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How Much Money Do You Need to be Happy ?
05-03-2012, 02:16 PM
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#1
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 4,035
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How Much Money Do You Need to be Happy ?
Evidently, it doesn't take all that much to live La Dolce Vita.
What Am I doing striving to hit a higher number ?
How Much Money Do You Need to Be Happy? - Yahoo! News
 Quote:
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The research found that an annual salary of $50,000 represented a significant tipping point in determining happiness and personal satisfaction.
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05-03-2012, 02:31 PM
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#2
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 557
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I've estimated health care costs at $20k / year. Home ownership expenses come to an additional $16k (but that includes cable, internet and phone for 2k/yr) . Food is another $5k. At a 50k salary lets say we have 5k in taxes. Leaves 4k for "everything else". I don't see that as enough for me to be "happy". I'd be out of my mind with worry without my 3k/year "future one time expense" budget and my 2k/year "misc purchases" plan.
__________________
Working hard to achieve my dream of retiring at age 50 to join the class of 2013 !
Learning to reduce my fears (of my portfolio running dry) so I can really start to Live (and ER) !
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05-03-2012, 02:40 PM
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#3
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Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: The northernmost tip of Latin America
Posts: 10,672
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The fact that I can be happy will some does not mean at all I can't be happier with more...
__________________
It's not the cards you're dealt in life but what you do with them that matters
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05-03-2012, 03:03 PM
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#4
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 4,035
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MichaelB
The fact that I can be happy will some does not mean at all I can't be happier with more...
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What you say is consistant with the research. However the research suggests that your marginal happiness will be only marginally higher.
If it's then true that more makes you (marginally) happier, then by striving for more you just may make yourself less happy by continuing to work.
The paradox of more !
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05-03-2012, 03:10 PM
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#5
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 557
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I only THOUGHT I was happy when I made 50k a year --- then reality struck and I realize now that I was just naive (or put another way, I was obilivious the risks of potential financial ruin that I am all too keenly aware of now)
__________________
Working hard to achieve my dream of retiring at age 50 to join the class of 2013 !
Learning to reduce my fears (of my portfolio running dry) so I can really start to Live (and ER) !
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05-03-2012, 03:26 PM
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#6
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 1,638
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If I had guaranteed income for live of $25K/yr after-tax(cola'd) and didn't have to work to get it, i'd be happy. If I had to work, i'd need 2x as much to be equally happy. Actually, i'd prefer the $25K/yr if it meant not needing to work.
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05-03-2012, 03:29 PM
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#7
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Minneapolis
Posts: 3,490
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No amount of money would make one happy until he/she stops the craving for more and discontentment for which more wealth, status or power is not a cure.
__________________
May we live in peace and harmony and be free from all human sufferings.
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05-03-2012, 03:48 PM
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#8
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 1,514
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aaronc879
If I had guaranteed income for live of $25K/yr after-tax(cola'd) and didn't have to work to get it, i'd be happy. If I had to work, i'd need 2x as much to be equally happy. Actually, i'd prefer the $25K/yr if it meant not needing to work.
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This is pretty much my feeling, too. Once I realized I could generate $25k-$30k a year in investment income (monthly and quarterly dividends only, not irregular cap gain distributions) without a whole lot of risk, I could stop working and be happy. That happened in late 2008. Now, I'm set. 
__________________
Retired in late 2008 at age 45. Cashed in company stock, bought a lot of shares in a big bond fund and am living nicely off its dividends. IRA, SS, and a pension await me at age 60 and later. No kids, no debts.
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05-03-2012, 05:26 PM
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#9
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 313
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aaronc879
If I had guaranteed income for live of $25K/yr after-tax(cola'd) and didn't have to work to get it, i'd be happy. If I had to work, i'd need 2x as much to be equally happy. Actually, i'd prefer the $25K/yr if it meant not needing to work.
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Ever consider a military career? A 20 year pension, even at a modest enlisted grade is equal to around $25K, and it's COLA'd. You seem like a bright guy, and you could get into a specialty that has a reasonable chance of keeping you out of harms way. It would beat the rigors and the ups and downs of factory work.
Better act soon though, 33 is pushing the age limit, and there's talk of changing the retirement plan.
__________________
ACC USN-(Ret)
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05-03-2012, 05:27 PM
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#10
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gone traveling
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Placerville
Posts: 161
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I've been very happy with a 'take-home' of $65K. I've been miserable with a 'take-home' of $145K. I find the stress of making more money to be detrimental to about everything; health, relationship, etc. That's why I'm pulling the plug this year and retiring. I have enough to make ends meet and to enjoy the things I find enjoyable. I have the $65K annual with my retirement funding plus some and will get a nice raise in 6 years with SS at 62 kicking in another $2500 a month for me and DW.
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05-03-2012, 05:30 PM
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#11
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Administrator
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: New Orleans
Posts: 24,615
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Spanky
No amount of money would make one happy until he/she stops the craving for more and discontentment for which more wealth, status or power is not a cure.
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+1 Nice observation. Some people just can't get enough money to stop that craving and discontentment.
__________________
"Already we are boldly launched upon the deep; but soon we shall be lost in its unshored, harborless immensities." - - H. Melville, 1851
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05-03-2012, 05:37 PM
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#12
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Chicagoland
Posts: 7,223
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Spanky
No amount of money would make one happy until he/she stops the craving for more and discontentment for which more wealth, status or power is not a cure.
