It isn't about a comfortable lifestyle but about a fulfilling and rich life. Depends on the person what their definition of that is: some might just want to spend quality time with family and friends, others might want to have a much wider impact. Its amazing the interesting opportunities and access that big money can open up (while I don't have it I know what it can do), you can do the same with a $10M but on a much smaller scale and you will hit brick walls a lot sooner and it can get very frustrating. Either way, the time to work your butt off is now, you can take it easy when taxes go up in a couple of years and killing yourself for that extra $ won't be worth it.
This is essential bargain that most of Europe strikes. Most Americans would love to sleep until 9:am and then take two hour lunches and work a 35 hour work week. And then be entitled 5 weeks paid vacation every August. Who wouldn't? Unless you're not ambitious.
As already mentioned it's about balance. For most, I believe, to have say $3 mil on today's standards with free time to enjoy life would leave them set, so long as their endeavors didn't seriously risk the $3 mil. Money doesn't buy happiness. It buys potential freedom, if applied correctly, and earned in balance with the rest of one's life. Some ppl. that appear to work hard, as much as 80 hours a week or more are doing what they are really passionate about in life. So is that work? Some say yes some say no.
I've done it but didn't make millions. When I entered workforce, I was working 60+ hours per week for about 8 years. I was able to save most of my earnings and build up nice cushion which gave me a freedom to explore and do ,most of the time, the things I wanted to do from that time on. To me it was worth it . Everything was much easier after that .
Great question. Guess if you are young, losing 7 years is worth a life of ease afterwards. When you think about it, almost everyone loses 90% of their life doing work or some other obligation. I've lived many of the possibilities - jobs I loved that gave lots of free time, terrible jobs/workloads that paid well, and finally retirement with a few million $ at age 39. Honestly I can't say what is best except that health and a good attitude are far more important than money. If a job is impacting health or attitude I'd say leave at any cost. The answer is probably different for everyone, just follow your intuition rather than what the crowd says.