Somehow I stumbled on this article yesterday from WSJ. It’s from 2010, so adjusting for inflation I guess today it would be about $100k per year.
The most I ever made in one year … and one year ONLY … was $155,000. The previous year, I swear to god, I made $40k. Once again being totally honest, I felt no difference whatsoever with happiness between the two years …. although I certainly felt a lot less pressure in the better year.
One of the happiest years I can recall was my first year as a computer programmer at northAmerican van Lines. I had my OWN office cubicle, a desk, a fancy schmancy computer terminal, and an electric stapler. It was the first time I had my name engraved on a shiny piece of blue plastic. And my boss introduced me to my users, the Fuel & Permits Department as “Mr. Stucky, your new programmer.” That was in 1980, and my salary (for working 60 hours a week) was $19,000 … NOT a lot of money even in ’79, but I was happy as a pig in shit.
With the Big Moolah I was making at NAVL, I was able to get rid of my 1975 Capri (which I could barely fit in), and bought a super low miles green with black roof 1971 Catalina Brougham. A fuckin’ enormous car, and I was happy as shit simply cuz my head didn’t hit the roof and my knees no longer banged against the dashboard! This one …
It’s never, ever been about money, for me. In fact, the more I made, the unhappier I became, because I made the fatal mistake of always buying more shit; a bigger or nicer house (7 or 8 times), fancier cars, and toys (motorcycle, electronics, etc etc). That only ultimately led to misery, actually. I hope you young people here don’t fall for that trap.
Sooooo …. what salary/income would raise you to a Happy Happy Joy Joy state of mind?
==========================================
The Perfect Salary for Happiness: $75,000
In July, I blogged about a study that revealed subtle links between money and happiness.
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? I doubt it. Perhaps the salary number would be lower in South Dakota or Mississippi.
What do you think the income threshold would be in your town for maximum day-to-day happiness?
http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2010/09/07/the-perfect-salary-for-happiness-75000-a-year/
==========================
And then there’s this ……
BERKELEY, CA—A study published in the latest issue of the Journal Of Social Sciences revealed that the amount of time spent being happy has dropped to an all-time low of 13 nonconsecutive seconds per day. “According to our data, the average American experiences a 0.8-second window of happiness upon awakening, before remembering that they’re conscious beings in a relentlessly bleak and numbing world,” said Dr. Derek Moore, lead author of the paper. “Other periods of happiness include 1.9 seconds after a good meal; 0.6 seconds upon receiving a paycheck; 1.1 seconds following completion of a scientific study; and the 2.5 seconds approaching orgasm, just before the guilt sets in.” Researchers also recorded the smallest period of contentment yet, a 3.7-millisecond interval preceding the realization that one was experiencing happiness and that it could not possibly last.
[img
[/img]
Income is only part of it. The key is having your stuff paid off. Once that house is free and clear, it changes your insurance options, which saves a bunch more money. If you pay cash for a new car, it’s relatively cheap to trade in every few years, and you never pay a repair or have down time
Wait… people feel guilty after an orgasm?
@starfcker
— “The key is having your stuff paid off.”
If I ever have kids, No Debt (not just financially, but also socially) will be the one lesson I hope sticks above all others. If they can follow that one… they will have plenty of room to learn the rest on their own.
I’m in the perfect income zone. Much more than I need and not enough to be of interest to assholes.
I used to make over $100,000 per year. Today I live on $14,000 per year and can probably get by on $10,000 if I have to. I pay cash for everything, don’t have any debts or credit cards, pinch every penny, resist spending money and do everything I can to economize. And you know what? I’ve honestly never been happier.
An annual income of 1/200 of the taxes I have paid in my life would be sufficient.
I making the exact amount to be happy. Mostly, because I don’t have to change out of my PJs or leave the house to work.
Since the bitch left with the kid on my second deployment, I feel like I now make plenty of money, even with payinf out half in alimony and child support. Actually putting money in the mattress. Never had enough before. Happiness, hard to say. Much happier with daily showers. How much of that money fueled happiness number is purely environment? I imagine broke in a dangerous area vs broke in a safe area would have quite a daily effect on happiness
I bes happy wif my free house, free obama fone, SNAP, SSDI, free helf care and pikup truk throne.
[img
?resize=500%2C750[/img]
“Wait… people feel guilty after an orgasm?” ——- razzle
hahaha! My best GF, Rosie Palm, always feels guilty afterwards.
BTW … that is an Onion article.
