Imagine he had $50k in the bank. So he didn't need to use the cards. He takes the $20k out of the bank at the beginning of the year, puts it into the startup,

Imagine he had $50k in the bank. So he didn't need to use the cards. He takes the $20k out of the bank at the beginning of the year, puts it into the startup, which fails within the year. What's the difference between the two situations? In one, he spent however amount of time earning the $20k before he put it into the startup, in the other he spends however amount of time working off the credit card debt after the startup fails. The real difference between these two is the interest rate on the credit cards, and that's about it. In both cases he has to work to earn the money he put into his startup, though it might be more painful to do it after failure than before. [I think its amusing that this comment has been down voted. I wasn't disagreeing with the person I'm responding to, didn't say anything offensive, and offered a different way of looking at things that seemed to be missing.]