HOW MUCH MONEY PEOPLE NEED TO BE HAPPY

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/03/how-much-money-do-people-need-to-be-happy
This article is all about the connection between income and happiness, the middle class people
from anywhere in the world believe that self-satisfaction do comes with happiness that directly
comes with income the more income you have the more happy you will be at the same time
many upper class believes that money can’t buy you the happiness though the debate on
relationship between money and happiness is becoming very common. Many researches have
been conducted by the psychologists to analyze their relationship. The two higher-earning
females are likely to report more satisfaction with their life than the one who makes $40,000,
according to a recently published study (paywall) in the burgeoning sector of happiness studies.
But, maybe surprisingly the psychologists discover that the one who made $200,000 is likely no
happier than the one who made $120,000. The study was being conducted by the researchers to
analyze the happiness among one million people from every region of the world. The research
resulted that people with having high income are happier than the low income people but at the
same time the researcher also found out there is a point where happiness will no more increase
with the increase in the income. They also found out that life expectation will become lower
once income will increase above the limit (Kopf, 2018). The relation among individual’s
happiness and earnings has been at the focal point of a dynamic discussion, with both intrinsic
and instrumental significance, as the most emotional or passionate states are a significant
determinant of wellbeing and social conduct (Natalia, Handa, Peterman, Seidenfeld &Tembo,
2018).

The global financial crisis has placed monetary factors at the forefront of the minds of people.
The very old question of whether earning more money/income makes one happier seems
particularly relevant in this environment of financial uncertainty. A lot of researches have been
conducted by many economists and psychologists but it is still difficult to find out exactly how
much amount is required for being happy if happiness comes from money. Many researchers
found out happiness increase with the earning increases but there is a limit and after that any
more increase in earnings is not giving any gain in emotional happiness. The relationship
between happiness and money is going weaker when the increase in earnings beyond the cutoff
point. The research has also shown money seems to ' purchase ' happiness, but only some sort of
happiness, and only up to a point (Sengupta, Osborne, Houkamau, Hovard, Wilson, Halliday,
Newman, Barlow, Armstrong, Robertson & Sibley, 2012).

Whether money can buy happiness or not? If then how much money is required to be happy or
for life satisfaction is now becoming the major attention for researchers across the social
sciences. Many researchers consistently found out a weak relationship between happiness and
money therefore they concluded their researches by recommending people to think beyond the
money and have more focus on other factors to achieve happiness. One of the researches shown
that there is a weak relation between both due to people is not spending their wealth wisely. Even
one of the researchers suggested that money can give people greater ways of happiness if spend
in a right way for example if they want to be happy they should spend more on others rather than
themselves (Boyce, Daly, Hounkpatin & Wood, 2017).
In academic debates and informal discussion, the issue of whether "money buys happiness" often
arises in discussions of subjective well-being. The subject was discussed in a large and
inconclusive literature of studies. No single article can definitely solve this complicated issue,
However, recent information from the Gallup Organization in the Gallup-Health ways Well-
being Index (GHWBI) provide a great source of findings and an exceptionally comprehensive
measure of well-being. The researcher evaluated the answers to several issues about subjective
well-being from more than 450,000 US citizens surveyed in 2008 and 2009. The results
suggested a rather complex answer to their questions. More income doesn't necessarily purchase
more happiness, but less money is linked with emotional distress. Maybe $75,000 is a threshold
beyond which additional revenue increases no longer enhance the capacity of individuals to do
what matters most to their emotional well-being, such as spending time with people they like,
avoiding pain and disease, and enjoying leisure time. It is also probable that the enhanced
capacity to buy beneficial experiences will be balanced, on average, by some adverse impacts
when revenue increases beyond this value. A latest research was being conducted by the
psychologist by using priming techniques given suggestive evidence of a possible combination
of elevated revenue with a decreased capacity to savor tiny pleasures (Kahneman & Deaton,
2010). In the previous research conducted by Kahneman and Deaton in 2010, They discovered
that the reduced a person's annual earnings falls below that benchmark, the more unhappy he or
she feels–having to worry about placing food on the table, offering decent shelter, and having
access to good health care. However, they do not report any higher degree of happiness, no
matter how much more than $75,000 individuals make. In the research they found that elevated
earnings can buy life satisfaction but not happiness, and low earnings are associated with low life
assessment and low emotional well-being. Naturally, the $75,000 benchmark relies on where you
live. Updating the information, Doug Short of Advisor Perspectives ' 2016 research discovered
that if you live in a location like Hawaii, where the price of living is comparatively high, a family
needs to create about $122,000 a year before incremental earnings does not really translate into
more joy. By contrast, in Mississippi, the limit at which money stop giving more happiness is
$66,000 (Swedroe, 2019).

