[wears_sweaters1]

Trade financial stability now for passions later is my take on this post, this resonates with me strongly as I'm at this very crossroads (and im a millennial) and leaning towards financial stability to provide foundation on which to find my passion. I always found it hard to "explore" what I wanted to do because time was always limited by how much money I had and I never had a lot.

[SomeStupidPoint]

See, I've actually found the opposite: I was much happier when I stopped pretending the large salary was actually enough to justify wasting a third of my life, and just worked at the library on a cheap laptop while helping a friend build his house to cover bills.

People also like me a lot better now that I don't hate a third of my life, am not trying to compensate for that with money, and have a certain zest from getting to genuinely work on things I'm passionate about.

YMMV, as some passions are more expensive than mine to get in to, but my point was that there's a spectrum of reasonable reactions to work-life balance, and the choice needs to be individual.

[lordCarbonFiber]

I wouldn't underestimate the cost of spending 8+ hours a day doing something you hate though. Depression is an effective road block to any sort of development (socially or professionally) and no matter how much money you make you can't buy years of your life back. YMMV