(Almost) everyone that I respect the accomplishments of on Wikipedia seems to have spent most of their life married. And being married now for a little while, I would not go back. The people who say that you need to choose between them are probably men in their 20s who work too much (or, that has been my experience). When you start your career, you spend a lot of (wasted, output-wise) time learning instead of productive. People get more productive as time goes on, which allows you to earn more <i>and</i> do more things outside of focusing on getting to be good enough at working. Eventually you can make a great living without too much painful learning and evenings and weekends grinding, so you can spend the rest of the time how you wish. Eventually, you can do the same with kids, parents, etc. depending on you and still somehow function. It takes a lifetime it seems to learn those things, but there does not seem to be much of a downside.