Researchers conduct a study to reveal how much money you need to be happy

They say, 'money can't buy happiness,' but is that true? Money buys all the luxuries one needs for a decent lifestyle, while poverty brings helplessness, instability, and exhaustion. So, while wealth can't guarantee mental peace, it definitely makes life relatively easier. However, is there a specific amount that is enough to make someone happy? Andrew T. Jebb, a Purdue University Psychologist, and his colleagues explained it in their study, "Happiness, income satiation, and turning points around the world."

The researchers conducted a study to see if rising income is directly proportional to happiness. Jebb and his colleagues used data from the Gallup World Poll, which surveyed 1.7 million people across 164 countries, to study the connection. Jebb said people might think that happiness increases with wealth, but that's not true. "We now see there are some thresholds," he explained. The study revealed that people in wealthier areas tend to chase more money before they feel satisfied. In simple words, people from wealthy regions need more money than others to reach the threshold. But why? The happiness of people from higher social strata also depends on how much money they have in comparison to those around them. So, they are constantly in a race to become richer than everyone else. 

Another reason for a higher satiation is that money leads to greater opportunities, services, and comfort in wealthy areas, so income genuinely increases life satisfaction for people there. However, in poorer regions, lifestyles don't improve drastically with an increase in wealth. Irrespective of how much they earn, the facilities available in these poorer regions limit their mobility. Although they now have purchase power, they don't have much to direct it towards. So the threshold is much lower. Researchers wondered if a higher satiation point is good for people, but found that there is no specific answer because it relies on what the threshold point means for different people.

Researchers found that people chasing more money experience higher happiness when they reach their threshold than those with lower satisfaction levels. They also found that once people attain a threshold, their happiness often decreases. This means extremely high income, lower well-being. Analyzing the global data, the study found that people feel their overall life satisfaction peaks at around $95,000 annually. Feeling positive in day-to-day life starts with an annual income of $60,000, and people experience negative emotions once their income reaches $75,000. Again, why does it happen? With increasing wealth, lifestyle changes. People who were once happy with basic things tend to develop higher dreams and more expensive tastes. To fulfil them, people are forced to work more, leaving them more stressed. Other factors: people become materialistic, and when some of their needs aren't fulfilled, they get frustrated too easily. So, they come down to actually prove that 'money can't buy happiness,' because even with a ton of wealth, they aren't satisfied emotionally, as their lifestyle continues to grow more 'posh,' keeping them forever stuck in the rat race.

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