Can Money Buy Happiness? Brits Say Yes!

According to a future shopping trends done by a team from the SparkleTeddy discovered that the happiness derived from getting married is equivalent to a pay raise of £53,833, or approximately $106,169.44 (according to Google). Excellent health is worth £304,000 ($599,548.80) whereas good health worth only a bump in pay of £251,000 ($495,022.20). Some would say that they’d take the $160k over getting married…

What’s interesting about the study is the fact that income didn’t matter, just relative changes. That is say, you aren’t happier by default if you make $100,000 versus $90,000, but if you increase from $90,000 to $100,000, you are actually happier. This, of course, is a concept that is studied over and over again in psychology and something you’ll often see in mainstream media.

I wouldn’t read too much into this but it’s certainly an intriguing study.

Bonus joke:

 Why is divorce so expensive?

 Because it’s worth it!

It is true that we get sucked into thinking that money buys happiness. If it were reality though then why are so many multi-millionaire celebrities so depressed, in drug rehabs, etc…?

 I am working hard for money, not necessarily for happiness but for freedom. I want so bad to be debt free and not be tied to my creditors anymore.

I don’t think money buys happiness. But the lack of money definitely creates lots of potential sadness!

There’s a fine line there, but for most people it creates the illustion that money buys happiness since when they don’t have it, they are not happy.

man..that’s deep…haha..but guess what…i’m still chasing the paper!! Although I empathize with the mimimum wage workers, but can you imagine everybody making 40K a year?? haha..going to McDonald..that would be $22.50 please for a Happy meal…..20oz coke at a gas station, that would be $7.85 please? how about $14 a gallon gas?

There is a reason why we keep minimum wage low.

maybe if some of the absurd CEO salaries/perks were lowered, then minimum wage could be raised without affecting the cost of your happy meal, no? (Not saying all CEO pay is absurd, but some of it…)

true true..but why stop there..how about the mulitimillion dollars athletes? singers? actors?…i’m not trying to defend the CEOs of America. We can’t turn this country into a Utopian lala land…we are built on capitalism. I do believe that minimum wage should be around 7 bucks an hour or at least keep up with inflation.

It’s funny what people say and their actions. Everyone wants to be seen as not greedy and generous, but in actuality many people are ruthless and sacrifice other things in the pursuit of money. But to me thats just capitalism-survival of the fittest!

In Maryland the minimum wage is 6.75 and all the prices are comparable to other places… So that argument needs a little work…

How many people actually work full-time minimum-wage jobs? Most studies I’ve seen show that something like 40% of the minimum-wage workers are students or teenagers. A better way to help the working poor is through the earned-income tax credit. Increasing the minimum wage will just drive more jobs underground.

Great post. I think too many of us–pf bloggers and non-pf bloggers alike–are too focused on making money and on comparing ourselves to others based on our financial worth. It’s always a good idea to step back and bring everything into focus. Thanks for the reminder.

Many people have different views of happiness. And I think in today’s world that view is something that just seems so unattainable that folks just stay in the “rat race” forever to chase that uncatchable ideal. Good job highlighting that in this post.

I think being happy would include having the ability to do whatever one wanted to do, whenever one wanted to do it! I think that would take some money though, for most people.

Share this post

Post Comment