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January 8, 2018By Paula Pant

#111: How We Retired at Age 38 and 41 — with Tanja Hester & Mark Bunge

Afford Anything Podcast How We Retired at Age 38 and 41 -- with Tanja Hester & Mark BungeTanja Hester and Mark Bunge used to have demanding but fulfilling careers as political and social cause consultants.

While they loved the mission behind their work, they grew tired of the exhausting hours and grueling travel. Their home felt like a weekend crash pad. They had no time or energy to pursue outside passions like skiing, biking and volunteering.

Six years ago, they read a book that changed the course of their lives.

The book, How to Retire Early, set the couple on the path of financial independence. They moved from pricey Los Angeles to the more affordable North Lake Tahoe. They started automatically saving and investing huge chunks of their paycheck. They crafted detailed spreadsheets, plotting precisely how much they’d need to save before they could comfortably quit their jobs.

Today, Tanja and Mark are newly-retired … at the ages of 38 and 41.

How did they progress towards early retirement so quickly? And what lessons would they share with anyone else who wants to escape the 9-to-5 grind?

Find out in today’s episode.


Resources Mentioned:

  • How to Retire Early, by Robert & Robin Charleton
  • Our Next Life
  • Twitter: @our_nextlife

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#112: Ask Paula - How to Convince a Spouse to Invest in Low-fee Index Funds?
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Posted in: Episodes, FIRE

8 Comments
Leave a Comment
  1. Anna

    # January 9, 2018 at 12:29 pm

    I liked this episode a lot. It’s nice to hear the success stories of people who made it to financial retirement. I also enjoyed hearing Tanja’s thinking on how to hedge and diverse income sources in case the first few years of retirement are met with declining market conditions. It helped remind me to add these detailed factors to my calculations.

    Reply ↓
    • Paula Pant

      # February 21, 2018 at 12:49 pm

      I love Tanja’s emphasis on thinking about all types of market conditions. She has a great balance between “planning for the worst” + “hoping for the best.” She’s prepared for a market decline, but she’s not going to let that stop her!! 🙂

      Reply ↓
  2. RyanB

    # January 11, 2018 at 12:32 am

    This was a great podcast. It’s fun to hear a couple being excited about FI together. I too want to spend more days mtn biking like Mark. Congrats you two.

    Reply ↓
  3. Glenn

    # January 15, 2018 at 6:31 pm

    Really enjoyed this podcast. It would be great to see how Tanja and Mark are doing in a couple of years to see how there spending went compared to their projections.

    Reply ↓
    • David @ VapeHabitat

      # August 29, 2018 at 12:13 pm

      Another great example of people following their dreams))

      Reply ↓
  4. Jason@WinningPersonalFinance

    # January 16, 2018 at 5:44 pm

    Fantastic episode! The flow between the three of you was great! The questions were great and you could really see all the planning that went into the early retirement decision by ONL.

    Reply ↓
  5. Sally

    # February 10, 2018 at 6:36 pm

    Thanks for another insightful episode. Tanja’s comment regarding “working harder” before reaching FI struck a chord for me. It’s making me re-evaluate my own attitude towards work, and truthfully I’d become a bit complacent once I mapped out my FI goals. Adding in work/life balance in the mix, it’s certainly lessen my desire to climb the corporate ladder. However her comment showed a different perspective and I appreciate that.

    Reply ↓
    • Paula Pant

      # February 21, 2018 at 12:50 pm

      That’s excellent! I liked Tanja’s comments about that, too. It reminded me (a little bit) of Sheryl Sandberg’s “Lean In,” which is one of my favorite books.

      Reply ↓

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