"Money can't by happiness."
-Rich white people who don't know how the real world operates
Last I heard, there's pretty clear evidence money makes you happier up to a point, and then ambiguous evidence on whether more money helps after that.
I think at the very least, the point where it stops making you happier is the point where you have enough money for financial security. Someone who's living paycheck to paycheck will almost always be happier when they can stop worrying about whether they'll have enough to eat or make their rent payment.
Yeah, pretty much. I think the ambiguity in results comes from there being at least two groups of people:
1)Those who, once past financial security, go from stressing about not having enough money to stressing about getting even more money, at which point really no amount of money will satisfy you.
2) Those who actually have a practical use for their money beyond their own needs (donating to worthy causes, building some major project, helping family in need, whatever) and thus more money has an actual effect in their lives beyond being a number.
Of course, maybe I'm being too optimistic, the second group doesn't exist, and there's just people who really like diving in pools of $100 bills, hunting species to extinction, and burning ancient manuscripts in the face of historians.