He'd be better off to wait until he's 60 to retire. It would be a more realistic goal. If he doesn't want to wait that long, he could maybe work for six months of the year in Ireland and spend the rest of his time relaxing in Spain. That's the big advantage of being self employed . . . it allows you work from anywhere if you're a bit creative."

To achieve the lifestyle they want, John and Marian will have to make some tough decisions about the family home. "It doesn't make sense to me to spend half the year in a small apartment in Spain and the rest of the time in a 1.2m house in Dublin. "They've got to even things up and this probably means selling the family home."

By moving to a smaller base in Dublin, John and Marian could probably release equity of about 600,000. This would give them the money they need to trade up to a more comfortable home in Spain as well as providing an investment fund from the remaining 400,000. If managed carefully, this money should provide an income of about 20,000 a year.

Delaying retirement would also give John and Marian more time to build up a tax-free nest egg through pension saving. "They're really missing a trick by not having pensions because of the tax relief that is available, " Mitchell says.

"Based on John's age and earnings, he could probably afford to put 20,000 a year into a pension which, after tax relief, would only cost him 11,000.

Based on realistic projections, this should be worth 200,000 when he's ready to retire at 60."

Mitchell is sceptical of John's plan to get rid of the two buy-to-let properties, questioning whether he would get better returns for his money somewhere else. "I think it's a bit preemptive, " he says. "You'd hardly put your shirt on stocks and shares at the moment, while the returns from bonds or cash are not worth bothering about."

The best days may be over for Irish property but Mitchell says there is no reason for investors to lose their nerve. "Price growth is likely to slow, maybe to 3% a year, but there's every chance of another uplift in the market before John retires. These things go in cycles."

Nevertheless, he believes John should hedge his bets and investigate the plan to of"oad one of the Dublin properties and reinvest on the continent.

Based on modest growth, John and Marian's property investment could be worth about 1.1m by the time he is 60. Added to a 200,000 pension pot and the 400,000 investment made with the proceeds from the family home, this adds up to a net worth of 1.7m. "That's a lot stronger than the 1m they would have by sticking to their original plan and they'd still have something from the place in France, " Mitchell says.