I guess l should be suicidal. Good to know.

what an utter bullshit! i live on 16% of what is suggested for australians to be happy, & it's tight, but 6 times that amount would just land me in consumers' paradise - unless i start giving money away. my happiness stems from my natural environment & the time i can afford to spend with it.

I have lived paycheck to paycheck, had job insecurity, and several very stressful years post divorce. Things aren't great but if I lost my job today I would be OK for a while. I have a general idea how much my ex makes and made, and though he's not that far up but not that far away. However post divorce, even with all the stress, I don't regret getting out for one minute. Money isn't everything, but I'm hella happier now. Life ain't a bed of roses by any means, but I don't have to deal with thorns either.

Hm, that's higher than I would have expected, given that it's for individuals. There just aren't that many people earning $95K and have no spouse or children.

I was astounded not long ago to look at what exactly is the cutoff for the so-called "top 1%" in the US. It appears to be around $275K to $300K per year. Once you hit about $175K to $200K, the curve just shoots almost straight up. At that point you're roughly in "the top 1.5%".

Someone earning $95K is just entering "the top 20%". In other words by this article, you must make more $$ than 80% of the people in the country, to have what they describe as optimal life satisfaction, and more than between 60 and 70% of what most people earn for just "day to day" happiness. And that's just if you're single.

I confess that's too depressing for me to want to believe, and so this is flirting with confirmation bias, but I'm not sure it would really take THIS much, particularly if you had a stable job that you enjoy and good health insurance. Maybe it reflects that most people don't like their jobs, I don't know.

I'm at the low end of emotionally healthy income.

"Money can't buy happiness"

Give me a big pile of money and I'll get back to you about that.

I guess I'm depressed with my income, I'm a retired blue collar worker. If I had a big house, luxury car, take overseas trips yearly, eat gourmet food all the time , eat out at Ruth Chris' Steakhouse weekly, buy clothes at Neiman-Marcus and never, ever go into a Walmart, I suppose I'd be happy? No, I'm happy with my uncomplicated life and can sleep 7-8 hours at night.