4 ms·

After $75,000, Money Can't Buy Day-to-Day Happiness

15 points by gscott 16y ago

acqq 16y ago
The most interesting for me was: "In 2008, average U.S household income was about $71,500, while the median -- or the point at which half of incomes are higher and half are lower -- was $52,000."
- dgordon 16y ago
  Income distributions are almost always skewed to the right (mean > median), since you can't make less than $0 a year, but you can make millions or more in a year, and the mean is never much more than $50,000.
  - acqq 16y ago
    I wasn't surprised about difference, only that up to now I didn't know that half of the families in US live on less than 50K USD per year.
    - pchristensen 16y ago
      The US has a lot of crappy jobs and cheap towns that don't get near as much attention as SV, LA, and NYC.
yalurker 16y ago
Am I the only one who thinks 'household income' is a terrible measure for this? Isn't a single person making 60k/year living a more affluent lifestyle than a married couple at 75k? Isn't it a huge confounding variable that they are using a single value for the money, but that may be for just a single person or shared among an entire family?
- noodle 16y ago
  i could've sworn that there was an article recently stating that $60k was the magical number for an individual, since you mention it. edit: its in this TED talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_experience_vs_memory.html http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_exper... and we've talked about it before here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1381927 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1381927
RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
Same topic, many articles: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1668979 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1668979 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1668909 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1668909 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1668478 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1668478 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1667603 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1667603 <- This one
Shakattack 16y ago
I'm guessing this is for an individual, and not a family (since family size isn't even defined) So with that, I think 75k is definitely enough to live a happy life - at least when you're young and only supporting yourself. Say you live in Chicago or New York, here's how I see it breaking down: 10k in taxes 20-25k for monthly rent, bills, and expenses (sure that's not a Lakeshore drive 40th floor apartment, but still nothing shabby). 10k for food (I'm being really generous here) That's pretty much everything you need to survive, and survive comfortably. So that's still, what, 35k in free spending money? Of course it's not too difficult to spend 35k, but the point is that it's a lot of money for free spending. Some save, some buy nice cars and things, most are usually somewhere in between. I still have a couple years till graduation, but if I'm making 70-75k after graduation, there's no way I'm complaining. Beyond 75k, the happiness it brings definitely varies by person. If I had significantly more than 75k a year, the first thing I would think is "Now I have some money to do something I really want". I'm talking about startups, which I think becomes a lot more doable when you have some money to spend on an idea. Also lets not forget the happiness more money can bring. I think the householder pulling 300k a year is going to feel a lot more relieved going home then someone else making 75k. Person 1 could be unemployed tomorrow, and still be okay. But Person 2, if they lose the job, could be in a lot of trouble trying to support kids and pay the mortgage. The stress Person 1 has is significant, and I don't think this study really considers that.

15 points by gscott 16y ago

acqq 16y ago

The most interesting for me was: "In 2008, average U.S household income was about $71,500, while the median -- or the point at which half of incomes are higher and half are lower -- was $52,000."

dgordon 16y ago
Income distributions are almost always skewed to the right (mean > median), since you can't make less than $0 a year, but you can make millions or more in a year, and the mean is never much more than $50,000.
- acqq 16y ago
  I wasn't surprised about difference, only that up to now I didn't know that half of the families in US live on less than 50K USD per year.
  - pchristensen 16y ago
    The US has a lot of crappy jobs and cheap towns that don't get near as much attention as SV, LA, and NYC.

yalurker 16y ago

Am I the only one who thinks 'household income' is a terrible measure for this? Isn't a single person making 60k/year living a more affluent lifestyle than a married couple at 75k? Isn't it a huge confounding variable that they are using a single value for the money, but that may be for just a single person or shared among an entire family?

noodle 16y ago
i could've sworn that there was an article recently stating that $60k was the magical number for an individual, since you mention it. edit: its in this TED talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_experience_vs_memory.html http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_exper... and we've talked about it before here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1381927 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1381927

RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago

Same topic, many articles: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1668979 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1668979 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1668909 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1668909 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1668478 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1668478 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1667603 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1667603 <- This one

Shakattack 16y ago

I'm guessing this is for an individual, and not a family (since family size isn't even defined) So with that, I think 75k is definitely enough to live a happy life - at least when you're young and only supporting yourself. Say you live in Chicago or New York, here's how I see it breaking down: 10k in taxes 20-25k for monthly rent, bills, and expenses (sure that's not a Lakeshore drive 40th floor apartment, but still nothing shabby). 10k for food (I'm being really generous here) That's pretty much everything you need to survive, and survive comfortably. So that's still, what, 35k in free spending money? Of course it's not too difficult to spend 35k, but the point is that it's a lot of money for free spending. Some save, some buy nice cars and things, most are usually somewhere in between. I still have a couple years till graduation, but if I'm making 70-75k after graduation, there's no way I'm complaining. Beyond 75k, the happiness it brings definitely varies by person. If I had significantly more than 75k a year, the first thing I would think is "Now I have some money to do something I really want". I'm talking about startups, which I think becomes a lot more doable when you have some money to spend on an idea. Also lets not forget the happiness more money can bring. I think the householder pulling 300k a year is going to feel a lot more relieved going home then someone else making 75k. Person 1 could be unemployed tomorrow, and still be okay. But Person 2, if they lose the job, could be in a lot of trouble trying to support kids and pay the mortgage. The stress Person 1 has is significant, and I don't think this study really considers that.