There is a general perception held about what revolves around being happy in life. Arguably, the amount of income earned has been on the center stage when it comes to the issue of happiness. However, there has been a continuous debate on the truth about this connection. Is it certain that happiness will rise with increasing earnings or it will reach some point where higher salaries don’t amount to a greater sense of well-being?
How does the cost of life and being able to live comfortably by acquiring what is needed related to personal happiness? Here is a look at these life aspects.
Cost of Life
Income satiation has closely been linked with the cost of life in every setting. When a person’s income is able to make them live comfortably within a given setting, it is often considered enough for them to thrive. Internationally, satiation has been found to be at $95,000 for evaluation of life and in the tune of $60,000 and $75,000 for emotional happiness. In North America, the maximum income for life assessment in given study was pegged at $105,000 and the scope for emotional welfare was in the range of $65,000 and $95,000.
With the US dollar performing better compared to other finances around the world, retiring or moving abroad has always been considered a great move in order to create opportunities for retirement benefits and savings. Identifying the cheapest countries to move to as ranked by GoBankingraes used four important metrics of affordability as availed by Number, an online pricing database. They are as follows:
Consumer price index:
provides a comparison of the costs of local services and goods covering groceries, transport, restaurants and utilities in relation to New York City.
Rent Index:
Makes a comparison between typical prices in rent for a given country against those of New York City.
Local purchasing power index:
evaluates the relative power of purchase of a given salary in a specific country in comparison to that of New York City. When the purchasing power is low, the buyer can only afford few items but a high purchasing power implies the ability to buy more.
Groceries index:
provides a comparison of the prices of a typical grocery in a given country in relation to New York City.
Ideally, the cost of living is almost the same for London and New York according to Expatistan, a calculator used to determine the cost of living based on different cities around the globe. People would choose Singapore over Hongkong because the latter has a higher cost of living. According to Money Singapore is ranked no. 104 in the world based on a cost of life. In the same ranking, United Kingdom came in 89 whereas Hong Kong was110.
Number.com provided data collected between 2011 and 14 showing that the average monthly disposable income following taxation for the United States was $3,258.85 in 2014. Values for other countries during this time included $2,960.54 for United Kingdom, $2,495.86 for Hong Kong and $2,759.38 for Singapore.
Why We Want More
Science has approved the notion that money is needed to buy happiness, at least to a certain level. Professionals believe that happiness gets to grow with increasing wealth although there is a cap at $75,000 per annum. As a person’s yearly income goes beyond this benchmark, they start to become unhappy. However as someone surpasses that mark, no higher happiness levels have been reported according to research by Princeton University.
For that reason, people will strive to have more to keep up their happiness. However, much more will be needed to get maximum contentment. Much more aspects alongside extra cash is needed to join the philanthropy class among other important things in life. While the satiation may be pegged at $75000, a higher figure of about $95000 is considered ideal for “life assessment” considering peer comparisons, goals in the long-term together with various macro-level metrics.
Conclusion
The cost of life affects how happy we become and at every point, people are working towards earning a satiable income to cope. It is possible to have a lot of money and be happy at the same time. We always want more to be happy but at some high point, the relationship between money and happiness goes probably due to unhealthy social issues that come as a result.
About the author: Amanda Wilson is a creative writer with 5+ years of custom writing experience. Today she works at creative writing department Columbia College Chicago, where enjoys mentoring students at the power of word studying. Her free time is dedicated to social voluntering and solving the questions of humanity.