Money does buy happiness!

[NW-Bound]

There is definitely a point of diminishing returns based upon your lifestyle and financial situation.

It's because the cost of increased happiness grows exponentially as you get higher and higher.

Example: roundtrip coach airfare NY-London costs a few hundred dollars. Businessclass seat, a few thousand dollars. Next step up is chartered jet, which costs $145K for the same itinerary. Private jet? The sky is the limit.


PS. I hasten to add that for the $145K, you can fly 8 people. You can make your offsprings and your siblings very happy.

PPS. But then, you'd better have a small family, because if you leave out anyone, there will be much unhappiness and misery.

The info I posted was from here: https://www.privatefly.com/private-jet-hire/citypairs.html

 

[jollystomper]

Money gives one more options. The more options one has, the more likely one will find those that make them happy. But it is not guaranteed.

There are also more than a few people who, no matter how much money they have, will be unhappy with the fact that someone, somewhere, who they think is not deserving, has more money than they do.

 

[HI Bill]

Money can buy things that make you happier.

In preparation from ER, I moved from a city low-rise apartment building in a noisy neighborhood, to a gated community. We are now surrounded by trees, birds, butterflies, some slivers of ocean views, and have amazing star-filled nights. Every day, we have three meals on the front lanai, overlooking the pool, palm trees and ocean. I am very content with our new 'modest' home, and the only thing that would make me happier would be a similar home with an unobstructed ocean view. Feeling safe in the new environs helps with happiness, too.

$ by themselves don't buy happiness, but they can buy experiences, safety and security, and objects that give you pleasure. My retirement gift to myself was a new set of speakers for the home theater. They weren't cheap, but every time I fire them up, I really enjoy them!

 

[Dog]

Being financially secure makes me happy. Funny...there were so many things I thought I would buy or do when we finally had money. We buy less now than when we were in the accumulation phase. We do splurge more now when dining out or traveling. It’s so nice not worrying about spending the $.

 

[Markola]

I think “Happy” is a temporary emotion but “well-being” is more of a state of existence and way of life. Regardless, I felt a flood of both this morning at 8:30 when it was raining and I was holding my big orange, purring cat, while watching the cars zip by beating it to work.

 

[cyber888]

If I get a million dollars more .. I'd be happier

 

[gozer]

I have always changed the "Money can't buy happiness" quote to "Money can't directly buy happiness, but it does make many of the things that make you unhappy go away."

 

[gozer]

Being financially secure makes me happy. Funny...there were so many things I thought I would buy or do when we finally had money. We buy less now than when we were in the accumulation phase. We do splurge more now when dining out or traveling. It’s so nice not worrying about spending the $.

I completely agree with this. I think while working I was more willing to spend money to save time. But now I am willing to spend more time doing things I enjoy and this usually ends up saving money.

 

[rk911]

money does not buy happiness but it does knock on opportunity's door. what you do with your $ when that knock is answered has a lot to so with happiness. for us? being uber generous is a major part of our happiness. we have more than enough 'things' to last.

 

[NW-Bound]

I have always changed the "Money can't buy happiness" quote to "Money can't directly buy happiness, but it does make many of the things that make you unhappy go away."

“While money can't buy happiness, it certainly lets you choose your own form of misery.” -- Groucho Marx

“Money can’t buy you happiness. It just helps you look for it in more places.” -- Milton Berle

“They say money can’t buy happiness. But it can sure as hell solve a lot of problems!” ― Robert Rolih

“You have to have enough before you can realize that more isn't going to make you much happier." -- Hank Green

 

[easysurfer]

Money doesn't buy happiness, but improves the odds .

 

[dratcliff]

Anyone that thinks more money will make them happy is financially blind. However, a lack of such money certainly can make one miserable.

 

[NW-Bound]

Money does not buy happiness, but can be used to ward off misery.

Some dumb people let their money invite more misery into their life.

 

[GravitySucks]

Always thought it's funny to assign numbers to feelings. Article says it's log based but I think I was twice as happy about money things at 1.3m over 1m.
I've been rich and I've been poor. I highly recommend being rich.

 

[audreyh1]

Money in itself - if it just piles up and sits there is not going to make most people happy. You need to use it to actually buy yourself that happiness, whatever it means to you. In my case it's freedom to use my time how I see fit.

Interestingly, that all got upended by Covid. No amount of money will let me travel the way I used to: vagabonding across borders with barely any plan. So anecdotally, it's definitely true that more money (and my portfolio grew by by more than 30% last year) does not translate into more happiness.

Not quite - because even if you are sitting on the pile, it represents financial security. If I need to help a family member out, or have a sudden unexpected event that needs access to ready capital, I'm covered. That in itself reduces my everyday stress.

2020 was a good example of having a big cushion really helped. It just happened that DH and I made substantial gifts to siblings in Jan 2020. Boy - the timing couldn't have been better. It made me much less anxious for my siblings, because for two of them employment pretty much disappeared.

 

[NW-Bound]

Money in itself - if it just piles up and sits there is not going to make most people happy. You need to use it to actually buy yourself that happiness, whatever it means to you...

“Money is much more exciting than anything it buys.” — Mignon McLaughlin

 

[RobbieB]

I can say with absolute certainty that I'm happier now with more dough than I was before with less dough.

But that's just me, ya'll may differ.

 

[rk911]

I can say with absolute certainty that I'm happier now with more dough than I was before with less dough.

But that's just me, ya'll may differ.

if 'happier' = less worry or stress about the future then i concur.

 

[Koogie]

"I've been poor and I've been rich. Rich is better"
~ various

 

[RobbieB]

Yeah. Easy. No brainer eh?

 

[Dd852]

Debt kills happiness for sure. But some of the happiest times I had were when we were just starting out with absolutely nothing, and we had tremendous fun counting our cash on hand at the end of the day to figure out what treat we could have the next day. It sounds odd, but it was actually a deliriously happy time. We were young, we had each other, we had fun. Now we still have fun, and we are still happy, but there was something about being 25 and in fresh love.... The money I have now buys many things, but that youth and freshness... gone like the seasons turning !

 

[FANOFJESUS]

More money does lead to increased happiness. And there is no ceiling, although it takes progressively more money to obtain a given increment of happiness.

The abstract from a new paper:

I believe you can hit happiness on less than 75k but that would do it for sure. My family is happy on 22k but we have some paid for stuff. So if that stuff was not paid for we might need 37k.

 

[kcowan]

I pity the rich kids in the new startups who got rich easily before they understood about struggle.

 

[jkern]

I’ve never bought into the idea that happiness plateaus at $75K. That seems completely random and unique to each individual. We lived very frugally while working toward FIRE and now that we can afford to splurge on things we are definitely enjoying doing so. And we enjoy not having any stress associated with surprises like needing a new roof or having an unexpected medical bill.

Living in the SF Bay Area, that $75K happiness limit seems insanely ridiculous.

 

[Pellice]

This is a good example of how incremental increases in wealth can and often do lead to more happiness. Extra wealth gives us the ability to easily erase annoying, uncomfortable, painful things from our lives and replace them with better things. For example, if I'm into the RV lifestyle but only have an old, beaten up, small RV that needs constant maintenance and causes me nearly daily aggravation, being able to (easily) afford a new, larger, luxurious RV is undoubtedly going to make me happier overall. It makes sense to me that you could extrapolate these kinds of "life upgrades" all the way up the net-worth/income scale, with almost no limit.

Very true. The security of being able to deal with these expenses easily REALLY increases happiness.