Paul Ward decided to up sticks in search of the good life (Image: Swns)
A British granddad who sold his UK home and bought a rural farmhouse in Portugal has told of his ‘dream retirement’ living off the land for less than £1k a month. Paul Ward, 61, worked as an electrician for 36 years on a £40k a year salary before he retired at 55 and packed up his life to head abroad.
The grandfather-of-four decided to rent out his £220k two-bedroom home, live out of his van and travel Europe with ‘no destination’. Paul, from Leeds, has now been in Portugal for five years, having sold his property near York and bought a rural farmhouse in Portugal with 2.5 acres of land. He doesn’t have a mortgage, grows vegetables, and uses solar power and wells for his electricity and water – and lives comfortably on less than £1k a month.
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Paul initially lived in a camper van (Image: Swns)
Paul, who has three adult children, said: “I didn’t know anything about Portugal really but I wanted to see the landscape and learn about the culture.
“It has given me more time. I’m not driving around Leeds, Manchester, or Bradford for hours every week. Living in Portugal has got its stresses but that’s because life goes on. But here, people have more time, work less hours and have more money to pay their bills.This has been an absolute dream for me.”
Paul ran his own electrical contracting company after beginning his career as an electrician at 19 – ultimately retiring at 55 with “some cash”.
He said: “I couldn’t have retired in England but there were opportunities elsewhere in the world.” Explaining he had become “disillusioned” with Britain and was fed up with corporate life, he tried to make his “dream” a reality.
Paul sold his business to his nephew and began travelling in his van – with his now-former wife, who is 18 years younger than him, and young daughter Martha, now six.
They began their journey in 2019 with a residency visa and Martha being just three months old.
Paul said: “My wife, who I’ve now separated from, became pregnant and I’d always said because she was so much younger than me I would embrace being the best father I could be.
“With my other three children, I was working a lot of hours to pay for the mortgage and the bills. I didn’t have as much quality time with my children as I would have wanted. I saw an opportunity to be there every day for her [Martha]. My partner and I both had lived a van life, going to festivals and moving around. We made the decision to move out of the family home, rent it as an Air BnB and travel in the van. We had no destination.”
He continued: “Lots of family and friends said you’re crazy travelling with a baby. But it was awesome, we embraced it.”
The family began in England along the Welsh coastline, and Devon and Cornwall – ‘taking each day as it came’. They then drove across to Spain, staying on the Spanish coast north of Malaga. When Martha was 10 months old, they flew back to England to see their family before returning to their van.
Paul said: “We carried on down in the van to Gibraltar and then crossed into Portugal. We were getting news through of this virus. In March 2020, we managed to continue down the Portuguese coastline for a few weeks before the authorities began clamping down.”
Paul was able to find a campsite to park the van on and fostered a ‘little community’ during the uncertain times of the coronavirus pandemic. However, the campsite was closed just a few weeks later and Paul was told he needed to rent land for his van, rent a home or return to England.
Portugal has some of Europe’s most beautiful coastline (Image: Getty)
He said: “I put a callout on Facebook on a Portuguese van life site to see if anybody with allow an English family with a baby to stay and so many people responded. We drove to central Portugal to a small farming village who welcomed us with open arms. Within three weeks of being on this private land kindly offered to us, we decided to sell the England house and put all of our eggs in one basket.”
After a year and a half of travelling, Paul decided to put an offer down on a detached old farm house with 2.5 acres of land. The plot also included two ‘ruined houses’ in need of TLC which Paul is looking to rebuild. He sold his two-bedroom end terrace home near York for £220k and paid €70k (£60k) for his Portuguese property.
Paul has spent another £100k renovating it to his tastes – and offers space on his land for other van dwellers. He is now a part of a community of musicians, artists and poets, and is the singer and rhythm guitarist of a blues rock band called the ‘Nawty Pharmas’.
Alongside his pal Kev, they pick up other musicians along their summer festival route in Portugal, playing festivals.
Paul spends his time paddle-boarding, swimming and cycling – and raising his now six-year-old daughter Martha, having split from his wife.
He said: “Martha is potentially going to start mainstream school but we are considering an alternative education. She’s lived a liberal, free and wild childhood. She joins us on stage, steals the show and she loves music and art.
“The UK was so dreary and grey. You spend your whole time working and trying to make ends meet. There never seemed to be enough time.
“Here in Portugal, it is very community based. You see children with parents or grandparents all taking walks together. The police are out on the streets, just checking things out like the old bobbies on the beat. You don’t have that anymore over the water – you don’t have people talking to each other just because you can. Everyone knows each other and I’m sure there’s village chit chat but the Portuguese are so accepting.”
Paul said living in Portugal is a slower but more fulfilling pace of life – a far cry from his days as an electrician and running his own company.
He added: “For the people who are working out here, the quality of life is better because the cost of living is cheaper. I don’t really worry about money anymore. You have beautiful mountains, beaches and villages. I’m quite a spontaneous person and I would tell anyone to go for it. Be prepared to change your mindset to adapt to this life especially if you’ve lived a fast paced life.”