Posted By:Clayton BrownePosted date:September 14, 2015 10:40:34 AMIn:BusinessNo Comments Well, it looks like the old saying "money can't buy you love or happiness" is only half true, as a new study from the United Kingdom suggests that money is indeed an important ingredient in happiness. A new studypublished on September 4th as part of the Wealth in Great Britain series suggests individual feelings ofpersonal well-beingare strongly correlated to the level of wealth of the household where the individual lives. Moreover, satisfaction with life, sense of personal self-worth and happiness are higher, and anxiety lower, as household wealth moves up. The new study uses data collected in the July 2011 to June 2012 UK Wealth and Assets Survey (WAS). A U.S. study by a Princeton academic showed that while more money didn't lead to "happiness", as salaries increased up to $75,000 annually, an individual's "life assessment" became more positive. However, salaries higher than $75,000 did not continue to add to a yet more positive "life assessment". Details on UK money leads to happiness study The goal of the study was to consider how wealth and income are related to various measures of personal well-being. However, the authors point out that a range of other factors could also influencing any associations they found. Therefore, when determining howwealth or incomeis associated with well-being, various factors such as age, sex and ethnicity were controlled in the analysis. This permits a better understanding of which factors matter most to an individual’s personal well-being, as the relationship between wealth or income and personal well-being can be examined by itself as other factors are held equal. Results of the money and happiness study Four key results emerged from the Wealth in Great Britain study of money and happiness: First, the individual level of personal well-being is directly related to the wealth of the household where they live. Furthermore, the more household wealth increases, satisfaction with life, the sense of worth and happiness are higher and anxiety is less. Second, levels of household income are not as strongly related, with significant relationships only noted with life satisfaction and sense of worth. Third, the net financial wealth of the household is the type of wealth most strongly associated with personal well-being. Specifically, life satisfaction is generally higher in households with larger net financial wealth. Fourth, interestingly, neither property wealth andprivate pensionwealth were determined to be significantly related to personal well-being.
Correlation does not imply causality. There is no statistical basis to argue that having money makes you happy. There might be confounding factors, or happy people simply are more likely to make more money throughout their careers. I have a lot of money, my happiness didn't increase. I didn't notice any correlation. I was just as happy when I was piss poor.
I'd like to participate in the next study...gimme a ton of money and I'll spend a few years blowing it and report back whether it made me happier or not.
I learned this very early on. When I was first married I put my wife on a $20/week budget. She was constantly depressed. Then I got a real job and bumped her up to $32/week and suddenly she became the happiest woman on the face of the earth, especially on payday when she came home with not just groceries but something special she bought that week. Then you know, things started getting better financially, but she never got happier.
Money can't buy happiness, I agree. -- but not having any or having very little...is definitely depressing.
I think the marginal "happiness increase" peters out somewhere around $80k-$100k a year in annual income (or equivalent lump sum cash wealth). Having $2 million in the bank .. if you're unhappy you will still be unhappy if someone put $200 million in your bank. You will still be depressed about whatever went wrong in your life.