I don't have evidence to support my following claim, but I think that having a stable home life with a supporting family, not subjected to unusual bankruptcies or bad financial surprises, is a key element to startup founder success.
I could be mistaken. But I am a failed founder who disrupted their family and friends lives and lost a lot of goodwill while running the business because of it. So I think I'm at least right some of the time.
Regardless, it's wise to think of your loved ones first, even if it's only a cold business decision to do so; your business will thank you later with smoother revenues and a happier, more capable decision-making process down the road.
I'm not the above poster, but to me the desire to maintain a high standard of living when starting a business for the first time either means someone has a ton of money in reserve or they aren't very serious about starting a business. Now I can partially understand the situation if someone is buying a franchise or some existing business that will almost certainly have revenue from the start, but many of the tech business ideas discussed on HN require a fair amount of R&D before there's any revenue. For a first time entrepreneur I'm not sure 1 year is enough time to get up to speed and learn from mistakes.
OP here. Yes I have 5 years worth of expenses covered in liquid savings. My target is to make enough income to break even with my personal expenses before I run out of savings.
That doesn't sound right at all.