How Much Does it Cost to Be Happy?
One of my favorite personal finance articles is by Time and they discuss a study which calculated happiness as a function of money. In other words, The Amount of Money You Need to be Happy.
This article found that people who made around $75,000 a year felt the most day to day emotional happiness, and that the people who made $95,000 a year felt the most fulfilled in their goals. One reason I like this article is because it gets me thinking: How much money do I want? What do I need to be happy?
I first thought about my home life. How did my parents spend their money? I was fortunate enough to be financially stable growing up. There was always enough money to go out to eat, to see a movie, to take vacations. My parents could afford a bigger house but never did, and in the end I never really wanted for much.
Then off to college where my finances changes dramatically. As all my survival needs (food, water, shelter) were all covered by my tuition costs, throughout the year I had very little income and expenses. But I still didn’t feel like I wanted more money.
Now I’m living independently and working, my paycheck covers living expenses, and in this new setting, I actually feel the desire for more money. When using the money I’ve owned, I avoid large spending, and going out for dinner. This desire comes from a decrease in my quality of life. By going from being able to regularly eat dinner at a restaurant and enjoy home cooked meals to pack ramen and pasta, I feel a want for more money.
Naturally this leads to the conclusion, how much money do I want? What really matters to me is the lifestyle I had when growing up, and that’s what I want to be able to maintain, which roughly translates to an upper middle class lifestyle. Even if I’m making 100k a year or 3 million, my goal is to keep the same lifestyle and live modestly regardless of my bank account. If I end up wealthy I can keep the same life and retire early to pursue my passions and hobbies. I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t want to live accompanied by the stress that comes with maintaining a wealthy life.
With that in mind, I know what kind of job I want, and how I want to live. I can better continue in life knowing that my goal is not to be wealthy but to be happy.
With that, I challenge you as the reader ask yourself the same questions.
What lifestyle do you want to lead?
How much money will that take?
Will you be happy?
