It was incredibly useful to know that I had complete freedom to pursue my career however I wanted and that she'd provide support, advice and a financial runway to the best of her ability. As such, I wholeheartedly recommend finding a wonderful, supportive and loving wife.
That said, I don't know how to replicate my success in that matter, so I don't have much to say about it on HN.
I won't be attending any of the events due to conflicts with work and an already packed schedule.
It looks fun, but I'm slammed for the next month or so and can't justify taking the time off for events that are only tangential to my career at the moment.
This is the exact approach that Better Place is using, starting in "island" economies. The idea being that most times you can just trickle-charge, but if you need distance, you stop by a battery station and it's swapped out robotically, in about the same time it takes to fill a gas tank.
We're living extremely frugally when it comes to absolutely everything other than career-related expenses, and my fiancée is covering all of the shared bills.
If you saw our apartment, you'd probably guess that our combined income is around 10% of our actual combined income. (It's terrible, but it's a short, well-lit, heavily populated walk to the Broad Street Line, so it seems safe.)
Congratulations! Way to not only capitalize on your talent, but to make sure you're not encumbered by debt in the future. Best of luck to you and your soon-to-be-wife.
Congrats, on both finding the right gig and fiancée! For those who missed it, here's his story on how he actually trimmed his $200k debt into $100k in just a year: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2008818
> have you considered declaring bankruptcy or defaulting on the credit cards?
No. While I believe bankruptcy is an incredibly useful tool to help people take risks and recover from bad situations, I don't want to abuse it. I have plenty of earning power, and a year and a half of modest living won't kill me.
That, sir, is a very noble answer to an issue that doesn't deserve to be treated nobly. For most people, the snowballing effect of fees on maxed-out credit cards' interest rates + fees = impossibility, and bankruptcy is the only option. For a long time there was no cap and no limit on how much credit cards could gouge people, and that alone was the profit engine of banks. The fact that the US government made it much more difficult to declare bankruptcy (2005 or so) does not help.
That said, I don't know how to replicate my success in that matter, so I don't have much to say about it on HN.