U.S. travel to Portugal has boomed in recent years, and it’s now the No. 1 country where Americans are hoping to move abroad.

That’s according to a survey of 116,363 Americans who looked into leaving the U.S. throughout 2024 administered by Expatsi, a company that provides relocation tours and expat resources.

Visitors to Expatsi’s website are invited to complete a 20-question assessment to see which country might suit them best, based on their lifestyle preferences (like weather and local policy), future plans (like studying or working), financial means and other factors.

Survey-takers are asked about the countries they’re most interested in learning more about. The top-requested countries include:

1. Portugal
2. Spain
3. UK
4. Canada
5. Italy
6. Ireland
7. France
8. Mexico
9. New Zealand
10. Costa Rica

Portugal is also the No. 1 most recommended country to survey-takers based on the preferences they select in the assessment, followed by France, Spain, Greece and Switzerland.

The top reason people give for wanting to move out of the U.S. is for adventure, enrichment and growth, according to the survey. Some 56% of respondents say the U.S. is too conservative, while 53% feel the country is too divided. Roughly half of the expat-curious say they want to move for more or different freedoms, and to avoid the threat of gun violence; 41% say they hope to save money while living abroad.

Two-thirds of Expatsi’s test-takers say they want to leave the U.S. by 2026, with 12% saying they hope to move in the next six months. Thirty percent hope to retire abroad, 18% are seeking a digital nomad visa, and 17% say they will move with a skilled worker visa.

More Americans have considered moving abroad since the 2024 presidential elections.

A CNBC analysis of U.S. Google search data showed a spike in users searching for terms related to “how to move to X country” beginning in June 2024. Site traffic to Expatsi spiked to nearly 51,000 visitors in the month of November, up from roughly 8,000 in October, following President Donald Trump’s re-election.

Interest in Expatsi’s resources tend to rise after contentious political events, says Jen Barnett, who co-founded the company with her husband Brett Andrews in 2022 and saw a first wave of interest after the Roe v. Wade decision was overturned that summer.

Now, their business is booming.

Expatsi’s revenue is up 19,632% year-over-year, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It, as the company sold a growing suite of products including relocation scouting trips, one-on-one consultations and tickets to events like a conference in San Antonio starting Friday and running through the weekend, where over 300 guests will hear from speakers to learn about the process of moving abroad: from obtaining a visa and moving your finances overseas, to choosing the right neighborhood and finding a job as a foreigner.

The company helped more than 200 people go on relocation tours in 2024, Barnett tells CNBC Make It. “About 5% are fully moved, and another 25% are in the paperwork stage, meaning they’ve filed visa applications or have appointments to file,” she says.

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Four days per week, nurse anesthetist Mike O’Dell spends his 10-hour shifts sitting in a swivel chair shoved between pieces of towering, whirring operating equipment. He can’t use the bathroom, grab lunch or sip water without asking someone to cover for him, he says.

Running his side hustle, Oklahoma City-based quilting company Legit Kits, offers the opposite experience. One day per week, O’Dell enjoys a cup of coffee on his patio and drives his kids to school before starting work, he says.

“I can eat breakfast, I can go to the gym. I set my own schedule,” says O’Dell, 50.

O’Dell launched his side hustle in 2020, after making his two sons Star Wars-themed blankets by drawing a pattern and sewing fabric to the 5-by-6.5-foot paper — like a craftier version of paint-by-numbers. The process, called “foundation paper piecing,” made quilting easier than he’d expected, so O’Dell decided to start a business around making and selling quilting kits, he says.

Knowing he didn’t want to leave his full-time job — which currently pays him $240,000 per year — O’Dell built Legit Kits to run without him most of the time. He hired two graphic designers to create art and quilting patterns, then another employee to cut fabric and ship quilts, he says.

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Legit Kits, which now has seven full-time employees and four freelance designers, brought in $1.25 million in online sales in 2024, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. The company made an extra $150,000 selling kits at the now-defunct Joann Fabrics and Crafts, O’Dell estimates. (On February 23, Joann announced closures of its roughly 800 stores, citing bankruptcy liquidation.)

The business was profitable in 2023, and broke even last year after accounting for the expenses of moving into a new 4,500-square-foot-warehouse, says O’Dell.

