He's wildly financially independent. He had early shares from red hat and geeknet, on top of millions from the linux foundation and corporate work. His net worth is in the tens of millions at least.
When Red Hat went public, they gave those who submitted a bug report or fixes a chance to buy pre-IPO shares. I got a chance despite just a minor bug report and bought some shares and despite some poor timing of selling, eventually made enough along with my work related stock to have enough financial cushion to leave my job to get my masters degree and a career change. And it worked out well because not long after the dot com tech bubble burst and many tech stocks plummeted or went out of business while I was focused on my education.
