> Loosing job before that wealth threshold means homelessness and poverty.
No, it doesn't. Maybe don't borrow money and buy a fancy car and vacations you can't afford? Buy a normal car with cash and go on normal middle-class vacations?
If you work in an mid-level engineer capacity at a FAANG or Nvidia in the Bay Area you can easily live on 1/3 of your take-home compensation (that's including a normal car, a couple economy-class vacations a year, and a modest apartment) and invest the rest in index funds. Within a few years of working, you would have banked enough to have a decade worth of expenses saved before you'll be homeless, and I'm sure you can find another job in that decade.
I work at a big tech company, my (very normal) car cost me 1/10 of my annual take-home salary, I've never flown anything but economy class, and I save 60-75% of my take home pay and invest it. I can't afford rental properties or any of that, but I do have enough funds to last me several years at my current lifestyle.
Back when I was at startups (including co-founding one), I was never able to save more than a few months' worth of emergency fund, and that was not good for my mental health. That's one of the reason I joined a big tech company for now -- to de-risk myself financially.
Startups are financially FAR higher risk. You'll get 1/4 the pay that Nvidia gives you, the equity may end up being worth $0, and if it does end up being worth $0, you'll have missed out on the opportunity cost of being hired at any of the FAANG companies for whatever time you spent there.
I'm not discouraging anyone from doing a startup, but it IS higher financial risk in every way.
> I can't afford rental properties or any of that
Back in the days when I didn't have money to buy a car with cash, I just didn't buy a car and used a bike and public transit to get everywhere.
I mean, maybe that's why I have a high savings rate.
I can quit my job with full peace of mind, that's what this whole thread is about.
If and when I have money to buy a house, I'll just buy one. It's not that different from buying a fancy meal or a plane ticket. If I have the money I might buy it. If I don't, I don't think about it. I'm simple like that, and as a result, I have very few financial worries.
If you're an engineer at Nvidia you'd have to do some braindead stupid things with your money to end up homeless.
Also, if you have technical skills at a level that Nvidia would hire you, you can easily get a job at probably a thousand other companies. Layoffs are a non-issue. Recruiters will be scrambling to hire ex-Nvidia folks in the event of a mass layoff, barring a major global financial collapse (in which case you're still better off than 95% of the population).
People start businesses and actually risk everything they have on them. If you only look at someone who owns and runs the biggest company in the world, you're just using the apex fallacy[0] to justify your perspective, and hoping nobody notices.