All I need is $250 per yr for property taxes, yes only two hundred fifty dollars. Anything I need I can grow, make or barter for. Or just do without.
starfcker is right. A comfortable income varies widely depending on how much stuff you’re paying on. Unfortunately we’re always going to pay rent on property that we “own” in the US in the form of property taxes so we’ll never get down to paying 0 monthly payments.
This guy: http://www.hcellenergy.com/
claims that soon he will have a system you can buy based on solar power and hydrogen storage that cuts your monthly utility payments (including gas for your car if you convert it to run off of hydrogen) to zero. There are a couple problems with this. The first is that the guy has only done a couple prototype installs and hasn’t even set up the company to productize his idea. The second is that his current estimated cost for the system is $135,000! WAY out of my price range even with his projected tax credits, etc. The benefit is that with the system installed you can be totally off-grid and/or SELL electricity into the grid, theoretically forever with only minor maintenance and repair costs and the system would pay for itself in under 10 years or so depending on your energy use.
OMFG a ’71 Catalina Brougham!
My first car (high-mile hand-me-down from Dad) was a 1971 Catalina Brougham, Green with black vinyl top and black vinyl seats. Christened “The Behemoth GT” by my friends, it was the source of much joy over the years and oh how I miss the times I spent howling down the roads in that big SOB. Never was there a better car built for negotiating exit ramps with the ass hanging out dirt-track style.
Oh, and that $75 grand number looks just right, all things being equal. That would get my net somewhere around where my gross is now!
Tom S. —- Comrade!! lol
This will probably kill you. I bought the car from an older lady who was retiring, and moving to Florida. If I recall correctly, it had around 40k miles, near showroom condition, and I paid around $1,500. The original cost when new was only about $4,000. Imagine that!!! One of my best car deals ever. I really loved that monster … except when I had to fill it up … every 3 days, or so.
Hard to say cause the currency is constantly being devalued. After all taxes including inflation I guess 75000 would be a sound number. These days you never know. One sickness can still bankrupt most people.
Husband and wife public school teachers have life 110% absolutely by the balls. Together they earn almost $150k, They only work 190 days. They don’t let themselves get lulled into living in a mansion. They can probably afford a modest lake home (if they live where there are lakes). When their kids go to college they get a great deal from FAFSA since they didn’t save any money, and as soon as the kids graduate from college, they can retire early and get an actual pension – one of the few pensions left. If they were smart, they have their house paid off. Sure, there’s a risk of getting stiffed on the pension, but that’s a risk worth taking. Best gig in the fucking world, no question about it.
as much as would like to,get up with the views of others, each of us has a different starting point. i went from 15.000 to 30.000. i was rich, took a while. yet the self confidence of improved wealth was the only noticable feature. sometimes that confidence quickly becomes arrorgance. my self confidence made for foolish decisions. let that be a lesson. like a poker game, easy come quickly gone. fools and their money soon part, just like it should be.
I’d be ecstatic with $40,000. Right now I’m hoping for a temp position so I have some Christmas money to give a few presents and a little to charity.
If I were debt free then it would not take much for us to get by, beyond food and shelter there is not much else we need and we grow most of the food. A nice salary does allow one to get the things that would be ‘nice to have’ or allow one to travel to places that would be ‘nice to see’. We have friends that are big money earners but they seem to have bigger money problems than us so who knows what the sweet spot is, depends on who you are. I think when you make more you want more.
Some assumptions.
#1 – I have zero debt.
#2 – I’m still living in this area.
Ok, now that we’ve set the stage….not much, the hours are far more important to me than the actual income.
If I’m working 60 hours a week and making 100k I’ll be much more unhappy than if I was working 25 hours a week and making 45k a year.
Still, for my purposes and life goals, I’d say an income of ~125-150k off a typical 40 hour work week.
Who is to say I’m not already happy? I don’t think happiness and income are really all that related.
Money to me isn’t about things, it’s more about freedom. I grew up poor and when I was 10 was working in the fields picking strawberries to earn money to buy school cloths for the coming year. I adjusted to working hard early on and have worked hard all my life. Probably the main driving force that motivated me was to never be poor again. It was never about things and it was never about impressing anyone.
Also it’s about choices and having options. Knowing that I can live where ever I chose and I can travel any time I chose and go anywhere I want is what I value.
There was a time I lived in a country club community in a very nice home with the circular drive that backed up to the golf course, and at that time I was making in the high 200k range. I should also point out that at that time I was working so many hours a week I was never home except to sleep. What’s the point of having such a nice place if you don’t have the time to enjoy it?