O’Dell learned to sew two decades ago to make his own Braveheart kilt for Halloween, he says. Now, he spends one day per week testing color swatches, approving designs and marketing the company to new customers and retailers. He plans to pay himself a $50,000 salary — for serving as the company’s creative director and CEO — from Legit Kits this year, he says.

“The burnout I feel at the hospital fuels my energy to do the other thing for myself,” says O’Dell. “It turns the volume down when everybody’s mad at work.”

Legit Kits has a relatively small amount of market share in a quilting industry that’s worth nearly $5 billion, according to the Craft Industry Alliance, a trade association. To grow, O’Dell wants to expand his customer base beyond experienced quilters, he says. His current Facebook advertising campaign targets more casual crafters and Legit Kits has started selling more “mini” kits — $99 for each 15-by-20-inch creation — as easier products to complete.

Another reason for selling lower-cost items, O’Dell says: As U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff policies threaten to raise prices on common consumer goods, Americans could be less likely to spend money on crafts.

“I don’t want to price people out of a hobby,” says O’Dell.

But tariffs could also make Legit Kits more expensive to run. The company’s fabrics come from Southeast Asian countries including Indonesia and Vietnam, and goods imported from those two countries face 32% and 46% tariff rates, respectively, under policies unveiled by Trump on April 2. Those rates are currently paused until July 9, temporarily replaced by a baseline 10% tariff rate on all foreign imports.

“The uncertainty is stressful,” says O’Dell, adding that he can’t confidently hire new employees until he knows how tariffs will affect Legit Kits’ costs. “Optimism is essential these days. Hope mine isn’t misplaced.”

His high-paying, full-time job is his company’s safety net. Since O’Dell doesn’t have to worry about Legit Kits turning enough profit to pay himself a living wage, he predicts that tariffs — or any other form of economic uncertainty — won’t ever force his side hustle’s closure.

Even pre-tariffs, he didn’t expect his side hustle income to surpass his nurse anesthetist salary for another five years, he adds.

“I’d have to get Legit Kits up to eight figures in annual sales [to consider making it my full-time job] … and I want my kids to go to college,” says O’Dell.

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If you work full-time, you already know how much time and effort it takes to master work-life balance. Add to that a relationship, and it becomes even harder.

As a psychologist who studies couples — and who has a working wife — I’ve faced these challenges firsthand. Thankfully, my job as both a researcher and husband has taught me how important it is to be intentional about how my wife and I spend our time, specifically on weekends.

Here’s how people in the happiest, most successful relationships spend their free time:

A couple who spends a lot of time together, but is constantly distracted by texts, emails or social media, probably isn’t as happy as a couple who spends less time together, but without their phones.

That’s why carving out one-on-one time without any interference from technology is so important. And how you spend that time is actually irrelevant. It doesn’t need to be extravagant or planned down to the minute. What matters is presence.

It could be a quiet morning coffee where you exchange unfiltered thoughts, a slow walk to fill the silence, or a good old wining-and-dining — as long as the phones and laptops are put away.

After a draining week of work, it’s normal and even healthy to crave solitude. But it can be hard to choose between “me time” and “we time.”

Luckily, there’s a way to satiate the need for both alone time and bonding simultaneously. “Parallel play,” a concept derived from child psychology, is when two people engage in their preferred activity separately, but alongside each other.

For couples, this might look like one partner reading on the couch, while the other plays their favorite video game next to them. They might not be engaging directly with one another, but they’re still intentionally sharing space and de-stressing with an activity they each enjoy.

It’s basically a way of saying: “I love you, but I also need to love me for an hour or two. Let’s do it together.” 

Relationships thrive on ritual. Coming home to your partner and knowing that the weekend will bring something familiar — something reliably yours — can be comforting.

In fact, research shows that rituals can help couples organize their lives in a way that allows for both change and stability to coexist. Individuals can merge into a shared identity that feels distinct from either person alone. You can ground yourselves together, no matter what chaos surrounds you.

What those rituals look like is completely up to you. Don’t shy away from cheesy. It could be Sunday morning pancakes, or board game night with a goofy scoreboard on the fridge. If you’re more practical, maybe it’s a weekly sit-down over a glass of wine to plan out the week, or tackling one nagging chore together with your shared playlist in the background. 

Studies show that couples who have a satisfying sex life are more likely to be happier in their relationships.

