Academia is a viable career option if: (a) you don't care about making money, (b) you are willing to live almost anywhere in the country in order to be a professor, and (c) you are willing to date/marry someone who is not in academia.

A. Don't become a professor if you care about being fairly compensated for your skill and high degree of education. Unless you are in a professional school (business, law, medicine, architecture, etc.) you will make just enough to live, but maybe not enough to save for a downpayment on a house (depending on your region). You need to be comfortable making $70K a year and getting 0-3% raises regardless of how good your performance is.

B. Don't become a professor if you are not willing to live almost anywhere in the country. It may be that the only TT job offer you get coming out of grad school is in Sioux Center, Iowa or Socorro, New Mexico. If you aren't willing to live in place like this, far from your family and friends, then academia is not for you.

C. Do not become a professor if you are not willing to be very open to who you date/marry. Dating/marrying someone from your PhD program will almost guarantee one of you has to sacrifice your career, assuming that even one of you is able to get a TT job. Your best bet is to date people who work in a profession that is able to live and work in numerous regions around the country - doctors, nurses, electricians, accountants, roofing contractors, attorneys, bankers, paralegals, etc. If you are a shy person who will only socialize with people in academia, then it will be very hard for you when you end up marrying a fellow academic and you have to either live in different states to both have good jobs or one of you has to give up your job in order to live in the same state.