Whichever way you accumulate depends on your attitude, but i have to say that what I thought of as soon as I read your post is "You don't know it until you blow it" unlike you, I now have a mortgage and a kid to feed, although that's when the hustle started for me. I do have a steady income, so it's not really about the money but more about expressing yourself and trying stuff. Before I didn't value free time that much, but now I have all sorts of stuff and ideas happening and try to juggle all the stuff, so that I will eventually have some time to work on my side stuff.