about affording fairly basic things (for example, having to shop at multiple grocery stores to get the best overall price on food). Their husbands work like dogs to keep the family financially stable and spend less time than they'd like with their children. And, honestly, I find that lifestyle so much more stressful than having to work in my capital C Career. But, like I said, to each her own! Your comments about ambition are very interesting to me! It's something I've been thinking about a lot lately, and not sure what it means. But maybe I'm also viewing through the lens of having small children and that'll change over time. I don't quite have a "Taco Bell" job since my work projects actually require me to think, but the part-time hours mostly let me compartmentalize work so I'm not always thinking about it. But I'm not sure exactly what "ambition" means. Does it mean getting promoted and making more money? At some point, what if you get to a place/role/salary where you're just happy to BE? Does that mean you've lost your ambition? For me getting to a place of contentment is actually a GOAL so I'm not always eyeing the "next step up". @Cloud- I think the point of this study was not so much about the wealth of the people involved (though it was nothing to sneeze at). It's that they were leaders -- that is, people in charge of things. Often, we think being in charge