Benjamin Todd
speaker
4,140 appearances
3 recordings
1 series
first heard Sep 2023
last heard 28 May
Benjamin Todd’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in May 2026 with 2.
Appearances
In fact, plenty of evidence suggests that money and avoiding stress may even be counterproductive to focus on.
Let's start with money.
Don't chase the money.
It's a cliche to say that money can't buy happiness.
But better pay is often people's top priority when looking for a new job.
When people are asked what would most improve the quality of their lives, the most common answer is more money.
Which side is right?
As is often the case, the truth is somewhere in the middle.
After reviewing the best studies we could find on this question, we found that money does make you happy, but only a little.
In a huge survey in the United States, respondents were asked to rate how satisfied they were with their lives on a scale from 1 to 10.
It was found that an increase in pre-tax income from $40,000 to $80,000 was only associated with an increase in life satisfaction from about 6.5 to 7 out of 10.
Gaining another half point requires another doubling to $160,000.
That's a lot of extra income for a small improvement.
This is hardly surprising.
We all know people who've gone into high-earning jobs and ended up miserable.
Your expenses creep up, and you soon come to take your salary for granted.
At the same time, you're working longer hours, eating into time with friends and family.
But even this might be overstating the importance of money.
If we look at day-to-day mood, income appears to be even less important.
The same study asked people at different salary levels whether they reported feeling happy yesterday, which the researchers called positive affect.
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