{"id":15138,"date":"2012-07-10T13:16:30","date_gmt":"2012-07-10T19:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=15138"},"modified":"2016-09-30T17:06:25","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T21:06:25","slug":"researchers-reveal-how-much-you-need-to-be-happy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2012\/07\/researchers-reveal-how-much-you-need-to-be-happy\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers reveal how much you need to be happy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

At last it can be told \u2014 and it may be less than you thought: <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Is it crazy to question how much money you need to be happy? The notion that money can\u2019t buy happiness has been around a long time \u2014 even before yoga came into vogue. But it turns out there is a measurable connection between income and happiness; not surprisingly, people with a comfortable living standard are happier than people living in poverty.<\/p>\n

The catch is that additional income doesn\u2019t buy us any additional happiness on a typical day once we reach that comfortable standard. The magic number that defines this \u201ccomfortable standard\u201d varies across individuals and countries, but in the United States, it seems to fall somewhere around $75,000. Using Gallup data collected from almost half a million Americans, researchers at Princeton found that higher household incomes were associated with better moods on a daily basis \u2014 but the beneficial effects of money tapered off entirely after the $75,000 mark.<\/p>\n

Why, then, do so many of us bother to work so hard long after we have reached an income level sufficient to make most of us happy? One reason is that our ideas about the relationship between money and happiness are misguided. In\u00a0research we conducted<\/a> with a national sample of Americans, people thought that their life satisfaction would double if they made $55,000 instead of $25,000: more than twice as much money, twice as much happiness. But our data showed that people who earned $55,000 were just 9 percent more satisfied than those making $25,000. Nine percent beats zero percent, but it\u2019s still kind of a letdown when you were expecting a 100 percent return.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, and usefully, it turns out that what we do with our money plays a far more important role than how much money we make. Imagine three people each win $1 million in the lottery. Suppose one person attempts to buy every single thing he has ever wanted; one puts it all in the bank and uses the money only sparingly, for special occasions; and one gives it all to charity. At the end of the year, they all would report an additional $1 million of income. Many of us would follow the first person\u2019s strategy, but the latter two winners are likely to get the bigger happiness bang for their buck.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Find out why.<\/a><\/strong> And be happy.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At last it can be told \u2014 and it may be less than you thought: Is it crazy to question how much money you need to be happy? The notion that money can\u2019t buy happiness has been around a long time \u2014 even before yoga came into vogue. But it turns out there is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-this-that"],"yoast_head":"\nResearchers reveal how much you need to be happy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At last it can be told -- and it may be less than you thought: Is it crazy to question how much money you need to be happy? 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