I Work Remotely. We're Moving To Spain. And You Can Follow Along.

On January 2nd, my wife and I are leaving Los Angeles and moving to Spain. The plan is to live the second half of our lives together in the country. She's 45. I turn 50 next July.

While the election certainly reaffirmed that we made the right choice, it's not the reason for the move. You can't - and probably shouldn't, even if you could - throw together this type of move in such a short period of time and in knee jerk reaction to politics.

We have been planning for this move for more than two years. And I have been writing about it in my Never Retire newsletter on Substack. I encourage you to subscribe on Substack for exclusive content and to support my work.

LinkedIn readers can use this link to get 50% off a one-year subscription.

Through the end of 2024, I plan to publish some of the key posts from the last few months in my new LinkedIn newsletter. In 2025 and beyond, both newsletters will include accounts of life on the ground in Spain. From Valencia, I'll discuss - in detail - how it feels to be a foreigner.

What it's like to deal with bureaucracy. What it's like to be learning a second language alongside my wife, whose first language is actually Spanish. What it's like to work remotely from abroad as a freelance writer. What it's like to live in an urban environment where everything I need is just a few minutes' worth of walking away.

I will attempt to include content I think is more relevant to LinkedIn subscribers on LinkedIn. And content more relevant to a general audience on Substack. So, depending on who you are, you might want to read both newsletters. If you have moved, are thinking of moving or just have an interest in the subject of living abroad and/or working remotely, both platforms likely make sense.

In any event, we're out of here in about 45 days. Over that time, here on LinkedIn, I will get you up to speed with how things have been taking shape over the last few months, starting with this--

A few things have changed since I published this post. If you follow along or subscribe on Substack, you'll be able to catch up.

I hope you enjoy reading the content. If there's anything specific that you'd like me to write about, please let me know. I share as much as I can with as much detail as I can, but I can't think of everything!

This is from that July 2024 post--

Because some things have changed. And because we have a better handle on the costs we should expect to incur when we move from Los Angeles to Valencia, Spain in five months, I feel like it’s time for a line item-by-line item update.

Plus, it’s a nice welcome for new subscribers.

So, let’s do it.

If you’re not a paid subscriber, now’s the time to upgrade with the move just five months away. As always, I convert $100 founding memberships to lifetime subscriptions.

Rent. Usually the biggest expense most of us have.

Anticipated cost: €1,500

I read a lot about the cost of renting and buying in Spain. There’s lots being said and a fair bit of data being thrown around. I don’t trust most of any of this.

However, I do believe two things are certain: In larger cities, such as Valencia, it’s a better deal to buy (over the long-term) than it is to rent. And, across Spain, but especially in the bigger cities and tourist hot spots, rents have increased. Nothing like we see in the United States, but increases nevertheless.

In any event, when we first started discussing and planning this move, we figured we would pay closer to €1,000 for a two-bedroom in Valencia’s Russafa neighborhood. While still not impossible, it’s more realistic to expect and budget for €1,500. We’ll know a lot more once we’re on the ground in Valencia.

This is what we pay—under rent control—in Los Angeles for a one-bedroom. In our neighborhood, this apartment would likely fetch upwards of $2,500 at market rate. For a two-bedroom, you’re definitely approaching $3,000 and, quite possibly, going north of that number.

Cash flow source: My Wise account pot of money detailed here. Ideally, this is the source I use to pay the rent for the foreseeable future.

Yoga memberships. One of the few discretionary must haves for me and my wife.

Anticipated cost: €1,100 X 2 = €2,200 for unlimited one-year memberships

We currently pay $169 per month per unlimited membership. So, that’s $338. Do the math on the €2,200 and it breaks down to €183 a month. So, not factoring in the exchange rate, we’re saving about $155 a month on this expense.

Cash flow source: My Wise account. Another expense not coming from my main income sources.

Taxes and Social Security. A few points to cover here, logistically and how we’ll pay for these expenses.

