Everyone knows this. You sell time for money by going to a job. Time spent profitably turns into money.

What is less obvious is that money is time.

It is the quality of time, and it is the amount of time.

You could brew your own coffee, about 20 minutes, or you could pay the barista at Starbucks to give you a cup of coffee, about $1.50. Is your 20 minutes worth $1.50? Could you be doing something more profitable than $4.50 an hour? That’s less than minimum wage. Sounds like a bargain. (Granted, if you enjoy the coffee you brew more than you enjoy Starbucks, then that has to factor into the value equation.)

I plan to save $100,000 to be able to spend a full year without a paycheck hacking on new ideas. The goal there is to found a startup in that time, recruit a cofounder (or a few), and raise some serious capital to really take off.

I’ll be paying alimony until the middle of 2009. I’m not starving now. Once the payments to the ex stop, I’ll keep making the same investments into mutual funds and a bank account. When I have enough to live on for a year, I cash out my Yahoo stocks, quit my job, and get to work.

We all work for ourselves. The question is, do you want to have one big customer, or a lot of little ones? I think that a lot of little customers would be a lot more fun, and would scale much better. I want to work 10 times as hard for 1/10th the time. I want to retire at 40 and be set for life. I want the freedom to pursue whatever goal satisfies me the most.

What’s the worst that could happen? I fail, and have to get a job?