sleep on it, thats what i do with big decisons; sometimes for weeks on end.
big money normally comes with high risk, if it was easy they wouldn't pay the big money.
I would say life isn't always about the money, i'd rather do a job that i enjoyed and get paid less, rather than do a high paid job i hated. I get bored easily and need a challenge; it keeps me on my toes. I'll never be rich but i know that i'm happy; hence doing the teaching. I wouldn't want to get 40 years down the line and look back on my life and think "what have i actually achieved".
I think in this case for you the contracting might give you the challenge you're maybe missing in the PAYE job. by the sounds of it in this career path reputation counts for a lot and thats what you're trading on. so if you do a good job and get the results the work should be a given. being a gobshite just means your human and most people would prefer to hire someone human than some boring robot.
sit down and have a chat with your missus. althoguh this is your job, it affects both of you so technically should be a joint decision.