Anita Dhake, '09: Retired at 32
How This Woman Retired at Age 32—and Says You Can Too
Anita Dhake is retired. At 32 years old, she walked away from her well-paid job as a lawyer and hasn't looked back since. Yes, she racked up almost $100,000 of debt during three years of law school, but once she got out of school, Anita took a different approach than many of her peers chose. After graduating from the University of Chicago's law school, she decided she would work hard until she paid off her debt and saved enough to retire as soon as possible. She did the math, and that meant quitting once she had saved 25 years' worth of living expenses, which she would keep relatively low. She wouldn't have a fancy car or house, but would make up for it with the personal freedom and energy to check off her personal bucket list. After five years of working and maintaining a frugal lifestyle, Anita reached her goal and left the office for good.
Anita's story almost sounds too good to be true, but after talking to her, I realized that she's simply making trade-offs available to many other young people — even those who don't pull in a six-figure salary. Since retiring in 2015, Anita now writes about her life as a financially independent 30-something on her blog The Power of Thrift and believes other young people can retire early, too. Even though she's retired, Anita is still productive and growing; she travels the world and even wrote a book, set to come out later this year. But instead of doing this "work" for the money, she does it for the pleasure of improving her life. If you want to know her secrets, including the practicality of how she actually invests her savings to make it last, read our interview below.
Read more at POPSUGAR.LIVING