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+2. We spend quite a bit less now than we did a decade ago, and if anything we're probably happier. When I got my first job making $15.6K/yr I was ecstatic, wondered how I would spend it all.
No idea what the $ number is (though I've read $50K/yr before as well) but once you have enough to take care of basic needs, the excess provides marginal benefit. Unhappy wealthy people are everywhere, just check out any TV, magazine or other tabloid.
__________________
It's a pity to waste your life living the same tiny day over and over again. James Taylor
Retired Jun 2011 at age 57
Target AA: 55% equity funds / 40% bond funds / 5% cash
approx 20% SI (secure income, SS only)
Target WR: approx 2.5%
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05-03-2012, 05:42 PM
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#13
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 313
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The caveat is the home ownership and the health care. Eliminate those two factors, and costs are drastically reduced. Some folks despise the w*rkplace to the point that they'll rent a small apartment and roll the dice on medical expenses.
__________________
ACC USN-(Ret)
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05-03-2012, 05:56 PM
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#14
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 1,638
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BLS53
Ever consider a military career? A 20 year pension, even at a modest enlisted grade is equal to around $25K, and it's COLA'd. You seem like a bright guy, and you could get into a specialty that has a reasonable chance of keeping you out of harms way. It would beat the rigors and the ups and downs of factory work.
Better act soon though, 33 is pushing the age limit, and there's talk of changing the retirement plan.
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I wouldn't consider it at my age. I don't have the physical build even to get thru basic training. I'm 6'6 1/2" and weigh 159lbs.
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05-03-2012, 06:20 PM
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#15
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 1,179
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I'm pretty happy most of the time - not ecstatically so, but I have a general level of contentment that suits me just fine. I've always been this way. I'm creative and think I could maintain this level of contentment down to an income of around $10-12K. Living on that income would be a challenge, and challenges make me feel alive - and happy
I was a bit happier when I was working and felt as if I was going somewhere with my life. My current level of overall contentment will ramp back up to a more exuberant type of happy when I develop and follow a new major goal (fulltime Rv'ing perhaps?)
It doesn't take much IMO.
__________________
ESR (and maybe ER if things go well)
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05-03-2012, 06:35 PM
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#16
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Hong Kong
Posts: 1,176
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IIRC some of the studies concluded that people feel happier about their wealth when they have more than their neighbours/relatives/peers etc.
For my part, I became a lot happier when (i) I realised that I craved freedom from the rat race more than "more" and (ii) I concluded that the finishing post was in sight (end 2012 or early 2013).
__________________
"When information is cheap, attention becomes expensive"
James Gleick - The Information
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05-03-2012, 07:06 PM
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#17
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 4,035
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Quote:
Originally Posted by traineeinvestor
IIRC some of the studies concluded that people feel happier about their wealth when they have more than their neighbours/relatives/peers etc.
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Well I don't know about the studies but I can tell you that I personally would really enjoy a lifetime of gloating over the in-laws.
I could them tell them frequently how they are doing everything wrong and how screwed up their life is.
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05-03-2012, 08:34 PM
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#18
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Mandan
Posts: 1,118
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Spanky
No amount of money would make one happy until he/she stops the craving for more and discontentment for which more wealth, status or power is not a cure.
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+3
__________________
"There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand. Resolve then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving and tinny blasts on tiny trumpets, we shall meet the enemy, and not only may he be ours, he may be us. Forward!" Pogo (Walt Kelly)
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Happy doesn't preclude clueless
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05-04-2012, 06:46 AM
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#19
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Dryer sheet aficionado
Join Date: Oct 2011
Posts: 39
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Happy doesn't preclude clueless
I can see a lot of people being happy in the moment consuming 100% of a $50k income...but being clueless that they're setting themselves up for a long run of unhappiness when that $50k income stops and they're suddenly broke/stressed.
It's yet another variant of The "only thing that matters is my income because that determines what I can consume right now" cultural pre-disposition.
A lot of people were "happy" being leveraged to moon and living in their McMansions...right until they weren't and it turned out the McMansion was a prison trapping them for years-upon-years.
I've found my happiest moments are when I have balance: living, saving, working, raising the kids, exercising and donating. Let any one get away from you for too long and it will get uncomfortable quick.
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05-04-2012, 07:33 AM
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#20
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Chicagoland
Posts: 7,223
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Quote:
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IIRC some of the studies concluded that people feel happier about their wealth when they have more than their neighbours/relatives/peers etc.
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I've read it too and I am sure a lot of people live their lives on that basis, but it's very sad. As if happiness is a competition with others, and there have to be 'losers' for some people to be "happy." If you believe it, I guess you'd never stop working to make sure you accumulate more wealth than all others to be "happy."
OTOH, I was just watching a piece on TED that suggested the more people spend on others (and less on themselves) the happier they are and vice versa. Their hook was you can buy happiness (by spending/giving more money on/to others).
__________________
It's a pity to waste your life living the same tiny day over and over again. James Taylor
Retired Jun 2011 at age 57
Target AA: 55% equity funds / 40% bond funds / 5% cash
approx 20% SI (secure income, SS only)
Target WR: approx 2.5%
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