Ok, let's do this.

I took a 12k pay cut to get into the games industry. Went from being paid 47k to 35k. My wife was pregnant at the time and the 25% pay cut definitely severely impacted our quality of life. But I really wanted to get into games, so she supported me.

When I was a lead designer at that same company with ~5 years of experience at the time, I found out one of my employees with 1 year of experience was being paid ~2k less than I was. He was white. I started to ask about salaries and saw that I was underpaid compared to my peers.

I asked for a raise and threatened to quit otherwise. They refused me. So I looked for a job elsewhere and found one that would pay me 60k, ~10k more than I was being paid at the time.

They countered at 65 k. That entire time they could have paid me 30% more. I left anyway.

Salary isn't everything when you have "enough".

It's a different story when you're the sole provider for a family of 5, struggling to make ends meet, racking up debt, and all so that you can follow your dreams.

My finances improved as I found jobs that paid me what I was worth.

It's hard to say if the struggle was worth it. I do have regrets, but at the same time I'm really grateful for everything that I have.

My advice is to keep periodically interviewing even if you're happy where you are, if for no other reason than to know your market worth.