[Serious] How do you make money?

I know people that make a lot more money than I did, but they were miserable and lived to work, always chasing that dollar. I always wanted a job that when I left for the day, it didn't follow me home. I wanted to devote myself to work when I was at work, but devote myself to having a life when I was not. I was lucky to marry someone that felt the same way. All my peers and superiors had 2-300k (or more) houses in the city, drove nice fancy brand new vehicles, and spent money like it was unlimited. The two of us lived well outside the city in a small and significantly cheaper house. I drove the same truck for 15 years, brought my lunch everyday, and have never been to a starbucks because I can make coffee and muffins much cheaper and healthier at home. I avoided debt as often as I could. We lived simply because that was all that was in our means. Sure I wanted the new car, the motorcyles/boats/extra vehicle toys, but couldn't afford them, so I learned to live without them. Now I am older, retired early because I got fed up with putting my energy into work that just made other people richer and am happier puttering around our house in the country. My wife is a lot more social than me and likes to work. She brings home enough to cover our simple needs. I was the breadwinner in the past, now she likes that she is. The vast majority of my income was going to taxes anyway, as most second incomes do. I guess my point is this: just want less. Don't get caught up in 'keeping up with the Jonses' crap. Don't believe the media telling you that spending money will make you happy. Don't focus on making money, focus on living. Don't march to their beat, find your own. Spend as little as you can, save as much as you can. I always wish we had saved more, that may be my biggest regret. In regards to jobs, maybe I was lucky. Everywhere I worked, I started at the bottom, came in and focused on getting the job done, and did it better than everyone else. They would shortly push me into management. I didn't care what I was doing because it all sucked equally. I was happy doing all the stuff that no one else wanted to do, and did it well. I would conquer one problem, be handed another, conquer that one, on and on. They kept piling on more and more responsibility, and kept paying me more and more because I was making the people above me look good and more importantly, made their job a lot better. I had opportunities where I could have doubled or tripled my salary, but my work hours would have also increased exponentially, it just wasn't worth it.