If you’ve had a read of how we managed our mini retirement in Portugal and are thinking of taking one yourself then here are some tips on what we did to plan for ours.
When
How long to save up
First, you will need to figure out how much your mini retirement will cost and how long it will take you to save up. If you are tracking your expenses or know roughly how much you spend a year then this will be a big help in your planning.
Say you will be off for 3 months and without income for 4 months (keeping in mind you will need to work for a full month before you get paid again if you are paid monthly) and you spend 40,000€/year (the average for a family in Ireland) then you will need 13,333€ to fund your cost of living if you are staying home.
If you are taking the time off to travel or start a business etc then you will also need to factor in the additional cost of living of those activities. I go into some of my tips for figuring out cost of living abroad below.
If you will be travelling and you will still have fixed expenses at home, be sure to include those. If you will be renting out your home while you are away, have a look at why we didn’t do this here.
Once you’ve figured the cost out, then figure out how much you can save per month and how many months it will take to save up that amount.
Getting work off
Once you have an idea how long it will take you to save up for your mini-retirement then you should start laying the ground work for asking for time off. There are some great tips in this post on how to make it very hard for your boss to say no to your time off.
Basically it suggests, in the months coming up to requesting your time off, work extra hard, be super helpful to your coworkers (especially if they will cover for you while you are away), mention your dream/goals for your time off in passing so they are not surprised and lay as much of the ground work for your cover while you are away so there is very little for your boss to consider. How you frame your ask for time off will make all the difference.
If you are asking for parental leave in Ireland, then this is already hard for managers to say no to since it’s a statutory leave.
Your employer can only refuse parental leave if you are not entitled to take it.
Your employer can also postpone your parental leave for up to 6 months. They must do this before the confirmation document is signed. After that, the leave cannot be postponed without further written agreement. Grounds for such a postponement include lack of cover or the fact that other employees are already on parental leave.
Normally only one postponement is allowed, but your leave may be postponed twice if the reason is seasonal variations in the volume of work.
Where
If travel is in your plans then here are some of the criteria we considered.
Flights, Weather and Distance
For us, we would be travelling in Jan/Feb and wanted to go somewhere warmer than Ireland, but also somewhere that wasn’t too far from home. As we were travelling with a smallie, we didn’t want to take a flight that was more than 4 hours total. We also wanted the cost of living to be cheaper than staying home.
From Ireland, we checked out:
| Place | Flight Cost for 2 adults and baby + 1 checked bag | Flight Time | Temp |
| Tenerife | 286€ | 4h direct | High: 20, Low: 15 |
| Malta | 176€ | 3h 45 direct | High: 16, Low: 9 |
| Portugal | 251€ | 3h direct | High: 16, Low: 6 |
We googled average temperatures in each for the months we would be there (equally important for hotter months if the weather would be unbearable).
We used google flights to check out direct flights from a specific airport and to find the best rates and dates to fly.
Cost of living
In terms of figuring out cost of living in each location we looked at a number of areas.
Accommodation
For accommodation we used sites like booking.com and Air b’n’b.
Our accommodation checklist included:
- a balcony with sunlight so that we could sit out while baby was napping and not having the hassle of leaving the house (Michael McIntyre’s skit comes to mind)
- washing machine so we could pack as little as possible (plus we use cloth nappies so definitely needed one for that)
- walking distance to Lidl or large supermarket (to help keep our costs down)
- and obviously cost, the lower the better
Keeping all that in mind I searched for the cheapest range first and then ticked off all the other boxes to get a sense of accommodation costs in each location.
Millennial Revolution also have a good travel series where they report their cost of living in each location so I also cross checked my findings with their specific location pages. You can search for a location in their search bar to see if they have a post on that location or scroll through the list here. They live quite frugally so I know their spending would be in line with ours.
Food
In terms of food costs, we had been to Tenerife so we looked at what we spent when we were there. While we felt the shopping was cheap, we actually spent quite a bit more than we thought (260€ for a week) which would be over 1,000€/month if every week was the same as that one.
For Malta and Portugal we looked at sites like Numbeo (where you compare cost of living between two cities, it gives you a percentage difference which you could apply to your typical food expenditure at home) and other blogs/vlogs.
The Our Rich Journey vlog details their living expenses in Lisbon each month since Sep 2019, so that was a good recent indicator of costs to expect.
Getting around
I mentioned how we found our flights above but in addition to Google flights you can also use skyscanner. Both have notifications you can setup to get pinged when a certain flight price has increased or decreased. If you are planning on something far in advance this feature might be of use to you.