But with endless chores and errands, weekends can start to feel like a second workweek — with little time left over for intimacy. Sex quickly starts to feel like less of a priority.

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That’s why structured intimacy can be a good thing. Many people think it can diminish spontaneity, but if anything, it actually removes the mental fatigue of trying to make intimacy happen.

It’s also a great way for couples to engage without distraction, all while combating the emotional strain of work. So, make it intentional and set a time.

Playfulness, according to research, is one of the most reliable tools couples can use to strengthen their relationship. It can boost relationship satisfaction, ease conflict and break up the sense of monotony that partners can start to resent. 

During the week, we unknowingly train ourselves to look for things to stress over. But on weekends, we need to take those goggles off. The act of being silly — and being met with silliness in return — helps us reconnect with the childlike wonder we carry inside that gets buried beneath our responsibilities. 

So, look for joy on purpose. Maybe you pull out a trivia game with nonsense rules or challenge each other to a dance battle.

There’s no right or wrong way to be playful, and chances are, you already know how to make your partner laugh. You just have to remember to do it.

Mark Travers, PhD, is a psychologist who specializes in relationships. He holds degrees from Cornell University and the University of Colorado Boulder. He is the lead psychologist at Awake Therapy, a telehealth company that provides online psychotherapy, counseling and coaching. He is also the curator of the popular mental health and wellness website, Therapytips.org.

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In 2019, Sophie Hilaire Goldie was a consultant at McKinsey & Company, traveling constantly and barely living in her New York City apartment.

That summer, the former captain in the U.S. Army climbed Mount Everest, an experience that she says changed the course of her life.

“When I did that, I had this epiphany that I wanted to spend more time in nature and Central Park to me wasn’t really the level of nature I needed,” Hilaire Goldie tells CNBC Make It.

“On the plane ride home, I knew I couldn’t go back to life in New York,” she says. “That moment of knowing launched the next chapter — van life, homesteading, and loving myself. The mountain did transform me. She gave me direction and that’s been the real gift.”

When Hilaire Goldie returned to NYC, she didn’t renew her lease. But then the covid-19 pandemic hit and she found herself without a home and without a clue of where she wanted to head to next.

“I thought, ‘I’m not ready to pay rent or buy a house, so why don’t I move into a sprinter van and continue to visit different places and see where I want to land?’” Hilaire Goldie says.

“I always knew I wanted to get a van just to have, but this kind of felt like a no-regrets move because I thought, ‘Why don’t I just get it now, so I don’t have to pay rent anywhere and I can keep on traveling?’ I didn’t know how long the pandemic was going to last.”

Hilaire Goldie started searching and found a van on Craigslist for $29,900, according to documents reviewed by CNBC Make It. Her dad picked it up for her in Oregon and the two met up in Colorado, where Hilaire Goldie’s life on the road began.

The van had already been partially built out but still needed a lot of work. Hilaire Goldie added a bedroom area, a kitchen, IKEA cabinets, solar panels, and a desk. She did most of the work herself and estimates she spent about $18,500 in renovations.

When Hilaire Goldie first lived in the van, she was still working as a consultant, so her daily life consisted of waking up to an alarm and working on her computer until the end of the day. She eventually quit her job and started really enjoying life in the van.

“I really enjoyed that period of life where nobody knew who I was and nobody had any expectations of me, which for me, was a big difference in how I was able to move through the world,” she says. “I didn’t feel like I ever needed to be on, I could just be van life Sophie, and people didn’t know I’d only been living in a van for a few years.”

Hilaire Goldie traveled all over the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and says the biggest lesson she learned from all these travels was not to plan anything.

“I realized that I can’t make plans that are better than what God has in store for me. I think I learned that lesson so many times in the van. Every time things didn’t go my way, I eventually learned to let it go. Don’t ruminate over something that was taken,” Hilaire Goldie says. “Whatever new path I was on, I just knew it was taking me somewhere even better than I could have come up with on my own.”

“I learned I needed to let go of control and it was a different way of traveling. Before, when I had a four-day weekend in the army or was working at McKinsey, I was scheduling every single second, but this was a lot more free flowing. I always found out that when I didn’t script things, they turned out even better.”

One of the fondest memories Hilaire Goldie has of living in the van was when she took a trip to Montana. She intended to find a place with no cellphone reception and learn how to sleep again after spending many sleepless nights working as a consultant.

