Stay Connected

Can money buy happiness? Well, to a degree. Consider Mae West. "I've been rich and I've been poor," she said. "Believe me, rich is better." And consider that 56% of people who make more than $75,000 a year say they are "very satisfied" with life, while only 24% of people who make $25,000 or less a year say they are "very satisfied" with life.¹

But do big bucks, alone, pave the way toward happiness? Not really, according to Harvard University psychology professor Dan Gilbert: "Once you get your basic needs met, a lot more money doesn't make a lot more happiness." That's because the more money people make, the more they tend to want. Or as Catherine Sanderson, an Amherst College psychology professor puts it, "We always think if we just had a little bit more money, we'd be happier. But once we get there, we're not."

One obstacle: the human need to compare oneself against others. Keeping up with the Joneses (all your neighbors, friends, coworkers and people you grew up with) can be an exhausting treadmill - especially if you use financial success as the primary yardstick to measure how good your life is. In that case you might share satirist H.L. Mencken's definition of happiness: earning $100 more than your wife's sister's husband.

The antidote, proposed by various happiness experts, is to focus on aspects of life other than money, such as having close friends, a stable and committed relationship with a significant other, relishing memorable experiences (such as vacations), working a job that satisfies you, pursuing hobbies and making it a habit to acknowledge and be grateful for the good things in your life.

1 Associated Press 2004 poll. Sources: livescience.com, happiness-project.com, Money magazine, Psychology Today and The Washington Post