Scientists Have Determined the Exact Income You Need to Be Happy

Nope, you don’t need to be a millionaire.

Turns out that the happiest anyone will ever be is when they have a household income of $75,000 — no more, no less. This is according to Dr. Angus Deaton, an economist, and Dr. Daniel Kahneman, a psychologist (and a Nobel prize winner), from Princeton, who’ve determined the two key components to happiness: emotional well-being and self-evaluation. The results came from 450,000 respondents, according to a write-up in the Gallup management journal, with each weighing in on how happy they were (emotional well-being) and how satisfied they were with their overall state of life (self-evaluation).

Respondents who reported a household income lower than $75,000 generally had lower levels of emotional well-being and self-evaluation. But, interestingly enough, while those who made more than $75,000 reported being more satisfied with themselves (hah) they never seemed to be any happier. So while money does equal happiness to a certain point (the point being $75,000), it doesn’t across the board.

What if you live in a a large, expensive city? The findings still held up. As far as the report was concerned $75,000 was the magic number.

Of course, there are other factors at play, like your social relationships (a key factor in happiness), health and so on. So don’t start working 20 hours a day to get that $75,000. Here’s how Kahneman explained it to Gallup:

“Emotional happiness is primarily social… The very best thing that can happen to people is to spend time with other people they like. That is when they are happiest, and so, without question, this is a major story. We find loneliness is a terrible thing. So is extreme poverty. But loneliness, regardless of how rich you are, is a very bad thing.”

Fire up that Facebook account, lonely billionaires.

TAGS: are rich people happier | does money equal happiness | study on wealth and happiness

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