It's not a question of being able to "afford" dropping out to work on a startup, so much as it's a question of what you're willing to give up to do it. My pare

It's not a question of being able to "afford" dropping out to work on a startup, so much as it's a question of what you're willing to give up to do it. My parents made less than $30k combined when I entered college in the late 90s. I dropped out after my freshman year, worked as a restaurant cashier and temp for about six months, then managed to land an entry-level media production job at a startup. Since then, I've slowly clawed my way up to a decent development gig at a major systems player in Silicon Valley, all without the benefit of a college degree, or any major financial support other than my own earnings. Even several years after I first "broke in" to the industry, however, I've had entire years where I made only a few thousand dollars. If you're willing to live in shared housing, eat a lot of cheap stir-fry and soup, and occasionally suck it up and ask a friend or family member for a couple of hundred bucks to make rent that month, you can weather some pretty drastic changes in your income. Regardless, after a decade or so of working as a developer, I've found that the lack of a college degree matters less and less. Am I less likely to be on the short list of folks to get promoted to upper management? Almost certainly. Does that bother me? Not really. I like writing code, and am happy to continue doing so until something else seems more interesting.