Maybe money can buy you happiness, at least some.
That optimistic conclusion comes from a recent study of how much that amount might be in different parts of the world and the U.S.
A salary of about $105,000, on average, is seen as enough to make people happy in the U.S., although that amount varies depending on where they live, according to S Money, a money exchange service. It used a 2018 Purdue University study that looked at how much money would make people feel satisfied with life. In its new analysis of that data, S Money adjusted that amount by the cost of living in each area and calculated what happiness “costs” in those places.
Money’s relationship to happiness is regularly examined by scientists from Princeton and Harvard to University of Pennsylvania and more.
“I’m very curious about it,” said Matthew Killingsworth, a senior fellow at Penn’s Wharton School who studies human happiness and has conducted his own study on this question. “Other scientists are curious about it. Lay people are curious about it. It’s something everyone is navigating all the time.”
What do studies say about money and happiness?
Purdue University found the ideal average income for individuals worldwide is $95,000, and $105,000 in the U.S. Beyond that, satisfaction with life deteriorates, it said. At $105,000, the U.S. was ranked 10th highest price in the world out of 173 countries, S Money said, and above the Census Bureau‘s $70,784 real median household…
