Where Do You Want to Go Today?

The blog Wisebread has an interesting post on the merits of doing the safe thing vs. following your dreams. I don't think I've ever seen it so logically summed up as in these two paragraphs:

Lest you think I'm just a sentimental idealist, we also realized (how practical of us!) that the relative value of the financial security we were pursuing wasn't very high. Even if we paid off all of our debt more rapidly than we could possibly imagine, we wouldn't be satisfied. We would be more secure, but not happy. The money that we could then accumulate (when we were not longer using it to pay off debt) could not buy us our dreams, nor the years spent not pursuing them. For us, that price was simply not worth paying.

The truth is that we're not quite throwing it all on the line here. We didn't just throw ourselves on the mercy of anyone who will help. We have a plan, and that plan includes (and even focuses on) our finances. With my job and his jobs, we will be fine financially. We may not pay off our debt early, but we'll make our monthly payments on time. We may not buy a home or have a kid for a few more years, but I'm not convinced I'm ready for that anyway. We will probably be living on a tighter budget than most of our friends, but that's a sacrifice we're willing to make. We're willing to be less successful financially to be more successful as whole human beings.

It begs the question, just how successful are you if you achieve the rewards of taking the safe route?