I’ll be honest - if I had nothing but time and a paid off house, I’d be sorely tempted to just tinker for a while. The bay is no place to do that though - it’s too expensive.
I live in flyover country, with a paid off house, and good income. If you don’t have a mortgage, then it will be medical insurance (which costs just a much). If not that, the college savings, which is also equivalent.
So true. The rent forces you to be on the hamster wheel.
It USED to be the place to experiment. Now it’s the place to try to make money before the landlords get you.
This is likely severely limiting the innovation output of that area. You need breathing space to do groundbreaking stuff.