[Christien]

Interesting to revisit. My business expansion was less than successful, though not due to the economy, more due to a difference in opinion with my business partner. (nothing major, we're still friends, just had different ideas on how to move things along) Following the dissolution of that partnership, I now actually make more on that end of things. Expenses were very high, which was expected at the outset, but revenues weren't keeping up. When the partnership ended, those expenses disappeared, but some of the revenue remained. More importantly, I'm not out of town 3-4 days/week.

In the aftermath, I decided cut back work (and pay) significantly, though my wife more than makes up for that. I'm down to about 25-30% income, but 1-2 hours a week and a few full days near month-end. And I'm home full time with the kids, which I love. We had a few fortunate bounces along the way, and now, even though there's less money coming in overall, we're finding ourselves in a much better position financially, but more importantly otherwise (whatever you want to call it, "happiness" quotient is one I like). We're travelling more, replaced windows in our house, stuff like that. I did cut track days back a lot back in 2009, and still only do 1 or 2 a year, though surprisingly I don't really miss them that much. Lapping days at Mosport have really gone through the roof lately - most open days are $500-600!

So we're definitely in a better position now than we were in 2009, in pretty much every way. I can't think of any aspect of those days I'd like to have back, compared to what our life is like now.