[Zoo3y]

The error here is comparing an upper middle class life of a software developer to that of banks and tech billionaires. You mentioned you have relatively high income, so aren't you and your family's needs met? Everyone wants to retire early, everyone would like a nice sum of cash fast. Perhaps it is worth exploring not increasing income, but decreasing expenditures and living more simply.

EDIT: like others have said here, money is a side effect of a passion. It is not an end in itself, unless you take up business and finance careers.

[mcdoug]

I am not exactly comparing myself to tech billionaires, but more tech millionaires. Bezos was mentioned just because of the absurdity of his wealth, but I don't want to be that rich. More like, I wouldn't mind finding a way to part Bezos and about $5m of his money.

I have done projects of passion. Last one was completed in February and the business opened in March. For five days. Being a new business, it isn't even eligible for any kind of assistance, so what I did there was to sink a bunch of money and sign a lease so that I have the privilege of adding an extra $1200 a month to my expense list. Decreasing expenses is absolutely something I've been working on, but investing my wages will take decades to build enough wealth to be meaningful.