A person needs to know when to move on, and I believe if an employee stays purely for the reasons of gathering money they may put their overall happiness in life in jeopardy; yes, we all need money to live, but having it and living miserably isn't generally going to work so well.

Those eight it so hours at work can have a huge effect on the other sixteen hours of the day and, I think at least, a person should be making the right overall choices, as you seem to have done, to minimise the risk of leading a life less engaging and fullfilled as it probably should be.