I can understand everyone's concerns about money, after all, it attracts many developers purely for that reason alone. I published several games on Kongregate but I haven't made a massive amount of money.
I definitely agree that going straight into a game and thinking about making money straight away isn't a good strategy. On the other hand, you never know whether a game you make will be the next Angry Birds or Game Dev Story. Just working on my portfolio and getting experience using other engines is a good starting point, regardless of wealth.