I live just north of Seattle, WA. I worked at VZW for almost 10 years, but early on decided I wanted to run my own business so basically saved as much as I possibly could - my goal was to have 2 years of "wages" which would give me time to get my product (at that time Jamroom) off the ground. The great news was that as soon as I left my job and could devote full time to my own business, things took off - I didn't even end up touching the money I had saved much. However, the last couple years have been a bit hard as things have been more up and down, so I'm glad to have that savings now.