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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I started in biglaw when DH was making pretty lousy money after his grad degree (2001 grad - they all got thrashed in the hiring market; a lot never made it up).

We stayed in our shitty student apartment for a couple years, which we could afford on his $60k salary. I started at $125k - paid off all our debt within a year (I come from a country where student debt doesn't exist, so I just couldn't deal with it psychologically).

Bought a house below our means.  Have traded up a couple times but currently in a house we paid $1m for, and our combined income is $1.5m (DH ended up doing very well).  Kid in public school.  We did upgrade our cars recently to pretty nice Audis, but we keep our cars for 10+ years, so not a huge difference on our income to get $30k cars vs $60k cars, when amortized over that period.

Because DH and I both earn good money, like another poster said, it's a huge pressure valve and both of us feel like we could tell our employers to f*** off whenever we wanted.  Strangely, we both love our jobs.  Both work full time from home, so have a lot of time with kid. Decided to only have one kid, to make the dual working thing more manageable (which it is).

Could quit any day - already have enough savings in mid 40s to retire.

I mean, this is a pretty easy thing to figure out. DOn't adjust your expenses like your fanciest colleagues.  Lots of law firm partners live pretty reasonable lives in DC. Yes, some blow the bank of material stuff. But  lots don't.  Until 2005, DC law firm patterns weren't exactly killing it - they were living in pretty standard houses in Bethesda with kids in public - much like govt workers of days yore.  It's only been the last 15 years that partners in DC are making bank. You got caught up in that, and if you want to walk, you need to dial it back. Spouse goes back to work, kids in public. Easy as that.

(but with all that said, like another PP, I actually think most in-house jobs have the same if not longer hours than big law these days - and most of our clients are not working from home anymore).  [/quote]

What does your DH do? Maybe Op spouse could follow that career path (or me!)[/quote]

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