[campbellcj]

My wife and I both did our years of 60-100 hour weeks. Now that we are ~38 and have a son, decent home, and other interests, I have cut back to more like 40-50hrs/week and she's been doing 20 or so. We have live-in help so that what free time we do have outside of work, is not consumed doing mundane household crap.

Above all the key thing is to find a career that you enjoy and find rewarding and challenging, but also has some flexibility. We are part owners of one business (mine) and full owners of another (hers). Sure, you have to "bust ass" quite often to survive and succeed in small business (i.e. I worked until 11pm last night) but by the same token if you want to sleep in until 10am the next morning or -- ahem -- take a last-minute PTO day to go drive at the track, you have that option. If you work for someone else, it's just not the same, no matter how much vacation and PTO time you get...

I have also traveled plenty on business and as far as I'm concerned, I would much rather delegate that to others whenever possible. It is fun for a while, but grows old rapidly. At this point in my life I'd much rather be home than living out of a suitcase eating fattening meals, drinking too much, and suffering the ever-declining airline travel experience.

As one of my former managers told me, "you should work to live, not live to work". I love my business but if I did not "have" to work, financially, I could walk away in a heartbeat.