I agree..
I agree that all the money in the world can't make you happy. I commend you for taking a huge paycut to do something that you enjoyed doing. I would have finish my degree more than 10 yrs ago had I not been hooked up on money. I changed my major in school a couple of times thinking, "I'm not going to go in to that because it does not have a high enough starting pay, so let me just drop and study some other profession."
Believe you me, it has gotten me nowhere. If I had just followed my counselor's advice yrs ago when she said, go into something you like to do instead of something that pays well and you find it is not for you. I am miserable right now.
I would tell any young person starting out in school to not look at the starting pay. Def. go for something you know you will like because you will be happier in the long run, otherwise you will be unhappy in a dead end job.