How a near-death experience led to financial independence

<p><strong>Each week BusinessDesk and the NZ Herald's Cooking the Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's how life priorities can change after a brush with death. Hosted by Frances Cook.</strong></p> <p>There are moments that really make you reassess what you want out of life, and losing both of your parents and then having a near death experience yourself, well, that's right up there. </p> <p>Combine that with a heaping dose of work burnout, and you've got the recipe for some big change.</p> <p>All of this snowballed up for today's Cooking the Books guest, but he had an ace up his sleeve. </p> <p>He'd been working towards financial independence for years, so when life piled up on him he was able to decide it was time to hit pause. </p> <p>And he did. </p> <p>At 52, he quit his job, and has no plans to get a new one any time soon. </p> <p>He's now got the mental space to decide what comes next, and if he wants to do something totally different with his life. </p> <p>For the latest podcast I talked to Stephen Judd.</p> <ul> <li>If you have a question about this podcast, or a question you'd like answered in the next one, come and talk to me about it. I'm on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/FrancesCookNZ/">Facebook here</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/francescooknz/">Instagram here</a>, and <a href="https://twitter.com/FrancesCook">Twitter here</a>.</li> </ul><p>See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.</p>