According to previous researches it has been found out that most happiness results in revenue of
about $70,000 to $75,000. A fresh study extends that research to provide a fuller image of how
much money is needed not only to make us happy on a daily basis, but also to provide more
general satisfaction in our lives. From previous studies we have also discovered that the perfect
revenue/income point for life assessment is $95,000 and for emotional well-being is $60,000 to
$75,000.This quantity is for people and is probable to be greater for families, suggested by
Andrew T. Jebb, a doctoral student at Purdue University. The study fundamentally verified
previous studies that discovered around $70,000 was an optimal salary in the United States to
provide day-to-day happiness, but it also extended the job worldwide using information from the
Gallup World Poll. Researchers discovered that while areas with low living standards and living
expenses such as Eastern Europe and Latin America achieved maximum happiness at lower
revenue levels, the worldwide average remained at between $60,000 and $75,000. But again, this
is just a measure of how much revenue/income the greatest levels of daily happiness are
associated with. The Purdue research also tried to capture for the first time what revenue level
offers the greatest level of life assessment or life satisfaction, which is more of a long-term
general assessment of how one is doing. It turns out that a bit more expensive is this greater level
of general fulfillment. A $105,000 income provides the most life satisfaction in Canada and the
United States, while the ideal average income worldwide is $95,000. The research discovered
that in fact, exceeding these revenue thresholds appears to decrease the rates of happiness and
satisfaction. This may be due to greater income earners being driven more by material benefits
and social comparisons that can contradictorily lower those levels (Mack, 2018).

Before the advent of VAT, rising living expenses in the UAE were already a harsh reality. Living
cost, income and happiness are connected in a complex relationship and it never easy to answer
related questions. According to many past researches in UAE Indeed, it's quite scary how
happiness rises as revenue rises. The graph is nearly linear with the happiness quotient of
individuals edging higher with each earned dirham. A research in the journal Nature Human
Behavior released previously this year set out to investigate this issue and team discovered that
revenue satiation–the sweet spot–happens worldwide at approximately $60,000-$75,000 a year.
In other words, if you earn $75,000, your mental well-being will not be greatly increased by a
25% pay rise. You might be overjoyed to receive it, but this happiness would be relatively short-
lived–not the emotional well-being characteristic of the more lasting upliftment. However, this
point of worldwide saturation of income does not work for the UAE. The research discovered
that revenue satiation differs widely around the globe, much like cost-of-living. In wealthier
nations, satiation generally happened later. There is a connection between income and well-being
up to a point, but a much stronger predictor of well-being is healthy human relationships than the
income (Thomas, 2018).

In the end, it can be concluded after a thorough study of relationship between happiness and
money and with the reference of past researches on the same debate, there is a relationship
between emotional wellbeing and income earned by individuals but a weaker one and at some
extent only. The response to this knotty issue is the notion of "revenue satiation," the idea that
there is a magic number, a point where earnings increases no longer lead to subjective well-being
improvements. It indicates that up to a certain point revenue and emotional well-being are linked.
After passing this point, higher revenue stops being associated with wellness uplifts like and that
level is $75000 but again as previously mentioned it varies country to country like in UAE we
can’t neglect the harsh reality of rising living cost daily.
It is being recommended that spending your money in a right way would lead to more happiness
rather than earning it, according to the past researches there are some ways to be adapted by the
individuals for enjoying maximum happiness through income in UAE. Buy time like Studies
show that when we spend cash to save time, we get a boost to our happiness. Try to spend your
money more and more on others rather than on yourself. According to researchers, those
individuals who were spending the cash on others were happier than those who were spending it
on themselves. Try to spend your money more to buy experiences rather than on buying things.
While we may get a comparable boost in happiness instantly after purchasing an experience or
something, experiences will increase happiness more efficiently in the longer term. Part of the
reason is that we rapidly get used to the happiness that comes from things, whereas through
pictures and reminiscences we can relive the beneficial aspects of experiences. Interestingly,
even before the purchase is complete, experiences can make us feel more positive than things
can.
 References

Boyce, C. J., Daly, M., Hounkpatin, H. O., & Wood, A. M. (2017). Money May Buy Happiness,
but Often So Little That It Doesn’t Matter. Psychological Science, 28(4), 544–546.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797616672271
Sengupta, K ,N Osborne ,D, Houkamau, A ,C, Hovard ,J,W, Wilson, S, M, Halliday, M ,L,
Newman, W ,T, Barlow, K, F, Armstrong, G, Robertson, A & Sibley, G, C. (2012). How much
happiness does money buy? Income and subjective well-being in New Zealand. New Zealand
Journal of Psychology. 41.
Kahneman, D & Deaton, A. (2010). High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional
well-being. PNAS. https://pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1011492107
Swedroe, L. (2019). How Much Does it Cost to Buy Happiness? Advisor perspectives
Natalia, L, Handa, S, Peterman, A, Seidenfeld, D & Tembo,G. (2018). Does money buy
happiness? Evidence from an unconditional cash transfer in Zambia. SSM-Population health, (4),
225-235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2018.02.002

Mack, E. (2018). The Exact Amount of Money it Takes to Make a Person Happy Just Got an
Update. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/eric-mack/the-exact-amount-of-money-it-takes-to-
make-a-person-happy-just-got-an-update.html
Thomas, J. (2018). Wealth and happiness: hitting the sweet spot. Retrieved from
https://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/wealth-and-happiness-hitting-the-sweet-spot-
1.734302
Kopf, D (2018)This is exactly how much money need to be happy. Retrieved from

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/03/how-much-money-do-people-need-to-be-happy