I can afford to sustain my current frugal lifestyle past the timeframe I set in the original post. I'm selling part of the shares I own in my ex employer (I was an early employee back in the time. I left when they released the game, then came back a couple years later as a contractor).
I do have time pressure, for different reasons. I'm 32 and while I can see myself doing some less life draining types of startups at an older age, the time is running out to do the wild thing.
I don't have a cofounder and I'm not in a good location to find one. My immediate plan is to become and establish myself as great cofounder material by cranking out a few failures on the cheap, while I try and find likeminded people online. I'm willing to move to a hotter startup hub to find a cofounder, but due to living costs I'm hesitant to do it before I have something to show my abilities. [PS: I guess there are also visa issues; I haven't studied this yet.]
Thanks for the feedback, and good luck to you too!