Should I Move Country? Calculator — Real Purchasing-Power Math

What This Calculator Does

The Should-I-Move-Country Calculator runs the financial side of an international relocation across 23 country presets. It computes the purchasing-power-adjustedincome delta (so $80K in Lisbon and $80K in San Francisco aren’t treated as the same money), the tax rate change applied to expected destination gross income, the healthcare cost difference scaled to your family size, and amortises the one-time move cost over your planned stay horizon. It returns a single number — the net financial impact over the years you expect to stay — plus a verdict tier from STRONG MOVE to FINANCIALLY COSTLY.

It's the financial side ONLY. The calculator deliberately doesn’t weigh visa difficulty, language, cultural fit, climate, family ties, or political stability — all of which can outweigh the financial delta either way. Run the math first; let the qualitative factors decide on top. Most of the “is X country cheaper than US” blogs ignore healthcare entirely or assume employers cover it; this calculator surfaces it as an explicit line item, often the largest in the decision.

The Math

The COL index normalises both sides against a US-mid baseline (Numbeo Cost of Living Index 2024 + Mercer Cost of Living Survey cross-validation), so divisions by the COL produce directly comparable purchasing-power numbers. Tax rates come from OECD Tax Wedge 2024 for typical professional income (~average wage × 1.5). Healthcare baselines reflect family- of-4 cost net of standard subsidy (Kaiser Family Foundation for US; OECD Health Statistics for international).

A Worked Example — US-mid → Portugal

Default scenario: US-mid → Portugal (Lisbon). $65,000 current net, $60,000 expected gross in Portugal, $15,000 move cost, 5 years stay, family of 1.

• Destination net = $60,000 × (1 − 27% Portugal effective tax) ≈ $43,800.
• Current PP (US-mid, COL 1.0) = $65,000 / 1.0 = $65,000.
• Destination PP (Portugal, COL 0.55) = $43,800 / 0.55 ≈ $79,600.
• Annual PP delta = +$14,600 — Portugal wins on purchasing power despite the headline lower net.
• Healthcare delta: US ~$700/mo solo → Portugal ~$50/mo (SNS + supplemental) = ~$650/mo savings × 12 = +$7,800/yr.
• 5-year horizon: ($14,600 + $7,800) × 5 − $15,000 ≈ +$97,000 net horizon impact.
• Verdict: POSITIVE MOVE — meaningful financial upside, healthcare doing real work.

For a family of 4 the healthcare delta alone often clears $20,000/yr — the calculator scales healthcare by family size (1 = 0.4× family-of-4 baseline; 4 = 1.0×; 6+ = 1.2-1.3×) and a US → most-of-EU family move can save $75,000-125,000 on healthcare alone over a 5-year horizon. It’s the most under-rated lever in international relocation decisions.

Why Purchasing Power, Not Net Income

Net-income-only comparison gives misleading answers. A $50K-net Lisbon job often beats a $80K-net San Francisco job on real purchasing power because rent, groceries, transport, and entertainment in Lisbon cost ~55% of San Francisco. The COL-adjusted version normalises for the basket of goods you actually buy. That’s why the calculator’s primary denominator is COL — most of the “move to Europe to get rich” or “US salaries crush Europe” takes collapse once you do PPP math properly.

Reading The Verdict Tiers

Net horizon impact ≥ $100K = STRONG MOVE. ≥ $30K = POSITIVE MOVE. ≥ $0 = MARGINAL (financially neutral — intangibles will decide). ≥ −$50K = EXPENSIVE. Below = FINANCIALLY COSTLY. Patterns to expect: most US → Portugal moves at moderate income come back STRONG MOVE for families because healthcare + COL stack. Most US → Switzerland moves come back EXPENSIVE despite low Swiss tax because Swiss COL is ~1.5× US baseline. UAE moves hinge entirely on whether your gross holds up against zero income tax — typically STRONG MOVE for tech, EXPENSIVE for services.

The Tax Side — A Caveat For US Citizens

US citizens and green-card holders are taxed on worldwide income — the calculator's destination tax rate doesn’t reflect that double-tax exposure. The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (~$126K) covers many but not all cases; foreign tax credits and treaty offsets cover most of the rest. For US-citizen moves, mentally add 10-15% to the destination tax rate as a “home country drag” approximation, or run a cross-border tax advisor consult before committing. UK and Canada don’t tax non-resident citizens (cleaner case) — the calculator's default applies directly.

Common Mistakes

• Anchoring on US salary expectations for the destination. Tech salaries in EU run 50-70% of US equivalent for comparable roles (Big Tech in London ≈ 65% of NYC; Berlin ≈ 50%). Singapore: 70-85%. Australia: 60-80%. UAE: 80-110% (zero income tax). Use levels.fyi or the local Glassdoor for the exact role and city — anchoring on US numbers makes the math falsely favourable.
• Forgetting reverse-move cost.Most international moves that don’t work out return after 18-30 months. Risk-averse approach: shorten years to 2-3 and add $10-15K reverse-move cost to moveCostOneTime. That’s the worst-case financial scenario; if the verdict is still POSITIVE MOVE under those assumptions, you have real downside protection.
• Ignoring healthcare for solo movers.Solo moves get the 0.4× family-of-4 healthcare scaler, which downplays the line item — but US solo healthcare still runs $400-700/mo on ACA marketplace versus $0-50 in most-of-EU public systems. That’s $4,000-8,000/yr across a 5-year horizon, $20-40K total. Not the dominant line item but not nothing.
• Not adjusting for digital-nomad tax status.If your US employer continues paying you remotely while you live in Portugal under their NHR scheme (0% on most foreign income for first 10 years until 2024), the calculator’s destination tax rate doesn’t apply. Manually override expectedGrossIncome to your full US salary and destination tax rate to your actual nomad-visa rate. The calculator's defaults assume residency-based local employment.
• Skipping retirement / Social Security portability.US Social Security is portable to most countries via totalisation agreements; tax treaties prevent double-taxation in most cases. UK / EU pension portability varies. For long-stay decisions (15+ years), retirement portability is meaningful. It usually doesn’t flip the financial verdict by more than 5-10%, but it’s worth confirming before a citizenship- track commitment.
• Treating the calculator as the whole decision.It's the financial side only. Visa difficulty (binary you-can-or-can’t), language, cultural fit, family ties, climate, and political stability often outweigh the financial delta. The calculator’s “Important framing” row flags this explicitly — run the math first, then weigh the intangibles, never the other way round.

Related Calculators

For a deeper city-vs-city COL comparison within the same country, run the Cost of Living Calculator — this calc’s index is country-level only. If you’re moving between jobs (not transferring within the same employer), the Quit-Job Runway Calculator validates your savings cushion before relocating. The Take-Home Pay Calculator helps you sanity-check the destination tax rate against your specific income, and W-2 vs 1099 is essential if you’re shifting employment status with the move.