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Afford Anything | Make Smart Money Choices

How We Retired at Age 38 and 41 -- with Tanja Hester & Mark Bunge

Afford Anything | Make Smart Money Choices

Paula Pant | Cumulus Podcast Network

Entrepreneurship, Investing, Business

4.73.6K Ratings

🗓️ 8 January 2018

⏱️ 56 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

#111: 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.   For more information, visit the show notes at http://affordanything.com/episode111 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

You could afford anything but not everything, every decision that you make is a trade-off

0:12.3

against something else.

0:14.0

And that's true not just of your money, but also your time, which is your most valuable

0:19.1

resource.

0:20.1

So what are you going to decide is most important to you, and how do you align your behaviors

0:25.6

with that decision?

0:27.4

During this is a lifetime practice, and this podcast is here to explore how to do that.

0:32.6

My name is Paula Pant.

0:34.0

I'm the host of the Affordable Care Podcast, and today I'm interviewing Tanya and Mark,

0:38.8

a couple who now live in Tahoe, who are retiring.

0:43.4

They've actually just retired at the age of 38 and 41.

0:49.3

What's fascinating is that their early retirement journey only started six years ago.

0:54.2

So six years ago they decided that they wanted to retire early and boom.

0:57.8

Now here they are, ages 38 and 41, done with work forever for the rest of their lives.

1:04.1

So how did they do it?

1:05.3

We're going to find out right now, here's Tanya and Mark.

1:08.7

Hey there, thank you both for coming on the show.

1:14.5

We are super excited to be here, thanks for having us.

1:17.2

Congratulations, you've just retired.

1:19.4

Yeah, it still feels super surreal to say that, but it's true.

1:24.2

I'd like to walk through your story, tell me about when your early retirement journey started,

1:30.8

and I guess to get to that, let's go back to where you were right before you began working towards

...

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