Money can buy happiness, only if you earn $36k a yr

It’s official. Money does buy happiness — but only till your income is up to $36,000. Economists have shed light on the question of whether economic development can buy happiness — and it seems that life satisfaction actually dips among people living in the wealthiest countries.     A study by economists Eugenio Proto from the University of Warwick and Aldo Rustichini from University of Minnesota finds that, as expected, for the poorest countries, life satisfaction rises as a country’s wealth increases as people are able to meet their basic needs.     However, the surprise finding is that once income reaches a certain level — around $36,000, adjusted for purchasing power parity — life satisfaction levels peaks, after which it appears to dip slightly in the very rich countries.     “Our analysis has one very surprising finding which has not been reported before — that life satisfaction appears to dip beyond a certain level of wealth,” researchers said. The study found that people in countries with a per capita GDP of below $6,700 were 12%more likely to report the highest level of life satisfaction than those in countries with a per capita GDP of around $18,000. However, once countries reach a per capita GDP of around $36,400, the increase in happiness that higher wealth brings is less obvious.     Between this level and the very highest level of GDP per capita ($54,000), the probability of reporting the highest level of life satisfaction changes by no more than 2%, the analysis revealed. This corresponds broadly as the Easterlin Paradox — that the link between life satisfaction and GDP is more or less flat in richer countries.

Psychology says

The person you care about the most can literally shatter your confidence with their opinions.