"Living in Silicon Valley as I do, there's plenty of great opportunities for hard working people to find incredible jobs with incomes often the envy of other parts of the country and world. Often, however, the expenses rise to match - especially when it comes to the base living expense of owning a home. Time and again, I've seen happy couples start to fret as they outsize their small apartment, and their family prices themselves out of the Bay Area, as they retreat to cheaper places, be it Texas, Utah, Oregon or Tennessee. Still others try to ignore the oppressive costs of ownership and enter into the "sounds funny but isn't really funny" reality of what's known as a SITKOM. As it was explained to me by a coworker, that's where you have a Single Income, Two or Three Kids, with an Outrageous Mortgage. That's a sitcom with a laugh track, but it's at you. You can work yourself crazy and never see those kids, you can have an equity event that makes your living comfortable, or you can leave, essentially. Those are your options." - Louis Gray