Has anyone retired early or changed jobs to travel in Europe more?

Your last sentence...I hope not.

Did anyone get into teaching so as to have the summers off for travel?

DW and I were both teachers, which enabled several summer trips to Europe (though travel wasn't the main objective behind our career choices.)

...with more travel would come more expenses...

As retirees, we've traveled in Europe a little more often and for longer periods, but we still haven't developed any need for extravagance when we travel - we travel independently, and our minimalist spending approach hasn't changed over the years. Thus, a month's expenses abroad, though certainly a blip, are not a humongous blip; they are offset by a large reduction in our home/auto energy expenses at home and the fact that our entertainment/eating out/travel expenses at home are zero.

You could always consider what this husband and wife did. I enjoyed their book:
"Home Sweet Anywhere: How We Sold Our House, Created a New Life, and Saw the World"
https://www.amazon.com/Home-Sweet-Anywhere-House-Created/dp/1402291531

About the author: In 2010, Lynne and Tim Martin decided to sell their home, disburse most of their belongings and travel the world for the rest of their lives. Lynne's popular blog, homefreeadventures.com, chronicles their nomadic life, which was the cover article of The Wall Street Journal's "Next" section in October 2012, and was featured on the front page of Yahoo.com, as well as in the Huffington Post, Fodor's Travel Intelligence, among others. Her work has also appeared in Mark Chimsky's book, 65 Things to Do When You Retire, International Living, the Huffington Post, and other publications.

Lynne and her husband Tim, a novelist, have lived in Mexico, Argentina, Turkey, France, Italy, Great Britain, Ireland, and Morocco since they became home free. She now has no permanent address and intends to keep it that way until the wheels fall off sometime in the next thirty years.

Rob, for me it was the other way. I would have liked to change job but at that time I already earned extra weeks of vacation due to my seniority and if I changed my job my vacation would have been shorter - that was the only reason why I stayed.

Yes, I took a lower paying job to move to Rome in 2012. In 2015 I was retirement eligible and retired there. We stayed 18 months with the express purpose of traveling more and we traveled about 50% of the time after we retired.

We found Rome to be less expensive than our hometown of Portland, OR, as far as basic living expenses. (If it was strictly a financial decision, we would have stayed indefinitely.) We had a very modest, furnished apartment in retirement (no air conditioning!) as our base camp and feel we truly lived like locals. We also travel fairly inexpensively: apartments, longer stays, cooking in half the time, public transportation almost exclusively. (We did not even own a car in Italy.)

If I had come back to the U.S. in 2015 I would have returned to my executive level job as my "downgrade" was voluntary. So happy I did not come back and have continued to enjoy retirement! but I miss a lot about Italy.

I did it three years ago. I now travel most of the time and this year I'll spend about half of it in Europe.

I started planning years ago and learned how to make it work. I got rid of my home and most of my possessions so that I'm not paying for two places at once when I travel. That saves a lot of money. I also learned how to maximize the gaining of frequent travel points which help enormously.

having longer to travel is definitely the solution ( especially when you read the posts here of people trying to fit in too much in a short time)
travelling longer does require more expenses, but the longer you travel( per trip) the costs per day ratio decreases. as you always have the fixed costs of insurances, flights, etc. That is one of the reasons why we go to europe for a minimum of 2 months.

how do we get 2 months off work? we often get asked that question by fellow travelers. In Australia most government (and some private companies) give their workers long service leave ( as well as annual leave- annual is usually 4 weeks- teachers get more)
usually you can combine long service leave with annual leave ( assuming your boss allows you)
long service leave, as the name suggests relies on you working for the same company for more than 10 years and is paid leave and can sometimes be taken at half pay.( the amount of long service leave granted is variable)

having access to long periods of time off allows you to keep working, enjoying holidays, and fund your lifestyle before retirement.
so, if you see 'oldish' australians in your travels, chances are they might be using their long service leave.

You could also find a job that requires your presence in Europe. My first trip to Europe was a week-long business trip to London. Even though we were staying across the street from the Tower of London (at what was then the Tower Thistle), I never had the time to go there. I had a few hours off on Saturday morning, before the Tower opened, so I walked to St. Paul's and that was it for my sightseeing. Luckily, we did get to drive to the Newmarket area to meet with our expert witness, who lived in a house that was built by the village undertaker in the 17th century. It was also fun to observe the inner workings of a London law office. My boss's first name was "Earl" and the lady who brought us tea addressed him as "m'lord". I gave one of the secretaries my copy of "The Royals" by Kitty Kelly, which at the time was not available in the UK. That gave me a brief moment of popularity with the support staff.

