Yes, exactly. That's is what I did. I did pick up some contract work while doing my Masters back then, but the pickings were pretty sparse in my non-silicon valley area. Usually 3 to 6 month contracts with breaks between which allowed me to focus on the schooling. There were a couple of years there in the early 2000s where I only worked about 3 months. I was fortunate to have savings built up during the booming 90s to enable me to get by during bad times in the early 2000s.