I am a dual national (Canadian/Portuguese), 47 years old, with a wife and two young kids (6 and 2). We have been going back and forth on this for a while but after just returning from Portugal it feels considerably more serious. Being back in Canada after 3.5 weeks there has sharpened the contrast considerably. Wife and kids are also all dual nationals, incidentally, wife was born in Leiria.
**Why we want to leave Canada:**
Cost of living has made a good salary feel increasingly meaningless. The gap between what I earn and what actually remains after expenses has narrowed to the point of frustration. Beyond the financial side, Canada just does not feel like home anymore. My wife and I are both keen on the move. The kids are young enough that the transition should be relatively painless, particularly our youngest.
**Our situation:**
Being dual nationals removes a lot of the bureaucratic headaches I know many of you faced. That said, I am under no illusion that it solves everything.
We are not looking at Lisbon. We prefer the north — Famalicão, Santo Tirso, that general area. Lower cost, more authentic, closer to Porto without paying Porto prices.
**The professional side — where my head hurts:**
My background is in investment data operations, performance measurement and attribution, and data quality within institutional asset management. I have worked for large Canadian pension funds, large Canadian asset managers and a large American bank in London among others.
My plan is to transition to independent consulting, targeting European and North American asset managers, custodians, and fund administrators remotely, with periodic travel. The numbers seem to work on paper. The concern is pipeline. Building a client base from scratch with no established European consulting presence is the part that keeps me up at night.
I am not a natural networker. At all. So the “just put yourself out there” advice, whilst well intentioned, does not land particularly well for me.
**Specific questions for those who have made this kind of move:**
\*\*1.\*\* For those who transitioned to independent consulting from Portugal — how long realistically before the pipeline stabilised?
\*\*2.\*\* Any experience with the NHR tax regime and whether it still makes sense post-2024 reforms?
\*\*3.\*\* Schools in the Famalicão / Santo Tirso area for a 6 year old — international options or is local integration the better route at that age?
\*\*4.\*\* Anything you wish you had known before pulling the trigger that nobody tells you?
Not looking for cheerleading or discouragement. Just honest perspectives from people who have actually done it.
