I pay myself $33K gross annually. I'm the lowest-paid salary employee in the company.
I know for me, I absolutely must have $2000 to survive $2500-$3000 a month to be comfortable... anything over that is nice to have.
That certainly sounds counterintuitive to me. What did you think would be a cash sink that wasn't? I'm guessing there were more things you thought you'd have to pay someone to do that you found weren't so painful to take care of yourself?
When its just you, or you and one other person, you can work from home, use skype (+rebtel if you do international remote work), direct calls to your phone ... get a cospace if you really have to have an office. Apart from taxes, there isn't that much overhead if you play it right.
Executives are paid not for the actual tasks they do, but for the fact that all responsibility and accountability is on their shoulders.