https://www.huffpost.com/entry/map-happiness-benc…
The link above is from an article posted in 2017, but it is a great concept, what do all of you think about the salaries posted above? Would you say they are accurate (taking into account it is two years old) I for one find for my state this is way off in terms of actual happiness. While you can live in many of these areas for around this pay, it is not going to be in a great area/larger house. To me this just seems like average everything. What pay for your city would you deem reasonable?
The real answer is $0
You will never be happy when you have to trade your time for money.
That is true, however, I would consider myself to be happy now, but not content. Given my age/living arrangements I have plenty of money, and a ton of vacation time which makes me happy. However, once talking about having a family and what not the vacation time is a plus but the pay is definitely a stressor. I don't actually mind work and do like my job, and when I am feeling burnt out I just take a long weekend and recharge. Now, will I feel this way forever? No, but for now I would say I am happy.
What? You can definitely be happy and still trade time for money. And you can be profoundly unhappy while being independently wealthy.
The real answer is happiness and income/assets are uncorrelated.
I have read this in multiple locations that there is an income level associated with "peak happiness". If you make that amount it is enough to cover all bills to the point of not stressing about how you will pay them, and then anything more than that is just extra and/or a negative. I don't buy into this philosophy but to say it is entirely uncorrelated is definitely untrue. I can say when my family growing up was poor, we were certainly unhappy when we were facing eviction every other month (due to high levels of stress). I believe money to an extent correlates with happiness in the peace of mind. I would not be happy if I was falling behind financially and I would not be any happier than I am now if I had a million dollars is kind of the idea.
That is more what I was going for...it doesn't matter. Put differently, you should be able to achieve peak happiness while earning $0. More precisely, if you measured happiness per $ earned, it would be happiness/0, which is undefined.
Everything has an opportunity cost. Once you define your happiness by the opportunity cost, you will always lose it.
This sounds so simple and dumb, but it really encompasses this. When you have money problems, money solves that and makes you happier. When you finally cross that threshold of money problems, money stops generating as much happiness.
So for the single parent unsure of how to afford the next box of diapers, a small amount of money causes a large amount of happiness. For the tech billionaire dying of cancer and filled regret of being a horrible father (Steve Jobs), another billion dollars does not do a damn thing.
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Going to post this anon but going to say, it' relative. The reality of dudes in this industry is that if one is getting a base of 180K as a first yr associate at a MF, the guy making 190K is going to feel better about him/her self. You won't be happy but to be completely honest, I've seen this being a big catalyst to how some more sensitive people react to eachother which I can guess from your post title. Really ends up being group dependent
I've read about that line of thinking. There's some scientific merit behind it too. Say you're doing really well for yourself relative to the social circle you're in, like top 10% of earners - then you break the threshold that brings you into a new socioeconomic circle. Now you're in the bottom 10% of earners, studies have shown that you're significantly less happy because relative to the circle you now find yourself in you're "poor". I generally think that there is a comparison issue in society, and probably more evidently in the business/finance community. Personally I just try to stay in my own lane and focus on whatever is in front of me and what I have, not what someone else has.
Very similar to tragedy of the commons. Everyone wants a little bit better for themselves than the average of their environment. If you constantly up the environment, you'll always be longing for more until you break that cycle.
The target MBA WSO Human BB investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Mexican replied, “only a little while.”
The American then asked why he didn’t stay out longer and catch more fish?
The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.
The American then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?”
The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life.”
The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA who is a human on WSO and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat, and with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually, you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise.”
The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this take?”
To which the American replied, “15-20 years.”
“But what then?”
The American laughed and said that’s the best part. “When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.”
“Millions?” asked the fisherman, “Then what?”
The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evening, sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos!”
(Author Unknown)
I've been batting this question around with friends recently more than usual. I think the obvious answer is if you are not happy internally it won't matter. Maybe it's NYC, but it never seems to be enough. More money, nicer apartment, etc...hamster wheel
You guys are fuckin wrong. Money doesn't buy happiness? Really? I mean SURE you can be unhappy rolling face in Madrid if you really try. But to say money and happiness are unrelated is an entitled ass-backwards statement.
I'm not just talking about single mom stealing bread thing here. I'm talking middle to upper middle class single white guy.
First of all watching your portfolio grow is just fun in and of itself. It is literally a number that tells you how much purchasing power you have all over the planet. You ever hit a solid trade and just FEEL good because of all that new cash? Knowing you could leave your office right now and buy a house or submarine or someone to clean your house or mimic what you say in falsetto or 6 hours with the best back country elk hunting guide in North America? That's crazy. Am I supposed to be indifferent to the increase of my influence on the world? If you're creative enough it is literally the most versatile object on Earth. Who doesn't want the ability to experience the world on their terms or make the world in their own image? Money does that.
Even if you're not into any of that, giving it away feels amazing too. Buy your working class mother a flight and 7 nights next to the Notre Dame. Go change 15 immigrant families lives with 50k each. Tell me that isn't happiness.
Secondly, correlation causation thing is chicken and the egg - who cares, unimportant, semantics. Sure the guy who's a miserable shit is still a miserable shit with $30mm. But he's comfortable, gets plenty of sleep, his mom is comfortable, his floors are marble and his favorite charity is doing just fine - about as good as he's gonna get. The best version of himself I'd say. For me, influence and opportunity are more than enough to keep my sunny disposition at an 8 - 12 UV rating. If you were unlucky enough to be born/raised/ villain origin story'd into being a mope, that's a conscious exercise you gotta walk through. But money will make it better, every time, all the time.
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