I think that might end up being good advice for many people. I, however, am not ready to embark on that journey just yet. :-) I think one of the reasons the cu

I think that might end up being good advice for many people. I, however, am not ready to embark on that journey just yet. :-) I think one of the reasons the current situation bothers me so much is that it violates a basic sense of fairness. I cofounded a startup so I'm used to risk and uncertainty, but most of the people I know wouldn't be cut out for it. They play by the rules and expect to have the modest upward trajectory that a life like that would bring. I know a young couple like you and your wife who have gone into debt to go to college, gone further into debt to go to grad school, and then gone into more modest debt to get married because of the expectation that there would be upward mobility from these expenditures. Now between the two of them, they're 400k in debt and living at home. That wasn't really something that came in the brochure. Now of course that always was a real possibility, and past performance doesn't guarantee future returns, but it was supposed to be different. I truly feel bad for the average "play by the rules" types who have been raised with the expectation that if you do the right things, the right things will happen. Many of them now are saddled with the debt levels that demand that they put off the choices you were luckily able to make.