It's always nice to get paid for whatever you're doing, but on the other hand, as a long-time professional software developer before I got my first game studio job, the game industry in general is a poorer industry to work in (lower pay, lower professionalism, more crunch time) and when I spend more than 40 hrs/wk programming for someone else, I don't have motivation to work on my own projects at home.
So my favorite balance is to have part-time or intermittent contract employment to pay the bills (and hopefully learn things that I wouldn't learn on my own), and spend the rest of the time on my own projects.