I have no experience with this, but I would caution about starting a startup purely because you have enough money to run it for a while.

...that’s why the first sentence of my comment is “Do you have any interest...?”

This is a great thing to do (for some people) but keep in mind that 4-5 years of lost income should be included in the calculation.

If you don’t do a startup because of supposed lost income, frankly you shouldn’t be doing a startup in the first place.

Which, of course, is a good thing to keep in mind when making that decision.

"I can survive for 5 years on $80k but will I miss ($x) where x could be $200,000-$2,000,000 when it comes time to retire" is a relevant question.

Right, but again, if calculating your retirement is the prime factor when determining what to do with your life, a startup probably isn’t for you anyway. Stick with a solid well-paying software job and you can do the early retirement thing.

I sure am, but as mentioned in one of the replies, I would need an idea that I believe enogh in. Would you do it differently? How do you know if something is worth it?

Maybe keep the current job, don’t touch the 80k, and spend your free time coming up with a good idea that you can see yourself working on for 5+ years? That’s my advice.

dang, any idea why all comments are ending up dead from this user? Anything I miss?

not such a great idea, you would risk both your time and your savings

- an investor would on risks money

- another team members risk only time

you would do both