Find your niche
I worked at an all Neve (3 room)studio in Los Angeles for a couple of years as an assistant.  The studios clients we the likes of the Smashing Pumpkins, Robbie Robertson, Natalie Cole, Brian Setzer ect..  I generally worked between 75 - 100 hours per week.  I never made more than 25k.  
Since I left, I've been doing mostly V/O editing at my house (which I bought in Los Angeles) after leaving that studio.  I work about 20-25 a week and make between 7-9k a month.  My V/O editing paid for me to get a nice ProTools rig HD3 w/ 2 192 I/O's.  It's overkill for V/O but I use it in my time off to record bands on speck.
My point is, everyone would like to be Elliott Schiner (BTW  a very nice guy) or Tom Lord-Alge, find a niche that pays, then whore youreself to the music business until it pays off.  I record 2 or 3 albums a year for indie bands.  I might spent 300-400 hours with them.  My deal is that they buy me a piece of equipment to help with the project (microphone, tdm plug-in ect) and give me points.  The band ends up getting 300-400 hours of my time for less than a grand.  Where else can you work for $2.50 an hour.
I have yet to get a record deal of any of these bands, but they walk away with a great sounding project, I get Producer/Engineer credit and still make enough with my "real job" to pay my morgage.