I was brought up in a higher income family. There was a time when financial success interested me, but I soon realized that happiness was more important and I sought that rather than money.

I *was* financially succesful, but that wasn't my goal. I had a computer troubleshgooting business for thirty-five years and made very good money at it. I could have made much more, but I used the high hourly rate to give myself more time with my family and time for my own interests instead.

When you said "24 x 7", I smiled. I wouldn't work past 3 PM except in extremely unusual cases and usually quit long before that. Most days I worked 4-5 hours and took Fridays and Mondays off all summer.

That was success for me. When my wife became ill, I cut my hours even more to try to give her more happiness. That did hurt us financially, but we had good times for two decades before she became too disabled to do much of anything.

We could have had much more money in our retirement accounts had I worked more. I do not regret any of it.