This module is free, and it's deliberately the least persuasive thing we've written.
Portugal doesn't need more people talked into it. If you've already decided, everything after this module is about helping you do it well. This one is about making sure you've actually decided, rather than fallen for a photograph.
The questions we'd ask a friend
Who do you want around you? Not what kind of place — what kind of people. This is the question we didn't ask, and it cost us three years and a house move. Answer it before you open a single property listing.
What are you actually running from, and will it follow you? Some things genuinely don't survive the flight. Others get on the plane with you and are harder to face in a country where you can't yet argue in the local language.
Can you afford the version of this you'd actually want? Not the cheapest version. Our real numbers are in Money before you land — €3,000 a month in Braga with one baby, about €5,500 in Ericeira with three kids, a nanny and school. Both are well under what most American families spend now. But the variable is the town and your stage of family, not the country.
Are you prepared to be a resident rather than a visitor? Rent long-term rather than short. Learn the language — European Portuguese, not Brazilian. Pick a town where you'll be a neighbour and not a tourist. If that list reads as a chore rather than the point, this may not be your move.
Have you gone in winter? Everywhere in Portugal is wonderful in July.
What you should know we think
Housing pressure here is real, and foreign money is part of it. We don't think the answer is that nobody comes. We do think it means arriving with some humility about what your presence does to a market, and contributing to the place you land in. It's why 10% of every sale here goes to Just a Change, a Portuguese non-profit that renovates the homes of families living in housing poverty.
The honest summary
We've never once regretted the decision. We'd also have done it faster, cheaper, and with far fewer 3 a.m. Google spirals if someone had handed us the rest of this.
Both of those are true. If you're still in, the next module is where the work starts.
Danya — still to add: your own answer to what would make you say "maybe don't" to a friend. The section above is drafted from your notes; the blunt version is yours to write.