According to studies, $75,000.

Salary and happiness are like apples and oranges. They function in different realms.

Enough that I don't have to worry

I'm happy in my life already.

What would make my livelihood more of the way I want it would be $200,000 per year.

I want two or more horses someday - and the barn, the feed, the garden, the fruit trees, the truck and any tack and equipment I need.

I want my motorcycle. Would love a toy hauler.

I want to keep my own house.

And, I want to travel all over the country and the world.

I can't do all that on less than $150,000 - so I'm guessing $200,000 would make it all possible. For ME.

If I had no familial responsibility I would probably be pretty comfortable on my present salary, but after being in a relationship for nearly 20 years with 3 income streams (two jobs plus a modes business side income), I have really come to appreciate nice vacations. LOL! I think I'd be comfy on $150K/Yr. Would I grow into that income? Mebbe. =]

$50-55k. I could pay my bills, save, & travel without having to work 55 hours a week.

Enough to not have to work after one year, so I can spend all my time on agnostic.com

A study just showed that $600,000 to 900,000 is the ideal wage for happiness. Not sure why but I can guarantee most of us won't get that much

Depends on how much anxiety came with the salary.

A fixed dollar amount means nothing. Wealth is income minus expenses. My expenses happen to be pretty high. (I'm not going into why.) So, my income requirements are similarly high. Those with lower expenses can be super happy on less income. I look back on my before-marriage-and-parenthood days, and I realize I had a lot more disposable income as a young single person making 25% of my current salary.

Bottom line, for me: If I can cover my expenses, with something left over for fun stuff, I'm pretty content.

And that equation plays out differently for everyone.

$48,000 a year. This suffices to get a house, retirement savings, set aside for one vacation a year, medical care that I have to pay out of pocket.

$100,000.00
I just retired.

ALL of it!

$35k-$45k. That would be enough for me to pay my bills, buy groceries, and help my mother pay her’s as well.

Enough to pay all my bills, and be able to save enough for the important stuff: retirement, kid's college, etc. Hard to pin down exactly, given how much costs change over time, but my bills are low, and I'm not greedy.

I just want enough to pay my bills and feed my kids. Maybe save a little every month. I've been poor my entire life. It's all I know. Groceries, health care, gas for my car, not being late on bills. I don't want to be rich. But it would be nice to not struggle quite as much.

Somewhere in the millions

Honestly, based on my education, what I bring to the table, and the amount of profit I bill for this firm every year, I would be happy with $80,000.00. I think that would be a fair representation of my value to the firm. However...I live in the deep south and it's nothing but poverty wages here. Even when firms can afford it, they get away with not paying better because if no one is paying properly, then no one else needs to do so either.

Enough to cover my bills and go on a vacation every few years. So a lot more then the $10 an hour I get now.

Something that grants me 4.15 million dollars over the course of my lifetime, not adjusted for inflation... or collapse, for that matter.
I've ran the numbers, and based on everything that I would want to do and own in my life, this is a solid number with some wiggle room.
Really, I don't want to have to submit myself to labor for, at the very least, subsistence. Part of me wanting to be rich is so I won't have to work at shit jobs for a shit wage. I want to work for what I want to do in life, and I want to have the freedom to fail at it without it putting a dent on other aspects of my life.

As long as I can live comfortably and not feel unhappy where and what I am doing at work, it's all good

There’s some pretty interesting research on money and happiness. The main message I’ve gleaned is that money won’t necessarily buy you happiness but lack of money makes it much more likely that you will be unhappy. A specific finding of that research was that happiness increases as salary increases but only up to 60k a year. After that more money won’t make you any happier. That said, the research was done a while ago, so maybe aim for 80k? And then adjust to cost of living?

After I graduate I'll be comfy enough. Right around 50k is the median starting.

the only way i can ever see money making me happy, like not just for a moment, but truly content with life, would be if it were done away with completely. no matter how much money you have, if you tie your happiness in with something like that, all it takes is for you to spend it all or be robbed and there goes that smile. i would rather find something more worthwhile to cause me to smile. and with how many people i hear having money troubles, i think it would be nice to do away with the whole problem, i have a feeling more people would find something to be happy about then, but i could be wrong