I've brought you up to my present life. Well, not quite. I received an inheritance from my mother, which, when invested in the stock market, generates sufficient income that I no longer need to work for a living. I still take interesting jobs as they come up, and I support long-term customers because they've become friends, not just customers. In everything else, I just write open source and distribute it as I wish. My advice to you is to always pay your retirement fund first: put 10% of every project's check into a brokerage account and invest it in an Exchange Traded Fund.
Happy hacking!