"What does it take to be happy? About $75,000." http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-money-20100906,0,6014464.story
$75,000 seems a surprising number. Years ago, like 1980-ish, when I did financial planning for fee, most people with $100K income couldn't put $10,000 cash together if you held a gun to their head. (Ironically, I was just out of Financial Planning school.. making about $40K/yr, and people with much higher incomes were paying me to advise them how to better themselves financially.) Previously, I'd thought "$100K income = Nirvana". When I leanred "$100K income ain't 'nothin"... I thought, "must be $250K"... wasn't that either. How can that be? Well, those incomes pay a lot more taxes, have a little better house, little better car, shop at a little higher-end stores, take a little better vacation... and still have no money. The wife of a client family with 4 kids once said, "just because my husband is a doctor and makes $250K salary, people think we have money".
FYI.... The most important factors which determine whether your life will be a financial success... 1. Amount of income 2. Number of children 3. Whether or not you are divorced
I agree. $75k may be reasonable if you have no kids, but with kids and a spouse that doesn't work, you are putting yourself in grave danger territory in the world we live in today. BTW, I would rather a couple that worked and made $75k a year together, than a couple where there was only one person that worked and made $75K a year. The one reason that I think this horrible recession has not turned into a depression is that the risk of being unemployed has been spread to the family. During the Depression, it was almost universally men that worked, so when men lost their jobs, everyone starved. Today at least you have twice the odds of having an income. But there is no free lunch. The flip side is that couples don't raise their children anymore, and almost universally the children suffer.
That and the attachment to "things".. the desire to always be buying more "things" (mostly unnecessary crapola).. to be "shopping" for "new"... When I was a kid, I didn't have much. A few clothes, only 2-pairs of shoes... my "toys" were a basketball, football, baseball glove, bicycle, chess set, fishing pole, and small, slot-car racing track... most of which I bought for myself from mowing lawns, shoveling snow, washing cars, vacuuming old ladies carpets, babysitting. The only things I value today... Family, friends, and pets.... well that, and an 8-figure portfolio, of course.