Need some advice - Whole situation

I'll start off by saying my path into business and finance has been nothing but traditional.

That being said I'll explain my current situation.

I graduated in 06 with a degree in Astrophysics, decent gpa ~3.2 from a top 30 world school.

I worked for a consulting start up in Canada focused on the medical device field once I got out of school. I didn't want to pursue physics anymore as I realized I was much more the mistake of thinking I had a job lined up when I did not in reality. While I was at the consulting company, I had a client (in finance) who wanted to hire me and I was scheduled to fly out to California to meet the firm, after I quit my old job of course. He told me he was going to hire me, just that his boss had to like me first but he told me everything I should say to impress him. I thought I had naively sealed the deal since I had paid airline tickets booked on them. Unfortunately the firm got bought out 5 days before the interview! Everything went out the window as he totally lost his budget. No job. The guy who wanted to hire me did not know of the buyout.

So I had to move back in with my parents for the time being as I ran out of cash and did not have a job. It was frustrating, I searched for months during the credit crisis for a job. I remember applying to Citigroup, M Stanley weeks before the job cuts were announced.

So after many months I finally found a job out in California with a startup that sells sophisticated financial software to Wall Street and everything related to it (WSJ, etc.). I started working there in April (Yes it took me 6 months to find a job). Things were good at first as I felt they were doing something cutting edge. I work along side a couple others in the product development team where I help come up with ideas for new financial software products. The work is extremely interesting, although it does not pay very well at all as I'm still on a training salary. I was set to get the full salary /benefits this week, as that is when my training was supposed to end. Unfortunately, the business has been hit badly by the credit crisis and they don't have enough money to pay me a normal salary. Go figure!! So I've been working since April on a horrible salary with no benefits and I don't even know for sure when I will just because the financial market has been hit so badly in my case.

So here I am, 24 years old, after all this work I still haven't found a decent job/salary, I have no health insurance or benefits and I make what a secretary does. I want to keep working for the startup as I want to test some ideas that I think could be worth millions to the business. I have a go big mentality but I also have some concerns though, I'll outline them below.

Here are my questions to you guys: A) What would you do in my situation? Keep in mind I want to maximize bringing in $, I want money plain and simple. Any words of wisdom or experience in this type of situation? B) Is it worth it to keep going with a startup, even if it fails and gets you no monetary reward? What kind of exit ops are there in finance for people in this situation. (Bear in mind I help create trading software, trading platforms, disseminating trading information, etc). C) Could trading be a feasible route for me in the future?

Any thoughts?