when you have enough money to not have to worry about anything, you can go back to your hobbies. in this case, his hobby is programming.
Redis, hping and dump1090 were all side projects he started/written while having a full time job.
Your comment really sounds like "many other people would do A and B if they just had time and money to do so", but he's been doing so since time and money were major constraints.
"enough money not to worry about anything" haha
Being a world class talent is independent of financial situation.