How much money do you need to move abroad? The first number that actually binds you comes from a consulate, not a cost-of-living site. As of October 2026, Portugal’s D7 visa asks €920 a month (about $1,030) for one adult. Spain’s non-lucrative visa asks €28,800 a year (about $32,200). Mexico’s San Diego consulate wants $4,510 a month, or an average balance of $75,950 for a full year.
Those are floors. Your budget sits on top of them, and then the exchange rate moves it around without asking.
This page is the map for the money side of a move: what the visa says you need, what it leaves out, how currency risk works in practice, and how your accounts, transfers and Social Security follow you. Every figure has an official source, listed at the bottom. Dollar amounts are converted at the European Central Bank’s rate for October 12, 2026: €1 = $1.1181.
How much money do you need to move abroad: start with the visa floor
A visa income floor is the one number someone will check against your bank statements. It’s set by law, usually tied to a national index, and it tends to move every January.
| Country and visa | What the consulate asks (2026) | About in dollars | Savings instead of income? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portugal, D7 (passive income) | €920 a month for the first adult, plus 50% for a second adult and 30% per child | $1,030 a month | Ask the consulate that serves you |
| Spain, non-lucrative visa | €28,800 a year, plus €7,200 per dependent | $32,200 a year, about $2,680 a month | Yes, bank statements and certificates are accepted |
| Spain, telework (digital nomad) visa | €2,442 a month | $2,730 a month | No, it’s an income test |
| Portugal, D8 (remote work) | €3,680 a month, averaged over the last three months | $4,115 a month | No, it’s an income test |
| Mexico, temporary residency (San Diego consulate) | $4,510 a month for six months | $4,510 a month | Yes: a $75,950 average balance over 12 months |
Two things stand out. The spread is huge, from about $1,030 to $4,510 a month. And Mexico, cheap to live in, is one of the hardest doors on income. The retire abroad on $2,000 a month page runs the same test against the average Social Security check, country by country.
The work visas are on the remote work page, with the tax side.
The floor isn’t the budget
A consulate’s number answers one question: will this person run out of money? It doesn’t price your life.
Here’s what the floor usually leaves out:
- Health insurance. Spain’s consulate wants a policy from an insurer authorized in Spain, covering everything the public system covers, with no copays and no coverage limits. Travel insurance isn’t accepted. That premium is priced on your age, not on the local cost of bread.
- The first year. Deposits, furniture, translations, apostilles, a second consulate trip. All one-time, all in the same twelve months.
- Flights home. They recur.
- US tax preparation. You still file a 1040 every year. See taxes when you retire abroad.
- Cushion for currency. Next section.
A budget that clears the floor with nothing left over isn’t a plan. It’s a bet that nothing goes wrong in year one.
Currency risk: the cost that isn’t in the budget
If your income is in dollars and your rent is in euros, pesos or baht, you’re exposed to the exchange rate every month. Most people know this. Few put a number on it.
Here’s one. Take a €2,000 monthly budget and price it at the European Central Bank’s own reference rates:
| Date | €1 in dollars | €2,000 a month costs |
|---|---|---|
| September 28, 2022 | $0.9565 | $1,913 |
| January 13, 2025 | $1.0198 | $2,040 |
| January 28, 2026 | $1.1974 | $2,395 |
| October 12, 2026 | $1.1181 | $2,236 |
Same apartment, same groceries. The dollar cost moved by $482 a month between the low and the high, about 25%. Nobody sent a letter.
What people do about it is mostly unglamorous. They keep a few months of local expenses in the local currency, so a bad month doesn’t force a conversion at the worst rate. They build the budget at a less flattering rate than today’s. And they remember that a pension paid in dollars never adjusts for any of this. Panama, which uses the US dollar, is the one popular destination where the problem mostly disappears.
I’m not a financial adviser, and none of this is advice on what to buy. It’s arithmetic on public data.
Banking: keep the US account, add a local one
Your US accounts don’t close because you board a plane. What changes things is the address you give the bank. So ask first. Ask your bank, in writing, what happens to checking, savings and brokerage accounts when the address on file is foreign. The questions to send, and the order to do things in, are on US bank accounts when you move abroad.
The local account is the slow half. Many banks want your residence document first, so the first weeks or months run on US cards and transfers.
Then there’s the $10,000 line. If your foreign accounts together go over $10,000 at any time during the calendar year, you file an FBAR with FinCEN. Not a tax. A report. Rent deposit plus two months of living costs can cross it without anyone noticing. The other forms that follow you abroad are on the taxes page.
Moving money: what the provider has to tell you
US law gives you some protection when you send money abroad, and it’s worth knowing exactly where it stops. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s rules cover transfers of more than $15 sent by consumers in the US to people or companies abroad. Before you pay, the provider has to show you:
- the fees and taxes it collects,
- the exchange rate it applies,
- the amount expected to arrive.
After you pay, you get 30 minutes to cancel at no charge, unless the money has already been picked up or deposited. And you have 180 days to report a mistake.
The useful line is the third one. Compare transfers on the amount that arrives, not on the fee. A “no fee” transfer with a thin exchange rate can cost more than one with a visible fee.
One catch: the rule describes transfers sent by consumers in the United States. Once you live abroad and start transfers from a foreign account, check which country’s rules apply.
Social Security direct deposit abroad
You have two clean ways to receive Social Security once you’ve moved. Keep it landing in your US account. Or switch to International Direct Deposit into a bank in your new country.
The SSA’s own policy manual is plain about how International Direct Deposit works:
- you have to live outside the US and keep a foreign address on record,
- you sign up on the form for that specific country,
- the Treasury usually pays in local currency, straight into your account,
- payments generally arrive on the third of the month.
The SSA estimates it saves the average beneficiary $7 to $30 a month in check-cashing and currency fees. The country list includes Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia, Thailand, France, Italy and Ecuador.
The downside is the mirror image of the convenience. Paid in local currency, your check becomes a different number of euros or pesos every month. The benefit itself is fixed in dollars; the conversion isn’t. Whichever route you choose, don’t close the old account until the first new deposit has actually arrived.
Whether the new country taxes that check is a separate question: is Social Security taxed abroad.
What goes wrong most often
Budgeting to the floor. The visa number is a minimum for a consulate, not a lifestyle. Clear it by a margin you could lose to the exchange rate.
Floors that move. Portugal’s floor follows its minimum wage, €920 in 2026. Spain’s telework floor follows its own minimum wage. When those rise in January, so does your test, and a renewal can fail on a number that used to pass. Recheck it every year.
Running out of local banking. No local account for the first months, a US card that charges a foreign transaction fee, and a bank that restricts foreign logins. Each one is small. Together they’re a bad first quarter.
Assuming savings count. Some visas take savings, some only take income. Spain’s non-lucrative visa and Mexico accept balances; Portugal’s D8 and Spain’s telework visa want income.
Where to go next
- Retire abroad on $2,000 a month: what the average check buys in 9 countries, and which visas it clears.
- US bank accounts when you move abroad: seven questions for your bank, and the forms that follow.
- Remote work abroad: digital nomad visas, the foreign earned income exclusion and the employer problem.
- Taxes when you retire abroad: what the US keeps taxing and what the new country adds.
- Cost of living: what the money meets on the ground.