hoo boy, can I relate to this topic. My husband started his own business when I was 2 weeks away from delivering our first child, quitting his job at Wang Labs (remember them?) - and the business he started dealt mainly with hardware service contracts where his customers had to give 3 months' notice to Wang to leave (and before starting with my hubby's company). And I got laid off after my maternity leave. Talk about scrambling! Those were definitely lean months. But he had the right personality for self-employment; me, not so much. I kid him that if I'd known he was going to start his own business, I might not have married him! I like the security of working for a company, with the associated benefits/vacation/etc. For a while I did work with my husband, doing the books, contracts, ordering, etc. - and collection calls are NOT fun. At the end of the day, was it worth it? I guess...but very stressful! And as far as vacations - we took 2 family vacations over 25 years.