I'd take the high paying crappy job and just have a really fun life with that money outside of work. The way I see it is sure if you have a great job thatyou love, that job might take over your life. But work isn't everything to me and never will be. I'd like to enjoy life outside of work and having alot of money would permit me to do that. Worrying about bills, unforeseen expenses like accidents or lots of weddings/b-days in a row or whatever, budgetingall the time, not being able to eat at nice restaurants, buy nice things, having kids and not being able to afford to pay for their education and nice thingsfor them, etc. isn't something I'd accept just so I could have a job that I love. Work is far from the majority of adult life, and to enjoy the partthat is the majority, I think money is important. Of course there's a trade off, but I need $ to be happy outside of work...being happy in work means justbeing happy a minority of my life. It just makes sense to me. Ideally I want a job I love that pays a lot of money though so I could be happy almost all thetime