Now I’m retired, everything, properties, cars and truck, everything is paid for. I live modestly but well, and well within my income. Even if ALL expenses double I will still be well below my income. I have the time and the money to do anything I choose. That’s freedom. That’s what I like.
Happiness for me has never been related to money. I’ve always been a happy person. One time a friend that was heavy into psychology made some comment about not being happy and not liking himself but then he said no one ever truly likes themselves anyway. I told him that I was always happy and that I liked myself and he flat out called me a liar.
In the 80’s and 90’s I was an owner-operator with UVL and made about $100 grand a year. Then in 1998 I screwed up and I’ve been struggling ever since. I can get by on $30 grand, but the magic number of $75 grand sounds just about right.
What a switch to go from making awesome money to shit pay. It took me years to get over it. BTW, I didn’t get busted or go through an ugly divorce. I went Galt, about 16 1/2 years too soon, and that figure just brings me to today. Probably nothing will happen for many years to come, dammit :-).
When I first read about Ann Barnhardt’s decision to dump her business, I could relate. She did it out of moral reasons, but I’m sure she regrets bailing out too soon. I regret the hell out of my noble-sounding, but none-the-less bone-headed move. I believed the “experts” and I went from prince to pauper in three months.
Here’s a lesson kiddies: Don’t ever go all in on doom. Live your life and do what you can to prepare without forgoing all the niceties of life.
About $50K a year does it for me. After all, I’m a single, childless person with few bills, no car, and low expenses. Fifty a year leaves plenty of headroom for savings and nasty surprises.
People say, how can you live on that in CHICAGO? Well, I have lived on far less, and in decent comfort, in decent, safe neighborhoods. Those who ask this are usually people who have to live in the very trendiest neighborhoods, eat out every other night at restaurants that cost $50 a meal at least, buy expensive clothes yearly, and are paying $500 a month for a parking space for their $40,000 cars to sleep in. They have closets packed with expensive clothes they have worn maybe twice, maintain multiple subscriptions to services they steeply under-utilize, and consider a yearly out-of-town vacation to be a birthright.
Once you sit down and consider everything you spend money on, you realize that not only do you not “need” it, you probably don’t even really want it and find it a burden, like your 100-chanel cable, and your $800,000 boat that burns 5 gallons of fuel an hour and mostly sits in a slip at Diversey Harbor, or your vacation home that you spend maybe a week a year at, while worrying about it being vandalized and squatted in while you’re slaving at your job to pay for it.
ASIG – sounds like we have a lot in common.
Re your comment about liking yourself – I am basically happy with me, but I always strive to do better.
I am an asshole, for sure, but not a mean-spirited asshole.
But basically I think I am ok. I know I am flawed, but who isn’t.
Chicago999444
Over about a 10 year period from the mid 70’s to mid 80’s we had that big beautiful house, a secluded place on a lake (where we live now but it’s not quite as secluded anymore), usually had two or three sports cars, dined out at the best places, had fine horses and flew all over the place to party like a rock stars. No big boats just a couple of small ones scattered around. I never worried over any of that stuff and I never spent fewer hours working in my life. Maybe only four or five hours a week and often never went to the office for weeks on end. Spent a lot every month but was not in debt. I knew the gravy train would end one day and I didn’t give a shit.
Just because some folks have a lot of stuff compared to others does not mean they are slaving away, stressed out or worried about things. My wife and I were in our mid 20′ to mid 30’s back then. It was great to be young and loaded with cash out the wazoo. I feel very fortunate to have stepped through the right window at the right time in 1975. After we had kids we slowly adapted to a modest, quite almost invisible life style because we entered into a new phase in our lives and I became much less ambitious. I spent most of my time training horses to sell and teaching people how to ride. Not exactly the best way to make the big money but wonderful to do.
I work ( if you want to call it work, I don’t think it really is) longer and harder today raking in less phony fiat to convert into Doom compatible swag then back in the high times. Don’t have anything much else I want to spend it on but its fun. This too will come to an end. TPTB will regulate us into oblivion soon enough and I don’t give a rats ass. Not gonna lose any sleep over it at all.
Trust me it’s better to have or have had all the great stuff you saw in the movies than not to have ever had any of it. While it certainly is not a guaranty of happiness having shit loads of money and cool stuff while mostly fucking around doing what ever you want is a lot better than making a lousy 75 grand a year and actually working hard every day for it.
The kind of income that would make me happy…..NON-TAXABLE.