Ask HN: How to quit your day job with bills to pay, mouths to feed

You don't. You have to pay the bills and feed the kids, and foremost, to eliminate debt.

If you can, you may work on your project in the evenings and week-ends.

If you can't be fulfilled until you work for yourself, clearly the issues here are debts and obligations.

So, pay off the student loans (because they're practically inescapable), sell the car, default on the mortgage.

At this point, divorce your spouse, and let them have custody of the kids--with you being in such dire financial straits (see previous step), you shouldn't have trouble convincing the judge you aren't a capable parent. File for bankruptcy during this process if you don't have joint accounts, otherwise wait until after.

Congratulations! You're now free to work for yourself and be fulfilled!

Downsize - smaller house, one car (or none!)... maybe even to the extreme of living in a tiny house! (http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/)

Or. Emigrate somewhere where living costs are much lower.

It seems like your question is more, how to create passive income so you can pay off debt faster? I suggest posting to Quora and looking there for options. Also, you have to have support of your spouse or it will never work. You have to get rid of what you don't need and yes, sell a car and the house. It will take huge sacrifices to be able to have time to work on your own projects, you can't do both. It's not easy and it takes commitment and creativity. With kids it's harder, I have two and am a single mom, but it is possible. You have to get organized and keep daily visual lists to remind you of your priorities. I don't think you are in dire financial straights but like most people these days just living with a family.

Take a look as Maslow's Hierarchy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs).

Esteem and self-actualization are way up there at the top. Those may be pursued only after you see to the baser needs.

So you have two options:

1. Increase your income.

2. Reduce your expenses.

Paying off debts serves both options. You do not have permission to quit working for The Man until you no longer owe Him anything. The Man, of course, employs plenty of dirty tricks to keep the debts going; you'll have to avoid them.

Live in the cheapest home that fulfills your needs, and resist the urge to indulge your unnecessary desires. Note that this does not always mean that you should own that home. At the point where you are now, that hour you spend researching would be better spent planning your grocery shopping, with specials and coupons.

That single step you take to start the journey of 1000 miles can't fall at the 500 mile mark. You have to start at the beginning. Get out of debt.

Don't waste time researching business opportunities until you actually have enough capital to jump on one. Otherwise, you're just going to end up working for your creditors and investors, rather than yourself. And they will flog you harder than any boss you have ever had.

Don't quit your job with bills to pay and mouths to feed? I totally get the whole desire to do what you read people successfully doing all of the time, but my own personal experience has taught me that it's a fools errand to try to fit other people's roadmap into yours.

It might take you longer than you want, it might not map out how imagined but at the end of the day, you can't sacrifice everything for what amounts of a lottery ticket ESPECIALLY when it involves the quality of life for other people.

There are ways to do what you want incrementally, but think less about the scratch off ticket of startup homeruns and just do something simpler and grow. Build things that have an audience, do stuff that's closer to your current base of work and build a community around your work. That's not even a guarantee of success, but it's a much closer route and would enable you to make time to do what you want.

But yeah, don't jump out with a plane with a parachute because you only get one.

It's called "being an adult and doing what you gotta do for the people who depend on you. "

Thanks for the useful comments.

Family is always first for me. They support me and I support them. Anything I plan to do and have been planning is incremental: reduce debt, learn as much as a can, optimize my time, start small and grow. I think having the big goal of "work for myself" as a driver, I can then incrementally move myself into that position.

Honestly you seem to be struck by the 'Startup' hype. You feel like you're falling behind in the race.

Forget about start-up. Enjoy your life. Be happy. You won't regret not doing startup when you turn 70. But you will certainly regret not enjoying your life.

Believe me. I was in your situation. You work, you get paid. Go home, spend life with joy / happiness.

And you know what, you can live without that startup. There are people who would do anything to get the comfortable job you have, good food you eat, warm bed you sleep on.

Please don't ruin your and hence your loved ones life just for the sake of technology hype.