There's a continuum. Paycheck to Paycheck - getting fired mean, being unable to pay for housing & food. 3 months savings - bills can be paid at once, a lay of

There's a continuum. Paycheck to Paycheck - getting fired mean, being unable to pay for housing & food. 3 months savings - bills can be paid at once, a lay off puts pressure on one to really jump on the job search. 1 years savings - termination doesn't scare one, but thinking about taking a 1 year sabbatical, while nice, also means that torwards the end of the sabbatical, one must hope /plan apply for jobs after some period of 6-11 months or so. Strict budgeting is paramount. 5 years savings - termination and paying bills has no day-to-day thoughts. One can ponder of maybe dumping that savings into a startup, but if the startup doesn't pan out, one may be in one of the aforementioned states. 10 years savings - one can consider never working again if they reduce their draw down rate to last indefinitely. 20+ years savings - One could try a startup, lose 10 years of savings, and really not worry about anything. I think people wouldn't necessarily have a problem working indefinitely, if they could participate in a lifestyle business where hours are flexible, workdays are shorter, weekends are longer, commutes are minimized or optional, vacations are plentiful and the pay is above average. For a lot of programmers at large institutions, this is pretty possible if one can find the right boss and company with policies that allow for this. how long these kinds of cushy positions will last is the question.