If I had investors and free business cash flow, I'd pay myself only enough to break-even on personal expenses. The reason is that I'd also own equity in the business, and any money invested in the business could presumably earn a bigger return than if I took that money out of the business and invested it elsewhere. If that assumption doesn't hold, I have no business being an entrepreneur, because it is more economically rational for me to take a fat-paying job at Google or in finance, and then stick my excess savings into index funds.