[myelin]

Or, you could pick up a part time job doing what you're good at (hacking), earn as much money as a full time "mostly idle" type job, and use your actual free time for your projects.

The jobs you mention can't pay much more than $1500/month, which is 30 hours at $50/hour (or much less if you bill higher). One freelance project per month will fund your hacker lifestyle, and will probably look much better on your resumé later on in life.

[omouse]

Where can you find a freelance gig that isn't a total rip though? I'm sure the parent doesn't want to get paid $14/hr hacking on a Windows clone for someone on ELance or Craigslist.

[robertk]

Very nice jobs can be found on elance if you're willing to look a little bit. When I had no reputation, I would bid on the best-value projects (e.g., $500 for an hour's work) with something like:

"Since I have no elance reputation, I am willing to work for free and receive payment after the work is completed and satisfactory."

I never got ripped off, but even if I had, so what? Most elance jobs (the ones I've done) are fixed fee, and the buyer doesn't have to know how many hours (or minutes) I spend. ;-)