And of course, the airline miles from the trip were added to my account, but not at my expense!

Not sure if this reply is responsive to the OP's question, but it brought back some happy memories.

I agree that teaching is not something one ought to do in order to get time away from it.

However, I teach at a small college and once I was able to stop teaching during summer sessions, I put that time toward traveling.

Never a better time than now to consider moving abroad if you have a skill that's needed over here. Most of the expats I know are engineers for example, and are not required to speak German to work here. There's also the military/government option, too, although more difficult if you're not a veteran or don't have a security clearance, but regardless we do get some "full civilians" from time to time particularly in IT/programming.

Yes, I retired early to be able to travel at a whim...but seems I like the planning. But really, that is only one reason...I retired to do ALL the things that I didn't have time to do while working. Now, I wonder how I ever had time to work! I love that retirement and no kids in school allowing travel in cooler and less crowded times. Also, there is no guarantee that we will always have our health, so I retired early to be able to do what I want while I can!

Career, money, time and travel....establish a balance that meets your needs. For me, travel is very important and have made decisions accordingly.

I second wray's post. We began planning for an early retirement years ago and were fortunate things went as planned. Being able to travel more for longer periods of time and with great flexibility was certainly one reason but not the only reason we retired early. I know too many people including my father who passed away or became seriously ill before having a chance to do any of the things they postponed until they retired. We included an annual travel amount in our post-retirement budget that was factored into our financial planning.

The only reason I went back to my old job after a year-long medical leave was for the health insurance -- stayed until I could retire on Medicare. Just make sure you feel comfortable with your safety nets before you take the big jump.

I had the same situation as Ilja. After sticking around to get up to 5 weeks vacation, when I really started disliking my job and wanting to change, I just couldn't give up those weeks of paid vacation and going back to 1-2 weeks, even though I was sorely tempted in order to make more $$ in another job.

I certainly didn't go into teaching so I could travel and it really doesn't fit with European travel very well. My husband has made 57 trips to Europe, not to mention China, Australia, and Japan. I've made 11 trips to Europe, but could not go with him on any of his others-we are only allowed two personal days during the school year and cannot take them to extend holidays. Last August, I scheduled a trip to Spain as soon as school was out this year to minimize the heat. In Jan of this year, the principal decided he wanted our dept to work an additional week the week after school was out(we've only done this once in my 12 years at this school and it was in 2006). When I told him I had a non-changeable trip scheduled, he did schedule the work week for the week that I got back-got back from Europe at 6 on Sunday, had to go to work at 8 on Monday. So I find your last sentence laughable, not to mention where would teachers get the money to travel in Europe during high season on a regular basis?

I had a job where I was paid a very good salary and so was able to plan for an early retirement. I continued to live on the same salary for many, many years in order to save fast. Every time I got a raise or bonus it all went into my 401. For instance, if I got a 5% raise, I increased my contribution to the 401 by that 5% and just kept living on the same salary. I never lived up to my means, so in addition to the savings in the 401, I would save money from my salary as well. I was able to retire at age 59. I can now travel whenever I want which is wonderful.

where would teachers get the money to travel in Europe during high
season on a regular basis?

Hmmmm...what about their (better compensated) spouses? Teachers often complain how underpaid they are, but yet they seem to enjoy having time off that others would dream of. Fringe benefits (pensions, vacation, etc.) count as compensation. So it's hard to argue they are uniformly poorly compensated. Some honest ones will admit to this.

But seriously, I think the key factor in retiring early is that you can actually afford to retire early. Travel is simply a nice side-benefit (and it is expensive). Mandatory expenses (healthcare, living expenses, long-term care, etc) will trump everything. I'm in my early 40s...there are no such things as pensions to count on when I retire. The last poster is spot on about living below your means and squirreling away as much money as possible in savings.

