Up to $75,000 a year brings happiness
Money does buy happiness, or something close to it, but the effect diminishes above incomes of $75,000 a year, according to a new study released this week based on a survey of Americans.
The research by Princeton University’s Daniel Kahneman, a 2002 Nobel economics laureate, and colleague Angus Deaton, concluded that up to a point, people’s “life evaluation” and emotional well-being increased with higher incomes.
The latest study adds a new element to a long-running debate among academics and others on whether money can buy happiness, the definition of which can be elusive.
“We conclude that high income buys life satisfaction but not happiness, and that low income is associated both with low life evaluation and low emotional well-being,” the researchers write in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They said the effect of income on the emotional dimension of well-being “satiate fully at an annual income of around $75,000”.
“More money does not necessarily buy more happiness, but less money is associated with emotional pain. Perhaps $75,000 is a threshold beyond which further increase in income no longer improve individuals’ ability to do what matters most to their emotional well-being, such as spending time with people they like, avoiding pain and disease, and enjoying leisure.”
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