Have you ever lived or considered living abroad?

[Beverleyred]

Love Cascais, spent a week there a few years back (and Portugal in general)

I *think* they may have some sort of Visa waiver scheme or similar depending on the industry you work in. Might be worth following up. I had mates who moved to Lisbon from London years back, took up jobs as teaching assistants and lived like royalty in comparison with their standard of living in London.

Did not realise that re: Sporting Lisbon by the way, are they the team of "money" in Lisbon?

When I lived there, Sporting were always regarded as the side with the spondoolies.
They had the money to rebuild the Jose Alvalade, by which I believe they turned the stadium around 90 degrees and built the new one on the same site. I was lucky to see Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams and Phil Collins in the old ground. I was also able to go again when Boro were in Europe and we played them in their new stadium.
Most of the Brit community worked in Carcavelos at St. Julian’s private school.
They had great sports facilities, which we used regularly and played football, rugby and cricket against them. Everyone got on and there were good socials. We had two darts teams called NATO pirates, and we played in the Lisbon and District darts leagues divisions F and G. Brilliant nights at the local bars at away matches. If I recall rightly, we got promoted a couple of times.
The home team put the food on and we were treated to local dishes such as Octopus stew and Chickens throats!

 

[Malaguena]

Yes, i was generalising as the question was about Spain in particular which I believe is one of the easier countries to enter. I was hoping someone in Spain would clarify as i know the details such as financial independence will vary from country to country.

Yes, Spain is demonstrate how you're going to fund living here ( not rely on the Spanish state) and fund your healthcare - also have to pay tax in Spain if you're here for longer than 6 months