I don’t think money has much to do with it. If you want to travel, get a job traveling, become a merchant marine, a traveling nurse, work for the airlines. If you want to build things, get a job as a carpenter and get your contractor’s license, become an architect. If you see yourself in one of the creative fields, art, music, literature, or cooking, study it, but mostly just do it. Don’t expect to get paid at first, but you’ll never get recognized by just talking about it. If helping other people makes you feel fulfilled, go into any level of medicine, from x-ray tech, to paramedic, to nursing, to MD, the choice is yours, the schools are out there. Happiness and fullfillment come only from doing things and being good at what you do. The experience required to be good at anything can’t be bought. Not having money is just an excuse not to go out and get what you want.
What is important is independence. You can’t very well shift gears easily if you’ve hooked up with a spouse who is happy the way things are, or a brood of children who need you and the stability a parent can provide. That would definitely complicate any changes a person might want to make in their life. So, it is best to decide what one wants to be before one decides to share who they are with someone else. To do it otherwise is to put the cart before the horse. But even though family and spouses may be a formidable impediment to one’s ability to inovate, there are many examples of people who have beat the odds through a desire for fullfillment, the most heroic being single mothers.
So, it can be done, but money isn’t a big part of the formula, however the hunger for happiness is.