Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Brazil): Se eu tivesse um salário maior, viajaria mais com minha família, como sempre prometo. - If I had a higher salary, I would travel more with my family, as I always promise.

You use tivesse (imperfect subjunctive) because the speaker is imagining a situation that is not true right now (they do not have a higher salary).

Why is it viajaria and not something like viajasse?

Viajaria is the conditional form of viajar (I would travel).

The normal pairing for an unreal present/future condition is:

If-clause: imperfect subjunctive → Se eu tivesse…
Main clause: conditional → viajaria…

So:

Se eu tivesse um salário maior, viajaria mais…
= If I had a higher salary, I would travel more…

A form like viajasse (subjunctive) would not be used in this construction; it would be ungrammatical here.

Can I drop the eu in Se eu tivesse… and the subject in viajaria…?

Yes. In spoken and written Portuguese, subject pronouns are often omitted because the verb ending shows who the subject is.

You can say:

Se eu tivesse um salário maior, viajaria mais… (with eu)
Se tivesse um salário maior, viajaria mais… (without eu)

Both are correct.

Similarly, you can add eu in the second clause:

Se eu tivesse um salário maior, eu viajaria mais…

Adding eu often gives a bit more emphasis (“I would travel more”).

Why is it um salário maior instead of something like um salário mais grande?

In Portuguese, maior is the normal comparative for “bigger / greater / higher” and is used with abstract things like salary:

um salário maior = a higher / bigger salary

Mais grande is technically understandable but is not idiomatic in standard Portuguese for this meaning. You might see mais grande only for strong emphasis or in some dialects, and mostly with physical size, not salary.

You could also say:

um salário mais alto – also “a higher salary,” very natural
um salário melhor – “a better salary” (implies quality/conditions or amount)

What exactly does como mean in como sempre prometo? Is it “like,” “as,” or “how”?

In como sempre prometo, como means “as” in the sense of “in the way that / just like.”

So:

…viajaria mais com minha família, como sempre prometo.
≈ “…I would travel more with my family, as I always promise.”

It is not the interrogative “how” here; it’s a conjunction meaning something like “as / just like.”

Why is prometo in the present tense if the rest is hypothetical? Why not prometeria?

Prometo is the present indicative (“I promise”).

The sentence mixes:

a hypothetical condition: Se eu tivesse um salário maior, viajaria mais…
with a real habitual action in the present: …como sempre prometo. (as I always promise)

The speaker really does always promise this, even though the actual traveling is hypothetical.

If you said como sempre prometeria, that would sound wrong here. You want to state a real, current habit, so present tense prometo is correct.

Is the comma before como sempre prometo required?

Yes, it’s normal and recommended.

…viajaria mais com minha família, como sempre prometo.

Here, como sempre prometo is a subordinate clause (adding extra information: “as I always promise”). In Portuguese, you generally separate this kind of clause with a comma, especially when it comes at the end like this.

Without the comma, it’s not exactly wrong, but it reads less clearly and less naturally.

Why is it minha família and not a minha família? Are both correct?

Both minha família and a minha família are grammatically correct.

minha família – more common in Brazil in everyday speech
a minha família – also correct; sometimes sounds a bit more formal or emphatic, and is more common in European Portuguese

In your sentence:

…viajaria mais com minha família… (perfectly natural in Brazilian Portuguese)
…viajaria mais com a minha família… (also fine, just a slightly different style choice)

Meaning is the same.

Can I move sempre to another position, like como prometo sempre?

Yes, sempre is fairly flexible, and several positions are possible, though they can change the emphasis slightly:

como sempre prometo – very natural; emphasis on “always,” linked directly to “as”
como eu sempre prometo – adds emphasis to eu (“as I always promise”)
como prometo sempre – also possible, more emphasis at the end; a bit less common in everyday speech, but not wrong

The version you have, como sempre prometo, is the most typical for this idea.

What would change if I said Se eu tiver um salário maior instead of Se eu tivesse um salário maior?

Changing tivesse (imperfect subjunctive) to tiver (future subjunctive) changes the kind of condition:

Se eu tiver um salário maior, viajarei mais…
→ If I have a higher salary (when/if that happens), I will travel more…
This suggests a real, possible future condition (e.g., a raise you expect might happen).
Se eu tivesse um salário maior, viajaria mais…
→ If I had a higher salary, I would travel more…
This suggests an unreal / hypothetical situation (you don’t actually have the higher salary now, and it may not be likely).

So tivesse + viajaria is the “unreal” combo; tiver + viajarei is the “real possible future” combo.

Is the word order viajaria mais com minha família fixed, or can I say viajaria com minha família mais?

The natural order is:

viajaria mais com minha família = I would travel more with my family

Putting mais at the end (viajaria com minha família mais) sounds odd and unidiomatic in this context.

In general, frequency/intensity adverbs like mais, menos, muito, pouco tend to come:

after the verb: viajaria mais
or after the object, if it’s short and there’s no ambiguity

But here, viajaria mais com minha família is clearly the best option.