Posted on 09/07/2010 9:00:54 PM PDT by Libloather
The Perfect Salary for Happiness: $75,000
By Robert Frank
September 7, 2010, 10:32 AM ET
**SNIP**
Bloomberg News The study, which analyzed Gallup surveys of 450,000 Americans in 2008 and 2009, suggested that there were two forms of happiness: day-to-day contentment (emotional well-being) and overall “life assessment,” which means broader satisfaction with one’s place in the world. While a higher income didn’t have much impact on day-to-day contentment, it did boost people’s “life assessment.”
Now we have more details from the study, conducted by the Princeton economist Angus Deaton and famed psychologist Daniel Kahneman. It turns out there is a specific dollar number, or income plateau, after which more money has no measurable effect on day-to-day contentment.
The magic income: $75,000 a year. As people earn more money, their day-to-day happiness rises. Until you hit $75,000. After that, it is just more stuff, with no gain in happiness.
That doesn’t mean wealthy and ultrawealthy are equally happy. More money does boost people’s life assessment, all the way up the income ladder. People who earned $160,000 a year, for instance, reported more overall satisfaction than people earning $120,000, and so on.
“Giving people more income beyond 75K is not going to do much for their daily mood … but it is going to make them feel they have a better life,” Mr. Deaton told the Associated Press.
He added that, “As an economist I tend to think money is good for you, and am pleased to find some evidence for that.”
The results are fascinating, especially in this conflicted age of materialism. But I wonder how they would differ by region or city. Would $75,000 mark the ultimate day-to-day contentment in such high-cost cities as New York City, Los Angeles or San Francisco?
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...
“We’re not, we’re not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that’s fairly earned. I mean, I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.” — Obama
The Perfect Salary For Happiness: $75,000.
A week.
Who is Robert Frank?
That doesn’t mean wealthy and ultrawealthy are equally happy. More money does boost people’s life assessment, all the way up the income ladder. People who earned $160,000 a year, for instance, reported more overall satisfaction than people earning $120,000, and so on.
Explain the difference between more satisfaction vs. more happiness?
More specifically, where does he live? 75K is great if you’re in any number of rural areas. You could live VERY well in Houlton Maine. In California or the suburbs of Connecticut, Massachusetts or New York, you are basically scraping by.
Money Can Buy Happiness
But you have to spend it on others, or give it away
People who spend money on others or gave their money to charities
were happier than those who just spent money on themselves.
A statistic in a 2005 Wall Street Journal article stated:
“People who donate to charity are 40% more likely to say
they are “very happy” than non-donors.”
$75K is great if you have no mortgage, no college to pay for anyone, no health care premiums, no need to save for retirement...
Happiness is a state of mind not a salary number. I know people who make 20K who are happy as clams and people who are multi-millionaires who are just as happy.
It is all about what you put your life’s value in.
True—for just over $50K/yr, we manage to pay for a 2000 square foot, 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house, plus putting 3 kids through Catholic school (it helps when the house is the only thing we owe on). Our property taxes are about $730 a year. We’re in the 2nd largest city in Arkansas.
Dh is looking at one job offer we are considering in rural southeast OH for almost $60K/yr, and is interviewing in northeast TN (also rural) tomorrow morning (salary TBD, but probably in the same range as OH). In either of these scenarios, we are living just as well as we do now (if not better).
from the obmanation who, with his wife got 5.5 million last year... at a minimum... and I say “got” because he didn’t work for it. Wonder how much of that he is ready to “give back”?
Fort Smith? Sounds like a good place to retire to where ever it is.
Two weeks in Spain makes the year disappear easy Two weeks in Spain, you forget, bored and yet weary We're back again, drink the wine, weather's fine, only Two weeks in Spain's not enough Never think where you're going Paradise a while knowing Everything that you're doing It's a carnival Let it go so remember Counting sheep in September Let 'em know you're the master It's a roundabout
I know people who make 20K who are happy as clams and people who are multi-millionaires who are just as happy.
Actually I know people who make 20 grand a year and are extremely happy and content raising a family. I know many multi-millionaires who are miserable because all they have is their job! Although they do have a mansion, they don’t spend much time in it.
I saw this poll on Cnn I think and they had people calling in say 75K would be great. Where I live you have to make at least 150K to buy a median priced home and this info was
furnished from my neighborhood realtor. I think it is a joke just like your rich if your salary is 250K you are not in my opinion and lts not forget after taxes if you make 75K
you will be lucky to take home 65K
we have a couple of extended family members...thankfully very extended....both on the take more or less....and living off their kids SS....who think no one should be allowed to make more thatn $150,000 a yr.....
Perfect — let’s make that the salary cap for Congress, Judges, and the Kenyan potus. Including perks, of course...any more would just be :”stuff”.
Leaving aside the cost of living issues...
This is what I tell my son:
Money does not make you happy. But it makes it easier to be happy.
In my experience, the most signicant (non medical) stress in life is caused by lack of money. “What if I don’t have enough to pay my bills? Do I have enough savings if I lose my income?” And that just leads to marital stresses.
tht said, it is also my experience that the more you earn the more you spend and it magnifies the stress.
“Explain the difference between more satisfaction vs. more happiness?”
The former is the realization that one has what they really need and the latter is enjoying that state of affairs.
I once heard someone say “Money can’t buy happiness, but it can pay for more crap to try out, till you find what makes you happy”
Money may not be everything but it is way ahead of whatever is in second place. Or like someone once said, “I’ve tried rich and I’ve tried poor and trust me, rich is better”
Money can’t buy happiness but it buys a better brand of misery” If you are going to be miserable, why not be miserable in a beautiful home with a super car or two and a ton of high end electronic toys to watch sports on and listen to music with.
WSJ is now putting the stake in the ground by which people can gauge their happiness?
will this be the amount all citizens will be —allowed— to make while all additional monies will be confiscated and given to the ‘politically favored’?
You are totally correct. If I didn't have to work for a living I wouldn't have a care in the world. If I were independently wealthy, I'd still work, I just wouldn't have any stress about it.
A buddy of mine calls that condition having "Eff you" money, meaning if I don't like my boss or job . . .
That's also a condition, oddly enough, where you can make the right decision and do the right thing without fear of the economic consequences, which might even make for a better employee.
A day. :-D
“it is also my experience that the more you earn the more you spend and it magnifies the stress.”
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True for far too many, the person who grew up with three siblings in a thousand square feet starts to make a little money and suddenly two thousand is way too small for two people. I have known a few people who make a good income and know how to stretch a dollar still, they become millionaires but nobody ever knows for sure. One day they announce that they are hitting the road for six months and suddenly it dawns on the neighbors that they aren’t living week to week like everyone else.
I once heard someone say “Money can’t buy happiness, but it can SURE FURNISH A FINE STYLE OF MISERY.”
We’re on the AR/OK border...it’s where the Hanging Judge, Isaac Parker, did his duty. The gallows still stand down near the Arkansas River. It was recently named the #1 affordable city for its overall cost of living by Kiplinger’s, and it’s been ranked #3 in terms of places to have a business. It’s got the amenities of a large city with the small town feel.
Tack on another zero.
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