How much money do we really need to be happy? This question has occupied scientists for decades. A psychologist found something exciting during a study.
Oh yes, dear money… There have already been countless studies on the relationship between happiness and money. Most recently, it was assumed that people with more money are definitely happier than those with less. However, according to the studies, there was an income limit of around 60,000 euros per year above which people’s feeling of happiness no longer increased. A scientist has now discovered that life satisfaction increases with higher salaries and does not stagnate at a certain income, as was assumed. And for surprising reasons.
Money and Life Satisfaction Study: The More Cash, the Happier?
Psychologist Matthew Killingsworth studies people’s feelings of happiness at the Wharton School in the US state of Pennsylvania study around 1.7 million data records from more than 33,000 employed Americans between the ages of 18 and 65 were evaluated. The participants shared snapshots of their feeling of satisfaction in everyday life.
The result of the study confirms the previous consensus that more money has a positive influence on life satisfaction – however, the study contradicts the income plateau of around 60,000 euros, which was previously assumed to be the upper limit for increased satisfaction. Apparently there is no limit to the amount of income from which money is no longer an issue.
For his study, Matthew Killingsworth used a method called “experience sampling,” in which participants were asked to fill out surveys at random times throughout the day. “It tells us what really happens in people’s lives, while they are living it,” says the scientist, explaining his method.
Most previous studies of money and happiness have looked back at overall life satisfaction, while Killingsworth focuses on a large set of snapshots to get a more realistic picture.
Money means control – and people need it to be happy
He found that people with a higher income are on average happier than those with a lower salary – regardless of the level of income. The psychologist attributes this fact primarily to the fact that wealthier people have a greater sense of control. So it’s not necessarily about the things that we could buy with all that money, but rather about a subjective feeling of security?
“When you have more money, you have more choices about how you want to live your life,” says Matthew Killingsworth. “You can see that in the pandemic. People who are barely making ends meet and then lose their jobs have to take the first new job they find to make ends meet – even if they don’t like it. People with a big one financial cushions can wait until they get an offer that suits them.” Money gives people more options and a greater sense of independence in life’s big and small decisions.
“People often give too much importance to money”
Another exciting finding of the study, however, was that people who equated success and money were less happy than those who saw the two factors independently. “In addition, people who earn more work longer and often feel under more pressure in terms of time,” says the scientist, further classifying his findings.
Even if the magic income-happiness limit of 60,000 euros seems to have been lifted and people who earn more can definitely be happier than people with less income, Killingsworth makes it clear that he does not see money as the most important factor in happiness confirmed in his study. “If anything, people often give too much importance to money when considering how good their lives are going.”
Instead of constantly worrying about how much money we would like to have and what we are missing, we should rather work on our sense of control. Because the more we realize that we cannot influence external circumstances as much as we often think, the more we learn how much we can influence our life satisfaction ourselves.
How important is money really for happiness?
Now, for people who live on the poverty line, as Killingsworth says, it is hardly possible to deal with such issues at all – for them, of course, money plays a major role, because the lack denies them control over their life decisions.
But above a certain income, the whole thing is more an ego thing: we constantly compare ourselves to others who are supposedly better off because they earn more. In doing so, we could make ourselves aware that money is of course one of the factors that can contribute to our happiness in life – or at least simplify it. But there are also countless others: our relationships, health, how much time we have and how we organize it, how much fun our job is.
Yes, we need a certain amount of money to be able to live comfortably. But it doesn’t have to be the only factor by which we measure our success in life. Because ironically, this view quickly creates a feeling of failure.
Sources used: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, penntoday.upenn.edu