Of course that doesn't mean that you should turn down the next raise you're offered. A mountain of evidence shows that, on average, wealthier people are happier. But making lots of money will not inevitably boost your happiness. How you spend, save, and think about money shapes how much joy you get from it.
“In the simplest terms, this suggests that for most people larger incomes are associated with greater happiness,” Killingsworth said in a statement about the study. “The exception is people who are financially well-off but unhappy. For instance, if you're rich and miserable, more money won't help.
Millionaires are happy, but not extremely happy.
It might seem ludicrous to hear that anyone from this pool of millionaires responded as lower than a “10 out of 10” on happiness. But the results showed that millionaires were around an 8 out of 10 on their self-reported happiness.
While the results don't definitively point to wealth contributing to happiness, there is a strong correlation across the board. Broadly speaking, the world's poorest countries have the lowest happiness scores, and the richest report being the most happy.
The survey also finds that the gap between rich and poor goes far beyond income. Adults who self-identify as being in the upper or upper-middle class are generally happier, healthier and more satisfied with their jobs than are those in the middle or lower classes.
Research shows that wealthy countries do experience higher rates of depression, Marcum says. Also, children of wealthy parents may have a higher chance of developing mental health conditions like depression and anxiety. However, the reasons for the higher rates aren't clear.
Having lower income was associated with higher prevalence of depressive symptoms. The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 39.3% for participants with family income under $20,000, 25.5% for participants with family income from $20,000–$75,000, and 14.9% for participants with family income greater than $75,000.
Wealth and Happiness
On several occasions, research has shown that people living in poverty report lower life satisfaction, lower subjective well-being and lower levels of positive emotion. Even the World Happiness Index ranks the high-income countries as the happiest.
A growing literature has studied empirically whether the rich are more selfish than the poor, both in behavior and in underlying preferences. The evidence is mixed: Some studies report more selfishness among the rich (5–7), others that the rich are not different from the rest of society or even less selfish (8–11).
A 2015 study published in Psychological and Cognitive Sciences found high levels of economic inequality leads the rich to be less generous than lower-income people. However, there was no correlation between generosity and income when inequality was generally low.
Key Takeaways. Sudden Wealth Syndrome (SDS) refers to a psychological condition or an identity crisis in individuals who have become suddenly wealthy. Sudden Wealth Syndrome is characterized by isolation from former friends, guilt over their change in circumstances, and extreme fear of losing their money.
In Why It's OK to Want to Be Rich, Jason Brennan shows that the moralizers have it backwards. He argues that, in general, the more money you make, the more you already do for others, and that even an average wage earner is productively “giving back” to society just by doing her job.
One study said happiness peaked at $75,000 in income. Now, economists say it's higher — by a lot. - CBS News.
In particular, if you're not careful, money may start to change your identity or sense of self. Having a lot of money can influence the way you think about yourself. It can change your sense of morality, and it can even have an impact on your relationships with other people.
Millionaires tend to spend their time differently, which can make them happier than the average person. Millionaires generally spend more time exercising and volunteering and less time watching TV. Millionaires also have more autonomy at work, making time spent on work more enjoyable.
These high-status and wealthy people were indeed more extraverted, conscientious, emotionally stable (low in neuroticism), and were also more open to new experiences, narcissistic, and high in an internal locus of control.
People born into higher social classes are more overconfident and have "an exaggerated belief" that they will perform better at certain tasks than others, a perception not shared by their lower-class counterparts, a new study published Monday in the prestigious Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found.
The more you have, the less you give. According to a 2002 Independent Sector survey, households earning more than $100,000 a year contributed only 2.7 percent of their income to charity, while those earning less than $25,000 gave a more generous 4.2 percent. New research shows that's no accident.
Extensive research explored whether a sudden financial windfall was associated with a spike in happiness (e.g., Sherman et al., 2020). The findings were mixed. Sometimes, having more money is associated with increased life satisfaction and improved physical and mental health.
Some new arguments for higher taxes and government spending rest on the claim, supposedly established by empirical studies and by Adam Smith, that money doesn't buy happiness. In reality, however, more wealth does increase human happiness, if only temporarily.
In addition to lasting effects of childhood poverty, adults living in poverty are at a higher risk of adverse health effects from obesity, smoking, substance use, and chronic stress. Finally, older adults with lower incomes experience higher rates of disability and mortality.
Imposter syndrome and guiltiness. This frequently happens to people who were born wealthy or who believe they did not work hard enough to earn their wealth. They think they did not deserve to be rich in the first place. Even if others treat them well, they may feel stressed, anxious, and depressed.
“It is important to remember that having too much money does not make someone intrinsically unhappy,” he said. Instead, it's how you choose to use your wealth that can affect your mental health and well-being, either positively or negatively.
In addition to those well-documented costs, it turns out that the poor not only experience more stress than the rich on a daily basis, but it is also more likely to be “bad” stress, which can have long-term effects on the ability to plan for and invest in the future.