five years ago. We’ve lived in three countries since then. We’ve made mistakes that cost us money, found shortcuts that saved us more, and figured out — slowly, sometimes painfully — what it actually takes to build a real life somewhere new rather than just an extended vacation.
This blog is what I wish had existed when we started. Practical stuff. Real numbers. The things nobody puts in the expat forums because they don’t want to sound like they don’t have it together.
If you’re thinking about making a move, somewhere in the middle of one, or just quietly googling “cost of living Portugal” at 11pm while your current life hums along around you — you’re in the right place.
What You’ll Find Here
The practical stuff — visa options, residency timelines, banking across borders, health insurance as an expat, getting kids into school mid-year. The checklists I built the hard way.
Money and healthcare — what things actually cost versus what the internet tells you they cost. How we handle everything from routine checkups to bigger procedures without paying American prices or waiting six months for an appointment.
The honest parts — what nobody tells you about the first winter in a new country, what it does to a marriage, what it does to your kids, and what it does to you in ways you didn’t expect.
I’m not a travel blogger. I don’t have a sponsor. I’m just a guy from Ohio who made a big decision with his family and has been figuring it out ever since.
Pull up a chair.
— Phil