How Much Money Makes You Happy? Scientists Pinpoint Amount

Countless studies have examined the relationship between income and happiness. But now scientists have pinpointed the exact amount of money you need to be happy. The magic number? $75,000.

After analyzing 450,000 responses from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index (GHWBI), a daily well-being survey that queries 1,000 respondents, two scientists from Princeton University say happiness is based on life evaluation and well-being, reports GALLUP Management Journal.

According to Mogulite, the findings show that those with a total household income of less than $75,000 overall had lower levels of emotional well-being and satisfaction with their state of life. However, those who made more than that amount didn't see a significant increase in their happiness.

Of course, there remain a couple of exceptions to this finding. If you give your money away or you find that wealth upgrades your social status, it can make you happy beyond the $75,000 mark.

So, next time you hear the phrase "money can't buy you happiness," remember, it actually can. But only to a certain point.

Comments

[lipps]

12:09 AM on 11/22/2011

$300MM is an amount that you cannot really spend it all without trying really hard and worrying about losing.

[yappnmutt]

09:28 PM on 11/21/2011

the saying is, "money can't buy you love" although that is debatable for gold diggers money can buy lots of happiness for oneself and others.

[Sandmanj]

05:20 PM on 11/21/2011

There is *no* one-size-fits-all income that provides security of "happiness".

$75K/year is a fortune in some small towns in some states and many countries.

It barely pays the bills (and thus causes a lot of anxiety) in some cities and communities.

[Sandmanj]

05:23 PM on 11/21/2011

Typo - s/b "security *or* happiness".

[NAMU2010]

01:51 PM on 11/21/2011

The article's intent was to point out that earning more than the 75k in household income, does not add to one's happiness at some point, although I'm sure many of us think more money will solve all of our prioblems. It seems to be a reasonable number for 2 adults working full time. It also makes sense that making less could add to unhappiness, just from the pressures and expenses of daily life. Just look at the extra monthly expenses many of us have now that our parents never had...cable tv(tv used to be free)..cell phones, internet access....it's no wonder our kids are expected to enjoy less upward mobility than we enjoyed. Maybe the answer is to be happy with what you have instead of what you don't have.

[DrSkepsis]

01:42 PM on 11/21/2011

Settling for $75K is sad.

[Larz99]

05:10 PM on 11/21/2011

Settling?!? I would love to make $75k!!!

[greyhound2]

09:43 AM on 11/21/2011

The $75.000 number may provide today's safety, but 95% of Americans die broke.

[Ed Baker]

12:50 PM on 11/21/2011

Because they spend all that they have, then they spend everything they might get someday.

[Eagleman]

09:40 AM on 11/21/2011

Let's see how may happy federal and state workers (aka Lazy bums) who make more than 75K

aka Happy Bums

[DMSmith]

04:05 PM on 11/21/2011

Lazy bums? You're being silly does not make others lazy. It just makes you sillier than they.

[Terri Lorz]

09:37 AM on 11/21/2011

It is kind of interesting - but I believe that happiness can be a learned skill. Terri Jo Lorz

[wewin]

06:08 PM on 11/21/2011

So can Scientology!

[April22]

09:29 PM on 11/20/2011

Geez, if I made $75 thousand a year, I could live very well indeed.

The days of making a "living" are long gone for many Americans, who are just scraping by to make ends meet working sometimes two non-living wage jobs.

Then there are some Americans who are never satisfied with making a living alone. They need to be millioniares and billioniares.

Reflective of US businesses which aren't satisfied with regional or national sales, they have to go global.

Fewer and fewer space exist between the two livings anymore in America.

You either have money or you don't.

[oceanye]

05:08 PM on 11/21/2011

The "don't" is what motivates me.

[wewin]

06:12 PM on 11/21/2011

Worse part is, most super rich make their money off other peoples money.

It is easy to risk someone else's money. Better yet, I will leverage two hedge funds 1000-to-1. I will make two opposite bets. One fund will make me and my clients rich. The other will make those clients broke and not effect me at all!

Only in America!

[xanas]

01:38 PM on 11/20/2011

This is based on flawed reasoning.

