Some recent minor events came together for me as a powerful realization about myself.



I have a friend, a former co-worker, who used her engineering career to put her husband through medical school debt-free. Once he was established, they bought a house and she spent the next decade building their family, with some engineering contracting/consulting on the side, both to keep her skills active and to have a little extra income. Once their youngest was in third grade, she started her tech-focused MBA, and he shifted toward academia (with a huge pay cut), together ensuring their family was always well-parented.



Not only are they the most joyous family I know, but their kids are simply fantastic individuals. They both plan to be working when their kids start college, to ensure they all graduate debt-free. Their empty-nest dream was to semi-retire together and travel the world, but now they're talking about adopting teenagers.



This family-focused partnership started well before the c…