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.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in May 2026 with 2.
Appearances
This seemed to flatline at an income of about $75,000.
The picture is similar if we look at the fraction who reported being not blue or stress-free yesterday.
In fact, people got more stressed as incomes increased.
Admittedly, this debate is far from over.
While the data shows that positive effect goes completely flat around $75,000, a more recent study from 2021 found that it actually continues to rise.
It's just that it rises very slowly, and more slowly than life satisfaction.
This could be because high income makes people feel successful, even if it doesn't make them feel happier.
From a practical point of view, this doesn't make much difference.
Once you're above around $100,000, money seems to make only a small difference to happiness.
Moreover, this data could still be overstating money's importance.
These studies are correlational, which means that the relationship between money and happiness could be caused by a hidden third factor.
For example, being healthy could make you both happier and allow you to earn more.
Taking account of all the possible additional factors could reduce the impact of money even further.
How much income should you aim for given your individual situation?
The data in this chapter is for household income in 2009, but the average household in the US has two and a half people.
If you're single, your costs will be a bit higher, so economists would typically say $100,000 of household income is equivalent to income of about $50,000 living alone.
Adjusting for inflation gets you to about $75,000 in 2025.
each dependent you have living with you will add another half to that.
These are also averages for the US as a whole.
If you live in an expensive city like New York, you'd need to add about 50% to account for the higher cost of living, and because our satisfaction is highly driven by how our income compares to others around us.
Showing 101–120 of 4,140 · page 6 of 207
← Previous
Next →