Here's a post from Satoshi himself how he started working on Bitcoin in 2007. If he were to be a person who had lost 'everything', I imagine he would have been busy trying to survive, instead of working on a novel project with an unkown/highly unpredictable ROI.
The design and coding started in 2007.
Exactly. It's more likely that he had enough funds to last him a long time, therefore didn't mind spending so much time on a project that just as easily could have failed badly.
The fact that the currently ancient satoshi coins haven't been touched at all, also indicates that satoshi isn't and wasn't in need of money (obviously assuming he's still alive and has full access to all the private keys).
Satoshi is such a mysterious entity that people talk and think on his behalf without knowing who he is. Just let satoshi be who he is and focus on your own goals in life. Bitcoin is the tool helping you to achieve them.