'You can live like a king' by retiring in Europe, says CFP—but make these 3 moves first

There's a vast and complicated industry around planning for life in retirement, but if you're thinking about how you can call it quits earlier or live more luxuriously when you do retire, the calculus can be remarkably simple.

"The big knob you can turn is cost of living," says Tommy Sikes, a certified financial planner and founder of Traveltirement, where he highlights affordable homes in France and Italy through a newsletter and social media channels.

"It might cost you $70,000 a year to have a middle-class retirement in the United States," Sikes says. "If you have that money in southern Italy, you can live like a king, including renting or purchasing a property."

If you're hoping to retire in style while keeping costs low, a European retirement may be right for you. But as you begin searching for chateaus, keep these three tips in mind.

If you were looking for an exciting but cost-effective retirement destination in the U.S., you'd likely scratch New York and Los Angeles off your list right off the bat. The same goes in Europe, says Sikes.

"Paris, Rome and Milan are still going to be expensive," he says. That's true for luxury vacation hotspots such as Lake Como and Saint-Tropez, though you may not find what you're looking for in those places anyway.

"The heart of these countries is when you get further into the countryside," Sikes says. "We're not talking about living in the middle of nowhere. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of small towns and villages that still have infrastructure. They still have high-speed internet and medical offices. It's just that people may not see them as glitzy or glamorous," he adds.

Nevertheless, life can feel glamorous if you can spend less on basic living expenses and more on doing the