A Quick Look Back Before We Hustle Forward

Happy Sunday, beautiful people 😎

As summer winds down and we start getting the kids ready for another school year, I’m taking a moment to reflect on everything we’ve covered so far this year.

I’m also super excited about some new partnerships coming to The Expat Hustle, bringing trusted expertise and practical insights to help make life here a little easier.

Today, we’re looking back at some of the most opened and clicked newsletters from the past eight months, before diving into what’s coming next.

And if you haven’t yet discovered our Kitchen Essentials Bundle, I’ve just completely updated it! You’ll find the revised guides below. Click the link to access the folder, then save the link or download the guides to your device.

Hopefully, they’ll make your next shopping trip just a little easier. 🛒

Let’s dive in, shall we?

Pavilhão Chinês is one of Lisbon’s most wonderfully eccentric bars: a former grocery shop, opened as a bar in 1986, whose five richly packed rooms feel like a private museum of curiosities. Behind its discreet red door in Bairro Alto, vintage toy soldiers, military uniforms, model planes, old posters and porcelain spill from floor-to-ceiling display cases—making a cocktail here feel like drinking inside a collector’s cabinet of wonders.

Whether you've been here a while or only joined this week (hello, and welcome!), we covered a lot of ground this year. Visas, tax, property, storms, a hospital waiting room, and a seriously cool beach that stands as an anchor graveyard.

Today, we're taking a quick glance back over the last eight months before diving headfirst into some new territory in the upcoming editions.

I'm very excited about the new articles, ideas and collaborators you'll be introduced to over the coming months. But before we get there, we're taking a moment to revisit some of the pieces you found most valuable.

Consider this your Expat Hustle catch-up list.

Most opened of the year 🥁 Roll Call: US Citizens Abroad, It's Tax Time. Nearly three quarters of you opened this one. If you're American and in Portugal, filing in two countries is not optional, and this set out to make a complicated subject a little less intimidating.

Most clicked of the year 🤝 How to Win at Property Negotiations in Portugal. The Portuguese property market does not work the way most of us expect it to.

The one readers keep coming back to 💭 This Was Not the Newsletter I Planned to Write Emergency surgery, toxic positivity, and the honest conversation about expat life that I hadn't planned on having. This one was opened more times than any other issue this year, and a lot of you wrote back. Thank you ❤

💸 Let's Talk Money, Tax and Portugal's Fine Print. Moving money without losing a chunk of it, and the 2026 housing tax changes.

📜 NHR Is Gone, But Here's What Replaced It. A straight guide to IFICI. What it is, who qualifies, and whether it applies to you at all.

🏁 The Finish Line Just Moved. Portugal's new nationality law, and what it changes for anyone counting years.

😌 Comfort: The Most Overlooked Property Feature. What to actually check before you buy, and the €250 vehicle inspection mistake we made so you don't have to.

📦 Moving In? The Reality of Finding a Rental in Portugal. How the rental market actually behaves, including the parts nobody warns newcomers about.

⚓ Portugal's Beach with an Anchor Graveyard An Algarve beach unlike any other, and yes, the anchors are real.

💙

A big thank you to everyone who takes the time to read, reply, share, and tell me a little about your own journey. I’m excited for what’s coming next, and I hope you’ll join me for the ride. ❤️

If you've been around for a while, you might already have the Kitchen Bundle tucked away somewhere in your downloads folder. It first went out in an earlier edition, and a few of you also found your way to it through the website.

But there are plenty of new faces here, so I decided it was time to give the whole thing another look. Every guide has been revised, updated and fact-checked from top to bottom.

There were a few things that needed fixing… these bundles were originally created BC (before Claude) 😉.

So today, the freshly updated bundle goes out to everyone.

And next week, it gets something new. But I'll keep that one under wraps for now.

I hope you enjoy it, and if you spot something that doesn't look quite right, or think a section could be clearer, please tell me. I'm always grateful for an extra pair of eyes on these guides.

So, what's actually in the bundle?

There's also a short Start Here page in the bundle that explains what's what and suggests the order.

Grab your free bundle HERE ⤵

Do you know how to conjugate FALAR (to speak) in the Presente do Indicativo (Simple Present) in European Portuguese?

Here's the present tense:

Eu falo (I speak)

Tu falas (You speak – singular)

Você fala (You speak – singular)

Ele / Ela fala (He / She speaks)

Nós falamos (We speak)

Vocês falam (You speak – plural)

Vós falais (You speak – plural)

Eles / Elas falam (They speak)

FALAR is a regular -AR verb, so learning this pattern will help you conjugate many other Portuguese verbs too!

Save this for your European Portuguese practice.

🗣 Want to learn more phrases like this? Check out Mia’s free Portuguese course “Kickstart Your Portuguese - The Basics”.

💡 Mia from Mia Esmeriz Academy is a Portuguese teacher from Porto with more than 15 years of experience teaching foreigners. She helps expats become fluent in Portuguese in a clear and practical way. Alongside her courses, she also shares free content on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

Thanks for reading! 💌

Hustle on!

Angelique

PS — got an expat friend who's one bureaucratic form away from booking a flight home? Forward this newsletter their way. We're all just trying to figure it out together.