Money Can’t Buy You Love, But it Can Buy Happiness

At least according to new research on the subject. 

And happiness increases as your salary increases up to about $75,000 a year. 

At $76,000 and up, your happiness is downhill from there. 

Hmm.  That seems counterintuitive. 

But hey, they’ve got studies to back it up. 

According to The Huffington Post:

People’s emotional well-being – happiness – increases along with their income up to about $75,000, researchers report in Tuesday’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

For folks making less than that, said Angus Deaton, an economist at the Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton University, “Stuff is so in your face it’s hard to be happy. It interferes with your enjoyment.”

Deaton and Daniel Kahneman reviewed surveys of 450,000 Americans conducted in 2008 and 2009 for the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index that included questions on people’s day-to-day happiness and their overall life satisfaction.

Happiness got better as income rose but the effect leveled out at $75,000, Deaton said. On the other hand, their overall sense of success or well-being continued to rise as their earnings grew beyond that point.

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