What lifestyles do actuaries have? How much can one earn with devotion and skills?

There is a ton of information about this at http://beanactuary.com. (I am not an actuary, so I will let the website speak for itself.)

With skill and devotion, it's not impossible to finish all of your exams (become an actuarial fellow) in 5 years. According to the actuarial salary surveys, this should easily put you above the 6 figure mark. But with more experience, as well as business aptitude and leadership, ambitious actuaries have opportunity to climb up to executive positions. It's common for many corporate VPs, CFOs, CEOs, and other C_Os to hold actuarial credentials, especially in the insurance industry. As for lifestyle: in order to pass the exams that quickly, you can expect to take several hours a week to study outside of regular work hours. Once you've passed all of your exams, you no longer have to spend your evenings and weekends studying but you are expected to take on a lot more responsibility at work. This can be stressful and can still take time out of your evenings to get everything finished. Overall though, it's much less stressful than other high-paying careers in finance that require 70+ hour work weeks. Actuaries aren't usually expected to work beyond the regular 9-5, which leaves your evenings free to balance studying/family/social life as best suits your goals.