Put it this way: teaching and research make me a hell of a lot happier and more excited than being an I.T. consultant and spending my life spinning my wheels, fixing Microsoft’s mistakes.

My dream life would literally be having enough rental income to pay for basic expenses and being able to work part time doing research/teaching as an adjunct for additional income and fun.

All of the good aspects of being an adjunct (flexibility, academic environment) without the bad (money difficulties).