Another story where being friends with a higherup is what got them the job:<p>>That’s when I began to rethink my choice of becoming an auditor and progressing my career. Shortly after, I was auditing Microsoft and the CFO at the time, who I already knew and had a good relationship with, thought I wasn’t looking like myself. I explained that things weren’t going as well as I had hoped and that I was considering leaving Deloitte. She told me then that Microsoft had a vacancy available that I could apply for, and I ended up being chosen for the job.
> My daughter sprained her ankle on a playground in the United States, and we had to wait for three hours at the hospital for an X-ray, just to receive a bill for 1300$, and that’s after insurance. In Portugal, the public health system covers this expense. It’s not excellent, but it’s praiseworthy when compared to other countries.<p>I really wish the USA would switch to this sort of model. That sort of health security would engender a wave of innovation and efficiency.
> In other words, you have to live a minimalist life, without great luxuries, that’s the only way to achieve certain goals. And that’s not to say that other options are wrong, this was just the one I decided on.<p>As usual, this is classically wrong. She said that it's the only way to achieve certain goals and it certainly isn't. The r/FATfire subreddit is an example of people who almost never compromise on luxuries.<p>One thing I would mention about the whole FIRE journey is that it needs to be one that both you and your partner are set on. I think a lot of people here on HN (and in the (fat)FIRE world) do get lucky with their spouse and manage to align on that but I find there are far more people out there with FIRE-mentality but not the FIRE-spouse.<p>I've always lacked the FIRE partner. All the women I've met have explicitly told me that they would like to stop working <i>permanently</i> as soon as we had kids. Obviously, I have no issues with this if they have $10m socked away by the time we have kids but they usually have way less money than I do. Sadly, this has made my journey of having a family way more challenging than I could have ever expected.<p>The only couples I know who are on a FIRE journey tend to have met in college or maybe one year after college. It is hard to find women like in the article who are career focused like the overwhelming amount of men are.