[attqqq]

With that sort of income you should not have this level of anxiety about your options, you should have plenty in the bank to play startup with, fail, and reenter the traditional job market having learned your lesson: with padding to spare.

Id start by seriously reconsidering your finances. If you make all the money, you call all the shots, your three dependents all on a free ride need to respect that. Furthermore- “family of 4 that I support with my income alone” - barring the case that you have an infant, your partner should be pulling more weight, too. Single income households are not feasible in California without major compromise: and that major compromise is currently occurring at your expense

[throwaway757]

The family respects it a lot. We don’t have any extravagant expenses. We try to live only on salary and RSUs go untouched. The partner would work in a heartbeat but we’d take an absolute nose dive in quality of life as we’d be running from work duties to house duties to kid duties to work duties (based on prior personal experience) While I personally would be willing to suffer such a life I don’t thinks it fair for kids to get the tiered, grumpy and curt parents. We brought them into this world and we owe them better if we can (if my backs against the wall sure all of that can go out of the window )

We have one life and there is something to be said about raising kids in a home environment that is “healthy” especially when we brought them into this world. I feel especially strongly about this as my kids are still little (< 10 years)

Totally understand that this may not be a point of view shared across the masses - specially here in USA where the general attitude is everybody is doing it so you shouldnt crib about it. For us our kids are a big priority and not sacrifing the evnromment they are raised in is a core value. Fyi I don’t mean environment as physically the size of house we live in etc it’s the softer thing - the home atmosphere. I live in a small apartment and we are cool with it. More importantly we live in a happy home.

[rg111]

Wow, you are a genuinely good human being. And I am happy for your kids that they have parents like you and your partner.