Take what comes - Work your way up?
I suspect that the money involved in the states is a little less. There is a lot of pressure for us self funded guys. Myself and Sin Bin are in the same boat with age, marriage etc. To survive on a FI wage for 2 years would put a lot of pressure on us financially particularly since we've already subjected our spouses to this! Managing their expectations against our former life and income is a frightening ordeal.
Perhaps the smart thing to do would have been to do this a tad earlier when the stakes were a little lower. But then we didn't have the cash then! I'm now in the dangerous "Deal or No deal" position with the rare jobs coming my way. The quarter Million is still in play and much needed but so are a lot of the blue boxes! (sorry to use a UK analogy).