We also took into consideration the cost of getting around once we got to where we were going. We tried to find cities or places which wouldn’t require a car rental to keep costs low.
In terms of getting from the airport, often vacation areas will offer shuttle services but usually at triple the price of public transport (though potentially half the time). We scoffed at the 60€ quoted for airport shuttle to our location but may have been short-sighted (read on below).
Google maps and Rome2Rio are other useful sites when trying to figure out routes to get places.
I also googled how to get from and to certain places and read local forums or travel sites detailing typical costs and options.
In the end, as our flight was getting in past our son’s bedtime, we decided to book a cheap airport hotel which had a place for breakfast, when we got up the next day, we popped down for breakfast and then got an uber to the train station where we got a train for the 3 of us to Portimao for 12€ (babies go free). It was about 40 minutes longer but was nice as baby got to nap on me while I read my book.
In the end it may have been much of a muchness to pay for the more expensive shuttle. For example:
- Cost of airport hotel: 50€
- Cost for breakfast for 2: 15€
- Cost for Uber to and from train station: 13€
- Cost for train: 12€
Total: 90€ minus 30€ for extra night in other location = 60€ minus say 12€ for breakfast = 48€ vs 60€ for the shuttle in half the time.
That said, maybe the train was a safer route for a baby without a car seat (although probably cancelled out by the two uber’s we got to get to the train station).
In Portugal, Uber and Kapten are cheaper and more convenient ways of getting around.
All that to say, you’ll need to take into account your added transport costs whether you use public transport, airport shuttles, taxis/ubers, or rent a car be sure to include a line item for this in your budget.
Travel insurance
If you live in the EU and have a tax number where you live, you should be eligible to apply for an EU health card. This allows you to have possibly free health cover in any EU country. We found out about this last minute and went into the office just before Christmas, we were given temporary cards straight away which last for a month and were posted the full versions once available. This doesn’t replace travel insurance and only covers necessary health care but is nice to have as a back up. Even I got one, even though I am not yet a citizen. Your partner can apply on your behalf as well so you don’t need to lug your baby in as long as they have the necessary documentation. You can read more about it here.
In terms of travel insurance, check your employer health insurance plan to see if they have an add-on where you can select travel insurance instead of additional cover for other health cover you may not use.
Visas
If you’re planning on going somewhere for longer than 3 months, make sure you can stay there for that long. Most places have a 3 month limit before you need to leave and come back again. I nearly forgot this as I have been in Ireland so long, I just assumed I could travel to Portugal for 3 or 4 months. Obviously as an EU citizen you can travel to any EU country without a visa.
Getting there
Packing
If you’re keeping costs low by traveling on budget airlines, you will need to pack light. 1 20kg checked bag costs about 50€ for the return trip, which can be hard to swallow when you’re only paying 70€ for the flight.
As we were going for 2 months with a baby, we decided to “splurge” and pay for 1 checked bag between the three of us.
Here is what we ended up bringing:
- 1 20kg checked bag
- 1 5kg small carry-on bag for baby supplies (allowed by Ryanair for free – other airlines allow 10kg though I can’t remember them weighing it)
- 1 handbag
- 1 rucksack
- 1 travel buggy
The first place we were staying had an additional baby package where we got a travel cot, high chair and baby bath for 25€ for the 32 nights so that saved us bringing any of that over.
In terms of clothes we brought 1 week’s worth for each of us and packed a variety of warm and cold clothes.
We also managed to fit all the baby nappies, wipes, creams, travel potty, nappy bags etc into the 5kg carry on bag.
House prep
Insurance
In terms of getting your house ready if you’ll be away for a longer period of time, make sure you check your home insurance for their unoccupied clause. Ours states that after 45 days your home is no longer covered for vandalism, or burst pipes. Having a family member stay for a weekend doesn’t re-start the clock either. Their definition of occupancy is 4 nights in any one week. In order to reduce this risk we gave a key to a friend who will check in every few days. We also let our neighbour know and gave them our numbers in case anything needed urgent attention. As we were leaving in winter, we also left the heating on low and turned the water off at the mains in order to significantly reduce the risk of a burst pipe.
If you’re planning to rent it out, have a look at some of the reasons we didn’t do this before making your decision.
Car
If you’ll be away for more than a few weeks, it’s also a good idea to disconnect your car battery before you go. We forgot to do this last time we went for 6 weeks and came home to a dead battery which needed to be replaced.
And that’s all the tips I can think of. Hopefully it was of some use and gives some food for thought on your next adventure should you be planning one.