It might be that startup is not for you. I'd suggest to stop reading HN(as it can be very dangerous for you mental happines-constant glory tales to founders) and find a way to increase your salary on f-t position. I dont know what are you doing but i think you can set goal of making 2-3x of you current salary. There are better resources to read to archive that goal
DISC: Above is just my imho, listen with caution, i dont know your story well enough to advice.
Well, I've been reading HN since before it was called Hacker News and I don't think I'll stop any time soon. It's not HN news which it making me want to start my own business but a desire to work on meaningful projects which fulfil my need to turn my imagination into reality... and ultimately provide a stable financial circumstances for my family.
My imho(i am not such a long time HN reader): HN is all about startups and its pushing you to start your company. Period.
Its not really a core recourse for programmers/hackers and there is a very small %% of tech material here. Why? Just remove news. and /* from this page URL to find out )))
In other words: NH will not help you to become better programmer/hacker. Just look at http://news.ycombinator.com/ at this moment and see that there are only few tech links there - rest is about "why facebook is better than google" bs.
My point is: If you ultimate goal stable financial situation for your family you can less risky archive it by becoming better programmer.
On meaningful projects: is working on google/apple/any company you like meaningful enough for you?
DISC: Above is just my imho, listen with caution, i dont know your story well enough to advice.