“It was so simple, but it was so powerful, so having my little house with me throughout felt like I could not have planned anything better. I had my home, but was still in a very beautiful place,” she says.

After two years in the van, Hilaire Goldie realized she was ready to put down some roots.

“I just wanted a place where I could see a tree through four seasons and didn’t like the constant movement. It was a phase in my life that was exciting and it just got to the point where I was ready for a new phase,” she says.

Now, Hilaire Goldie lives on a 37.5-acre homestead she bought with her now husband, but still uses the van every day. It has essentially become a place to store supplies for their property, including chicken feed, hay, soil and more.

Hilaire Goldie has no plans to stop using the van — she and her husband even lived in it for a few months on their honeymoon.

“I will never sell this van. How could I sell the temple that I built? When the day comes, the van will become a little cabin on the property,” she says.

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For the last 10 years, I’ve worked with hundreds of students and their parents as an extracurricular coach at Spike Lab. 

I’ve watched my students grow into exceptional and confident young adults, pursuing their passions, starting businesses, developing complex projects, fundraising, and winning awards.

They’ve also been accepted to many selective institutions, including Harvard, Princeton and Stanford. 

While coaching these students, I’ve had the chance to get to know their families, too. Here are four things parents of these highly successful kids never do: 

Parents often pin their hopes on selective schools, as though anything less is unacceptable. Then they work backwards with a singular obsession to achieve that goal, starting tests and application prep early.

Instead of fixating on acceptance to any one college, focus on what is within your power. Help your kid develop the initiative, planning, critical thinking, creativity and communication skills necessary to succeed, no matter where they go. These are the qualities colleges and employers look for anyway. 

College admittance should only be a happy byproduct of success. Don’t ask, “Will my child get into an Ivy League?” Try instead, “Will my child have the ability to succeed anywhere?” If the answer to the latter question is yes, the answer to the former will be more likely to be yes as well.

Teens are often swayed by their peers — but parents aren’t immune to that pressure either. I often see parents signing their kids up for an activity purely out of a competitive feeling of FOMO. But this habit can result in kids who have generic resumes and, more importantly, they don’t get to develop an independent sense of identity. 

When one of my students enrolled in a rigorous science course unrelated to his interests, his reason was that “everyone at my school takes it.” The class wasn’t a requirement, just a norm that neither he nor his parents had questioned. 

While it’s valuable for kids to socialize with their friends, they also must cultivate their own sense of self. What are they interested in? Where do they want to invest their time? You as a parent can mentor them through this one and also set an example. The old “if everyone jumped off a cliff, would you” adage does not just apply to kids. 

It’s common for parents to take on difficult tasks or solve problems on behalf of their kids as a “Snowplow” parent often try to solve their kids’ problems for them

I’ve heard stories from teachers who regularly receive parent emails about their kid’s bad grades or about an inter-student conflict. 

Sometimes an intervention is necessary. But before you take action, ask yourself whether this is something you need to take on. Sometimes, when a tough moment presents itself, it can actually be an opportunity for your kid to learn how to assert themselves. 

Snowplowing, however well intentioned, can undercut the development of agency. If teenagers think someone else will do something for them, they won’t learn to do it for themselves.

In our program, we have students review the defining moments of their lives. Alongside moves, new schools and other common milestones, students frequently list something like being turned down by a varsity team. Rejections give students the confidence to come back stronger or help them reframe how they see themselves. 

It also prepares kids for reality. So rather than discouraging them from taking a leap, teach them how to bounce back from disappointment. Challenge them to do their own version of rejection therapy as practice. 

Once they acclimate, rejection becomes less scary. A student of mine cold emailed 70 professors to find a lab internship. He received dozens of nos. But in the end? One came through. And he learned a lesson in resilience and humility.

Failure and rejection can be wonderfully instructive. And even when they’re not, kids develop grit and position themselves for future success. Moreover, your child might defy your expectations. We often project our own fears onto kids. Kids don’t need adults placing a ceiling on what’s possible. Let them surprise us.

Theo Wolf is a writer and educator, with a focus on passion and purpose development in young adults. He is on the founding team of Spike Lab, a coaching program for high school students, and helped build Snowday, a free search engine for high school summer and extracurricular programs. Theo is a graduate of Cornell University and a mentor at Harvard University’s Lemann Program on Creativity and Entrepreneurship. 

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