How do you know what to pay? For Social Security, self-employed workers in Spain (autonomos) receive a break during their first year. Then, in most cases, you pay a monthly Social Security rate based on your projected income. My understanding is that you can change this election up to six times per year. But we don’t have to worry about this until year two.

As for taxes, you invoice clients, then quarterly, you pay taxes on the invoiced amount, similar to paying estimated taxes in the United States. At the end of the year, you file a return, which will even things out.

Here are a few scenarios of how things might look for me, depending on how much I earn.

In year two, Social Security will increase to between €409 and €542 monthly using the above estimates. However, this payment is tax-deductible (and includes health insurance) so it only ups the total tax rates (respective to each scenario) to 31.2%, 32.7% and 35.9%. After having just made my health insurance payment in California this month, I welcome any and all of the above.

Despite the misinformation and hysteria you often see online, this structure for self-employed workers isn’t all that different in Spain than it is in the US (15.3% self-employment tax plus your marginal tax rate). To this end, I am constantly educating myself on the system and intend to do my taxes myself. If you can do it yourself in the United States, you can do it yourself in Spain.

Cash flow source: My main income.

Internet/Phone. As I noted the last time we did this, the plan is to go with Pepephone for Fiber internet, two mobile phone plans, Amazon Prime, Netflix and HBO Max. LOL.

Add up what we pay for these things in the US and it totals $203. And, for the record, somehow Spectrum only charges us $29.99 a month for internet. It’s not Fiber, but it works. Not sure why we pay so little. But I’m not complaining. Only to say that we’re getting a deal in that $203 total.

Cash flow source: My main income.

As for grocery/produce shopping in the United States, I recently detailed that here—

The Cost Of Grocery Shopping For One Week In Los Angeles

Read full story

At the time, I put the total at just over $700 a month. Today, I’d say we’re closer to $900.

Here are some details from Spain in what was a fun experiment—

Grocery Shopping At Trader Joe's In America Versus One Of Spain's Big Supermarket Chains

Read full story

There’s no way to know until we’re on the ground, my well-researched and educated guess is we’ll be closer to €400 a month in Spain.

Cash flow source: My main income.

As I said last time I went through this exercise—

Utilities. I’m including gas/electricity/water here. We’re conservative users of these things, as in we never turn on the heat and don’t have AC. And we’re moving to a very similar climate to what we have now. Feel free to challenge me on this, but I’ll happily post the bills in 2025. I’m confidently putting this at 50 euros a month.

In my life, I have always been well below average on utilities. We currently pay nothing because utilities are included in our rent.

Cash flow source: My main income.

Transportation. It will be effectively zero. So eliminate the $100/month car insurance payment, the $50 or so I am about to drop to replace some brake lights, the $284 I just paid to renew my registration and the $200 or so we pay for gas each month.

We’ll probably get an annual public bike membership—

You don’t even need A2 level Spanish to see that this works out to €2,43 a month!

In Los Angeles, Metro’s bike share program, which also requires a death wish, goes for $150 a year.

Cash flow source: My main income.

As for Dining out. We’re so conflicted about this in Los Angeles. We love to do it, even though it basically sucks these days. It’s expensive and there’s effectively zero value.

When we say “fuck it” and eat out a few times a week, we easily spend $750 a month. Easily. It’s almost embarrassing to admit. We should be able to go out to eat and drink multiple times a week in Spain and keep it closer to $500 for better quality food, drink and atmosphere. So a 33% decrease.

Cash flow source: My main income.

I’m looking forward to the end of February or March 2025 (because January and maybe February will likely be oddball settling-in months) when I can run actual numbers on the cost of living in Los Angeles, California versus Valencia, Spain.

But—at the moment—the back of the envelope tells me that we’ll be saving—at minimum—$1,500 a month out of the gate with the added benefit of my savings strategy to pay rent leaving that much of my main income free for other purposes, such as taxes, living and saving.