So I'll share my perspective...
I got into teaching because I loved working with kids and truly believe that those of us who are good at it need to do it to insure that the next generation is equipped to live an informed life that is productive and happy. Sounds hokey, I know, but I still believe this after doing it for many years.
Don't go into teaching for the summers and other holidays...It is an extremely difficult job, especially at first. The pay isn't good for the first 5 - 10 years and you spend your summers taking classes, reworking units, lesson plans, etc. It isn't easy. Secondly, the hours suck...everyone thinks we work from 8:30 - 3 and that's it. Not true at all...I routinely work 7 - 5 M-F plus evenings and for at least 6-7 additional hours on the weekend, sometimes more depending on how many papers I have to grade. It's grueling, stressful, and unless you like kids and teaching them, you shouldn't do it. I won't even get into dealing with administrators and parents, serving on committees, endless meetings.... it's not a job for everyone but I happen to love it for a lot of reasons.
I am fortunate that my husband and I both teach. After 28 years we make a decent salary and live comfortably...we will never be "rich" but we have enough. We have also made good investments so we have been able to use our entire summers to travel for about the past 20 years or so. In order to afford to do that we home exchange. We would never have been able to be overseas for 9 - 10 weeks at a time otherwise. We trade homes and cars...we've done it many times and had excellent experiences. If you own a home, then home exchange makes it possible to travel for far less money and for extended periods of time. I know of several people who literally trade their way around the world for 6 months and longer. Takes some planning but it's totally possible, even if you retire early and have a smaller income than you might hope to have. Some people also rent out their home while they plan to be gone which also frees up a lot of cash for travel, especially if you go to inexpensive countries. Think long term though...you can't travel forever!

Anita's list only scratches the surface. Current conditions for the average teacher are probably worse than ever as a result of societal factors and the constant and extensive tinkering done to our schools in recent years. Teacher shortages are abundant. Credentialed grads are way, way down. So why is that, when everyone knows about the perks of teaching - the pensions and time off? I think a lot of college students who might have been interested in teaching as small kids have seen what a crummy, near-impossible job it was for their teachers - and now want no part of it.

If you really have your eyes open to the whole picture and see it differently, then go into teaching. You're likely to get multiple job offers in many places. Districts often have their own recruitment and training strategies, depending on their needs, sometimes with signing bonuses; some actively recruit professionals working in other fields. And if you like to travel, you'll have several weeks for that in summer, and maybe 3 at Christmas, when you might be mostly free of your responsibilities. But there are probably better avenues for long-term job fulfillment (if my colleagues over the decades are any indication) and possibly for travel opportunities as well.

If you are a US citizen, and plan to live in Europe for a significant period of time - involving carte de sejours or visas and the finances needed to support yourselves - you will need to purchase supplemental insurance that is valid in the country you choose to live in.

Medicare is required to pay first, before the supplental insurance kicks in. I found Medicare virtually useless, in my situation, and just relied on my supplemental insurance.
Once you save enough money for long-term or temporary housing, you can control your costs fairly easily - once you get settled down.

Good posts, Anita and Russ. I teach because I enjoy working with students to help them learn. Next year will be my 27th year teaching and this summer I am spending at least 2 hours every day on lesson plans for a new course I will be teaching(this has happened many times during my teaching career) and revising lesson plans, per administrative mandates from our summer workshop. So it's not just the early years of your teaching career that you do this. And yes, I do get to travel because my husband has a much better paying job but he often complains about my inability to take off time during the school year to travel with him.

Cala is absolutely right...I am also switching grade levels this year which is cutting into my summer, big time! We won't be going away for more than about 2 weeks this year. So far, I've spent at least 4 hours or so every day learning a new curriculum, re-educating myself on some science concepts I haven't thought about in years (I'll be teaching science and writing only this next year), creating curriculum since we are in transition from traditional science curriculum to the new NGSS standards and there is NO set curriculum yet, and developing the units with all of the activities and labs. Plus all the writing assignments that will be embedded into the science program - 7 different types of writing have to be covered. So yes...teaching is not a cake walk nor is it a way to get loads of vacation time necessarily.
Russ is absolutely right as well...some places pay much better than others. Teachers in the south make far less than other places in the US. Cost of living is much lower though BUT the cost of travel is the same so the more you can make the more you'll have for vaca. Where I happen to teach in CA is one of the lowest paid districts in Los Angeles County but it is still fairly good. My husband happens to teach in the highest paid district in the state so it kind of evens out. There are some districts you couldn't pay me enough to teach in because working conditions are bad or it's a just plain dangerous place to be. If you choose teaching make sure to do your homework first...there is a HUGE variety of contexts in which to work and you have to find the one that is right for you.

Anita, the NGSS standards and the need to develop additional courses for students who will soon be required to have an additional science credit are also what's impacting our science dept. so severely this summer-almost all of us are teaching a class we haven't taught before. My degrees are in Biology but during my career I've also taught Physics and Chemistry. Next year I'll be teaching an Environmental Studies Class that also includes earth and space science-and I've never taken a Geology course!