Individuals act desiring to improve their future state over the present. The specific things that they desire in order to improve this state that they can act to achieve are what they personally believe at that time will make them better off. If they didn't believe this, they would have chosen other actions.

The majority of the time after acting people believe that they took the correct action, but even if they did not there is no way to improve this from the outside. No other person can impose his subjective values on another and expect him/her to have the same assessment and belief in those goals. So those who make more than 75000$ by their own choices would likely not be as "happy" as they presently are in their own assessment.

There is no honest way to create a numerical scale from people's ordinal valuations. If you say your happiness is "5 out of 10" this is not inherently the same as me saying that.

People often take choices that may say make them "less happy" but that they are more comfortable with for various reasons. They may take the higher paying career to the one that they "prefer". But ultimately, when they acted they chose their best option.

Human beings are complex, you cannot simply create a bunch of numbers off some surveys and compare them and then start aggregating them to derive information like this.

[April22]

09:33 PM on 11/20/2011

Reasoning is also relative!

Differences in reasoning does not make one flawed and the other not!

If I have understood your comment correctly, I think that was your thesis.

[xanas]

06:03 PM on 11/21/2011

Values are subjective, but I wouldn't agree that reasoning is. How you weigh the facts about reality is subjective though, and so that's probably the core reason why people tend to think of reasoning as having subjective qualities.

Ex: 2+2 = 4 You can say 2+2 = 5 but it's meaningless and absolutely wrong mathematically.

You can say that you prefer $75000 to $50000 dollars but you would be wrong to say $75000 is less than $50000.

The point of my post was more about numerical vs ordinal comparisons. It is valid to say, I prefer beef more than chicken, but it is not valid to say that I prefer beef more than Bill prefers beef, because I pay twice as much as Bill does monthly on beef.

There could be all kinds of reasons Bill doesn't spend as much that have nothing to do with his preference for it being less, but beyond that the core reason I can't say this is that preference is subjective and can't really be quantified.

[Jamieatspark]

11:58 AM on 11/20/2011

What a load of rubbish this story is, if you never have $75,000 you're never going to be happy. Tell this to some of the poorest people in the world who still have a smile on their face.

I don't have that level of income right now and I am happy, so am I unusual or is something miraculous happening to me? No - I just don't buy in to the beliefs that something external to me is the cause of my happiness. It never is. Being happy is my job. It starts by not buying in to rubbish like this!

If I believe this, I will only be happy when I have $75,000, what do i do in the meantime? Put my happiness on hold? Happiness comes from healthy psychological functioning nothing else. Other stuff such as money is great to have, but not essential for happiness.

[Kathie Shaffer]

11:49 AM on 11/20/2011

i wish i wish i wish

[hector74elp]

11:38 AM on 11/20/2011

I'll be happy when I'm debt free in 2 years. =o)

[susanbsbi]

11:34 AM on 11/20/2011

Amount that would make me happy. Enough to pay my bills, enjoy a few finer things of life, i.e. a car movie, cable and a night out once a month.

[April22]

09:34 PM on 11/20/2011

I hear you there!

Consider me a fan!

[twixreason]

10:11 AM on 11/20/2011

I read this short article very carefully; and it is nonsensical. Let's see- if you earn less than $75,000, you exhibit a lower emotional satisfaction rating. If you make $75,000 or more your satisfaction rating is only marginally increased. Hummmm...where is the happiness factor. It would still indicate
no clear deliniation. The writers are HuffPost continue to prove their absymal ignorance on most topics.

[ARagefulModerate]

12:41 PM on 11/20/2011

Alas, I'd say that it's your ignorance that's abysmal, given that the article links to the site detailing how "happiness" (or well-being) is measured. However, to help remedy that ignorance, take a look at the survey methodology here: http://www.well-beingindex.com/methodology.asp That site contains a link to a PDF in the last paragraph of the Methodology heading with details about the background of the measure.

[April22]

09:38 PM on 11/20/2011

A simple statement of disagreement would have been sufficient.

[NAMU2010]

01:34 PM on 11/21/2011

agreed...also love the word ineffable in your bio..f & f