Tanja 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.
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Resources Mentioned:
- How to Retire Early, by Robert & Robin Charleton
- Our Next Life
- Twitter: @our_nextlife
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Anna
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.
Paula Pant
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!! 🙂
RyanB
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.
Glenn
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.
David @ VapeHabitat
Another great example of people following their dreams))
Jason@WinningPersonalFinance
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.
Sally
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.
Paula Pant
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.