Cala...crazy, right? Our middle school teachers are losing their minds because our district chose to go with the integrated model. Our high school teachers are also a bit freaked out since they may be in a similar situation as you are in a year or two. I like NGSS in theory but it's a bit daunting for all. Good luck with your planning this summer!

Frankly, the last job I would consider would be a teacher - and I was one for several years.

There is no joy in coming during the Summer months, when everybody and their mama is there, fainting from heatstroke. Everything is crowded, there's no air-conditioning and it's difficult to reserve trains or rental cars, much less hotels. Most people are utterly miserable.

Instead, I would look for the highest-paid job you can get, contribute to your 401k plan, and save every dollar you can. Europe is expensive on a daily basis, especially if you plan to live like a tourist.

It's really not possible for people to get a good-paying job in Europe unless you have some special skill, or can secure a work contract before you apply for a work permit.

Then, I would do all my travelling in January through the end of March, when very few people visit.

No.

It takes money to travel. While I work I have enough to do the amount of traveling I want each year. Without a job, I could not travel to Europe or other long distances anywhere near as much as I do now. I am lucky that I do get 5 weeks vacation each year and do not have issues with the boss when I want to take off (most of the time). I could retire now, according to my money man at the bank. But going over the math it would be difficult to do so at least until I can get on Medicare.

EDIT: My mention of Medicare is related to day-to-day insurance while at home. I know it does not cover me outside the US. Insurance not part of a plan offered by my employer is simply unaffordable, for me, for a long term solution. I always purchase travel insurance to cover me while traveling as I can find affordable plans that seem to cover what I need.

If you are a US citizen, Medicare is the default payment - and it doesn't pay much.

You might think about taking out some medical travel insurance that will give you at least 80% coverage, even though medical care is relatively inexpensive in Europe.

Someone competent has to be a teacher. Whether they stay in teaching after 5 years is another story. On summer travel it is a trade off, like most things in life. I always travel in the summer, in the past and still do now but I go earlier now, ie, by mid-May instead of mid-June,

If you are a US citizen, Medicare is the default payment - and it doesn't pay much.

My husband's experience is that Medicare coverage is fine, especially with supplemental coverage BUT Medicare does not cover you outside of the U.S. When we lived in Italy the "supplemental" coverage was his only coverage. Luckily it is an excellent plan. You will want to make certain your plan covers you well when traveling or living overseas.

The answer I haven't seen anybody talk about in this thread is owning your own business.

Now there are lots of these business owners that are married to their business and cannot leave for various reasons. It might be that they're the only person working in their business and they make no money if they go away on vacation. That can be tough to get away from.

. Others have their business so well-managed or just on cruise control that they can sneak away and it will continue to run itself with minimal input while they're gone..

While others, like myself, can basically do their job for long periods of time from anywhere in the world so long as they have a cell phone connection and an internet connection. That is, at least for me, the ideal situation. Love it.

We were in a pub in Dublin and my phone rings and I just step outside take the call and handle it in 5 minutes time and then back to what I was doing. We were in a castle in Scotland same thing. I have lots of my clients trained to text me with what they need and we don't even need to talk on the phone.

I know some people are goingto say, and I've had many people comment to me in person about this before, that when they go on vacation they just want to unplug and not have to worry about work whatsoever.

I get that, but I have set my business up so that I generally don't work more than 20 hours a week anyway so the offset of having to answer my phone four or five times during the week on vacation and handle maybe 10 service items (max) via email or text that take a couple minutes at a time, for me the offset is well well worth it.

On the flip side my wife works a bery good 40 hour week job. She gets 5 weeks vacation and it's pretty flexible.

I've tried several times to coax her into finding some type of self-employment so we have even more flexibility. She just can't seem to take that plunge. But not all jobs or businesses are created equal either....

I did all of this by plan. When I started my business 10 years ago I wanted to make sure that I had the ability to work when I want and where I want and have the flexibility to travel.

My income is residual and I am therefore kind of selective about what I take on for clients. I only have a couple that are service heavy and it really isn't that bad. I really avoid ones that seem like they're going to be a pain in the butt. Luckily I'm at the point where I can kind of pick and choose

I'm retiring in four years...as soon as possible. I'm about 10 miles from RS headquarters, and the cost of living here is getting out of control. Going to set up a base some where cheap in the US, and then spend most of my time out of the country.