We’re teachers who worked across the world. At 58 and 61 we’re retiring in Greece

Jo and William Cullen, 58 and 61, have just started their early retirement in a picturesque villa in Greece that they bought outright in cash. But the couple, originally from the UK, have gone on a journey around the world to get there. Until 2004, the pair lived in Lymington, Hampshire, with their three children, then aged 16, 13 and 11. Shorts “Then, we decided to have an adventure,” says Jo. The entire family moved to Doha, Qatar, with William teaching geography, history and theory of knowledge at a secondary school, and Jo working as a primary school teacher. They stayed there for a year, before moving to Phuket, Thailand, for four years and then moved to Auckland, New Zealand, in 2009, where they obtained permanent residency and bought a large house with a big mortgage. At this point, many would have stayed put, but, with their children starting to leave home, the couple moved to Dubai in 2012, selling their house in the process. As international teachers, they got an accommodation allowance so had significant disposable income in Dubai. “You can save a considerable amount, especially when you’re child-free,” says Jo. “In Dubai, each of our salaries was €3,800 a month and that was tax-free; there were no housing costs, and we got yearly flights back to our point of domicile which was New Zealand. We also got Bupa healthcare, shipping allowances and yearly bonuses,” she said. Their jobs were in Dubai private schools, where they taught the children of Middle Eastern royalty, and managed to save the equivalent of one salary – around €3,800 – a month. By 2014, the couple had saved up enough to buy a three-bedroom house in North Corfu, Greece, for €45,000 in cash – which they initially rented out. They eventually left Dubai, and spent a year in Corfu in 2018. “During this time, we also bought a second, smaller house on the island and flipped it,” adds Jo. This was bought for €60,000, renovated for €30,000 and sold for €150,000, further boosting their savings. But the couple were getting itchy feet and wanted to travel again, plus, they had heard about a book called The Millionaire Teacher – now renamed The Millionaire Expat – by Andrew Hallam, which explains the author’s journey to becoming a millionaire by investing. “I didn’t want to be working in 10 years’ time so looked into this,” says Jo. She started taking the book’s guidance to put money saved into low-cost index funds – which invest in multiple different companies. “It also recommends cutting down on wasting money on daily expenses. Don’t buy anything you don’t need and don’t overpay on expensive cars, rentals and holidays,” she said. While taking on this strategy, they also took jobs as teachers in Brunei, Southeast Asia, which were tax-free, to boost the amount they could invest. “While we were in Brunei, Covid hit and we were locked down. There was nothing to spend money on so, we were saving a salary and a half every month, about €5,000. It made saving easy at that point. The money just built itself,” Jo said. As the stock market recovered in the post-Covid from 2022-2025, what they had bought grew very quickly. “We couldn’t believe it; we thought, ‘This is how rich people make money’. It was that easy. We come from normal backgrounds and those were exceptional years,” says Jo. Having spent three, very frugal, years in Brunei, the pair decided they wanted to go back to Bangkok, Thailand, followed by the island of Phuket in the country. In 2023, they sold their Corfu home for €310,000 and put the money into investments, where they now had a pot of around €500,000. “We had thought of retiring to Bali or Thailand as the children were in Australia and New Zealand, but we had permanent residency in Greece, as we had bought there before Brexit. This means we can work and get basic healthcare so that was the decider,” says Jo. Jo found a four-bedroom house, just north of Athens, which they bought for €185,000 in cash in 2025. The couple used some of the money they had saved in their index fund to fund the purchase. After renovations, they now have €250,000 left in their investment account. “At the moment, we are relying on William’s small teacher’s pension [from his time working in the UK before their travels] and pulling out from the investment fund. When we hit 67, we can pull out less from our investments as we will have the UK state pensions,” says Jo. The couple has also launched Teaching Journeys Global, a consultancy which supports teachers interested in making the move to international schools. As renovations on their house are on-going, Jo and William are currently withdrawing €2,400 a month but live simply in Greece. “We have a cheap car, and it runs on gas as well as petrol so is economical. We have cut back on buying clothes and shopping. The cost of living in Greece for food, alcohol and eating out is 12 per cent less than in the UK. There is always fresh fruit and veg which is cheap,” she says. “We will have €150,000 left [in investments] by the time we are 67, when the state pensions kick in. It will be a die-with-nothing scenario. We still have the property as collateral and the house is building in value,” she says.