<story><title>Ask HN: How do you start a startup in your 30s when you have wife/kids/mortgage?</title><text>I want to start my own company, but Im not sure how to pay my bills while looking for product-market-fit.&lt;p&gt;I have a well paying job now, and I am pretty sure I would throw my marriage into chaos if I told my wife I was leaving my job to pursue a start up. Shes not stupid, she knows start ups have like a 90% failure rate.&lt;p&gt;So the question is: how do I continue my current standard of living for my family while working on a startup?&lt;p&gt;Are all startups at my age generally side hustles that become profitable enough to quit my day job?&lt;p&gt;Does anyone here have experience with this?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>earino</author><text>My very concrete feelings on this is that you probably don&amp;#x27;t.&lt;p&gt;Asking folks how to do this is a bit like asking billionaires how to get rich. It&amp;#x27;s a fun story but it&amp;#x27;s overfitting. The individual narrative that made a billionaire is unlikely to be available for you. If you ask some millionaires they may be more likely to give you some useful advice around sound investment strategies, living within your means, and identifying great opportunities.&lt;p&gt;You signed up for a bunch of responsibilities. You are always going to be your kids parent. You are only going to have this one opportunity to get this marriage and this family right. If you have a solid job that allows you to be there for them, take it and be amazing in this potentially incredibly rewarding role.&lt;p&gt;Then do an awesome startup when your kids are out of the house, you have a solid nest egg, and you can take risks again in your 50s.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>julianlam</author><text>Agreed 100%. When people ask me what the best time is to work on a startup, it&amp;#x27;s always when you have no dependents, living with parents, and perhaps no significant other. It&amp;#x27;s quite amazing just how much you can skim down your expenses at that point in life.&lt;p&gt;Minimizing expenses, maximizing runway. The rest is luck. Just blind luck.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: How do you start a startup in your 30s when you have wife/kids/mortgage?</title><text>I want to start my own company, but Im not sure how to pay my bills while looking for product-market-fit.&lt;p&gt;I have a well paying job now, and I am pretty sure I would throw my marriage into chaos if I told my wife I was leaving my job to pursue a start up. Shes not stupid, she knows start ups have like a 90% failure rate.&lt;p&gt;So the question is: how do I continue my current standard of living for my family while working on a startup?&lt;p&gt;Are all startups at my age generally side hustles that become profitable enough to quit my day job?&lt;p&gt;Does anyone here have experience with this?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>earino</author><text>My very concrete feelings on this is that you probably don&amp;#x27;t.&lt;p&gt;Asking folks how to do this is a bit like asking billionaires how to get rich. It&amp;#x27;s a fun story but it&amp;#x27;s overfitting. The individual narrative that made a billionaire is unlikely to be available for you. If you ask some millionaires they may be more likely to give you some useful advice around sound investment strategies, living within your means, and identifying great opportunities.&lt;p&gt;You signed up for a bunch of responsibilities. You are always going to be your kids parent. You are only going to have this one opportunity to get this marriage and this family right. If you have a solid job that allows you to be there for them, take it and be amazing in this potentially incredibly rewarding role.&lt;p&gt;Then do an awesome startup when your kids are out of the house, you have a solid nest egg, and you can take risks again in your 50s.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Ancalagon</author><text>I agree with the premise of this, but want to point out a normal job doesn’t necessarily lead to fulfilling those responsibilities adequately even though maybe they should. People still get stressed, overwork, have ambition, dislike home life, etc.&lt;p&gt;I think OP should talk with his wife and make a decision based on milestones</text></comment>