Money does indeed buy happiness, and it increases with a bigger paycheque more than economists previously believed, a recent analysis has found.
Money does indeed buy happiness, and it increases with a bigger paycheque more than economists previously believed, a recent analysis has found.
There was a study a while ago what showed money correlated well with happiness until about 100k/yr of income in the US, at which point it flatlined. I can’t remember how long ago this was and inflation would certainly make that number high today, but it made sense other than that even at the time I thought 100k was a but low for the flatline, but I’ve lived in some of the most expensive areas of the US and in Japan through my life, so I’m sure my experiences are a very skewed.
For me that was around the $70K range 4-years ago. Now there’s been crazy inflation and I’m at $81K. If I hadn’t gone nuts on credit cards, I’d be sitting pretty.
Part of it was that the study, if you are thinking of the same one as me, referenced the concept that: would you work twice as hard for $100k as you would for $50k? Like if the latter was a 40hr/week job, would you work a 80hr/week one for twice the pay? At some point you start to dip into diminishing returns - like you’ll work a bit harder but not TWICE as hard, so after that point, each additional dollar is not worth as much as those before that point.
Which makes perfect sense - like if you could make 100k at 50hrs per week, what’s the point of making 200k at 100hrs per week, it’s just too stressful to try to keep up?! At some point, with your basic needs met, you are no longer as aggressive at chasing down additional funds, and people would generally prefer to relax a bit, and Quality of Life concerns rise to the foreground over money.
And there’s probably other considerations as well, e.g. working for yourself vs. others.
Being the sole income for a family, and having moved past the $100k/yr mark, I will disagree with that conclusion. I do agree that there are diminishing returns, and that does grow the higher you go. But, having the ability to just say “fuck it” and pay for something rather than constantly struggling, shuffling bills around or having to figure out what to cut this month makes life better. Sure, it’s not going to magically fix all your problems. But it makes it a damned sight easier to work on those other problems, when you’re not constantly stressed about money.