We left SF for Lisbon. Here's the budget that made it work.

We didn't leave San Francisco because we hated it. We left because the math stopped working.

In our last year there, on $185k combined household income (one remote tech salary, one freelance), we were saving 4% of net. Four. The rent was a 1BR in the Mission at $3,290. The car was a leased Civic at $480 with city parking. Groceries and the occasional dinner ate the rest.

This is what it looks like fourteen months later, in Lisbon.

SF burn (1BR Mission + Civic + the rest, monthly):

• Housing: $3,290
• Transport: $480 (lease + insurance + parking)
• Food + dining: $1,400
• Lifestyle + gym + coworking + streaming: $620
• Healthcare premium share: $420
• Savings: $580 (4% of $14,500 net)

Lisbon now (Príncipe Real 1BR + Metro pass + everything, monthly):

• Housing: $1,280
• Transport: $90 (Metro pass + occasional Bolt)
• Food + dining: $720 (we eat out more, not less)
• Lifestyle: $420
• Healthcare (NHR + private supplement): $185
• Savings: $3,200 (23% of household net, post-NHR tax)

Portugal's Non-Habitual Resident regime — the version that existed when we applied, before the 2024 changes — caps foreign-source income tax at 20% for ten years. Combined with the 0% on certain pension income and dividend treaties, our effective tax rate on the same household income went from 32% (CA + federal) to 19% (PT under NHR).

That alone — same gross income, lower effective tax — added $2,400/month to take-home. The lower rent did the rest.

Salary upside. The career compounding rate in Lisbon, for a senior engineer, is meaningfully slower than SF. There are fewer Series B options to jump to. There's no chance of a $400k base + RSU package walking through the door at a coffee meeting.

For us, in our mid-thirties, that trade was worth making. For someone five years younger trying to hit a $1M net worth by 30, it's probably not.

Two adults, one cat, end-to-end relocation including the visa lawyer, the shipping container, the security deposit on the Lisbon flat, and the first three months of overlap: $9,800. That's three months of the SF rent we were paying. We made it back inside the first quarter on the new budget.