This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Zachary Biss, 29, a musician from St. Petersburg, Florida, who moved with his girlfriend, Marina, to Portugal by boat. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I’m a full-time musician. Back in the States, I played gigs at bars and restaurants with my guitar, singing and playing covers for a living.
I’ve always had the same job in music, and over time, I was able to play all my gigs and have enough money at the end of the month to put away in savings and invest in stocks.
That allowed me to buy a house in Florida in 2019. I was really proud that I was able to make that happen.
Ever since I moved into the house, I’ve kept a budget down to the penny, and the expenses got absolutely insane.
My electric bill roughly doubled over the course of five years. My utilities, which covered water and garbage disposal, doubled as well.
You have all these people telling you homeownership is the goal — that’s the dream — but the bills kept going up. I’m like, “This seems backward. I feel like I should be paying something off to where eventually I’ll be paying less.”
Over the course of half a decade, everything has crept up to where I’m working harder than I’ve ever worked, and making as much money as I’ve ever made, but I have nothing to show for it here.
We knew we wanted to move to Lisbon
I thought, maybe it’s time to go somewhere else and try something different, because otherwise I’m just going to float here and not really thrive.
I haven’t sold my home yet. It’s still on the market.
My girlfriend and I already knew we wanted to move to Portugal for a while. So by the time we were able to finally move, I was like, “I don’t care. We just have to go.”
It was a little bit emotional, but not really because we’d been planning it for so long. I had gotten to the point where I didn’t want to wait anymore.
We decided to move by taking a cruise
We found a cruise that was actually going directly one way, because they do the transatlantic sailings to move the boats. After the season’s over in the Caribbean, they move to Europe, so we found one that was going from Tampa and ending in Lisbon. It was a match made in heaven.
We did pay a little bit more than flying, but you’re getting a two-week cruise: all the food, all the lodging, and a couple of stops along the way.
We stopped in the Bahamas, and then after the Bahamas were six days at sea, and that was pretty wild. I’ve never spent that much time at sea.
After that was the Azores, and then it was another sea day because they’re pretty far off from the mainland. Then we did Porto, which was really cool, and then we ended in Lisbon.
All in, we paid $2,500 total, so definitely more than two flights, but I would say it was worth the cost. The transatlantics are usually a bargain because they’re not that full and they’re just trying to sell tickets to make the voyage worth it — we actually got a balcony room and everything.
But the biggest perk was that there was no hard luggage limit. I brought my guitar, I brought my suitcases, Marina brought a bunch of her suitcases — as much as we could fit — and we got to the port and the porter’s like, “How many luggage tags do you need?” And we said, “However many.”
Flying would have been a lot more restrictive.
We also thought that sailing would ease us into moving a little more than flying would, because there’s really nothing worse than landing at Lisbon Airport after an overnight flight, not sleeping on the plane, and dealing with that brutal jet lag.
On the cruise, there were six days at sea in a row, and they would roll forward the clock one hour at a time; they did that five times over the course of the trip to get us five hours ahead to where we are now.
I would totally recommend moving by boat for the luggage benefit alone, but especially if you’re a cruiser or you just like relaxing, it’s like being at the spa.
It’s fun, and at the end of the day, I don’t think many people get to say they’ve sailed across the ocean.
We like the pace of life in Portugal
The first night, we were sitting at the dinner table, and we looked at each other, and we both started crying, like, “What are we doing?” But I think that’s 100% normal for anyone moving, even just moving to another state. It’s scary. This is the first time I’ve moved.
There were things pushing us out of the US and things bringing us to Portugal. Honestly, the biggest one was health insurance.
As a self-employed person in the States, I often feel punished for being self-employed when it comes to health insurance. The cheapest plan offered to me on the marketplace for this year was about $360 a month.
When I talk to my friends who live here or have moved here, and I tell them what I paid in a month, they’re like, “Well, that’s about what I pay in a year.”
Affordability wasn’t the only reason we moved. If we were going for affordability, there are definitely cheaper places in Portugal, and even more affordable places in Europe. It’s all relative; what’s affordable to me might be different than what’s affordable to a local here.
The people, in broad strokes, are in a little bit less of a rush here. I made a joke that even the people trying to sell you something off the street, once they realize you’re not going to buy what they’re selling, they’ll just have a conversation with you, which is nice.
The pace of life is not so much work, work, work all the time, rush, rush, rush. People here really will take a moment — it’s built into the day to have a coffee, have your pastry in the morning, and you’re not just grabbing your big iced coffee and getting in your car and rushing to work.
It’s a breath of fresh air.
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