Happiness is definitely not that correlated with wealth. It's more tied to our expectations. I was in a tiny poor village in southeast Mexico, and the people there seemed much happier on average than the wealthy people in my life and those wealthy people I meet in big rich cities. And these poor villagers didn't even want my money. They were genuinely content. In many environments people are taught to worship money, become spoiled, and completely lose perspective. Think about those bankers who were committing suicide. Even with their big losses, they still probably had more money than everyone in that village combined, times 100000. But somehow it wasn't enough.
Having a 'balance' between the so called 'reality' of having to work a shit job for money, and doing something you love, is idealistic in my opinion. How many people do you know do something like that successfully? It's just a trap we've been conditioned to think is sensible, because it seems like a compromise. If you are persistent enough, and ambitious enough, I am sure you can end up doing something you like and be making enough money to live comfortably at the same time, no matter who you are (with a few exceptions).
That said, if you're really ambitious, at some point you are almost certainly going to have to work your ass off at things that you hate, as a means to an end. But that doesn't necessarily involve money. Life isn't easy, but money isn't as important as we are made to think it is either.
