I do know quite a few who made their money and got out. Something I really should have done 10 years ago!
Like most of the old-timers, I made my REAL money last century and luckily, put most of it away. I really just stay on-line to keep busy and because we still have pretty good money coming in from very little work. I do some mainstream stuff dealing with travel and sailing, but those are more vanity projects that I do for fun (although there is money there too)
But yes, many of the mouthpieces from days gone by have crashed and burned quite dramatically!