Which is better?

high pay and expensive living.   high pay with cheap living is better.

So you are asking which is better - Having a lot of money and spending it, or having very little money and not buying much?  Are you really so stupid you need to ask this?

I'd say aim for in between, if you have too much you get used to it, spend more and you attract leeches, then of course too little is no good either for different reasons. It's nice to just tick over, have what you need, bargain hunt just because it's fun and not because you need to. Also, the fall is much bigger if you get too big and anything can happen.

I've only done it one way. The cheap way. But I retired young.

high pay and expensive living