Can money buy happiness?

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 18 September 2024

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

People often say that money can't buy you happiness. Sometimes, if you ask them to tell you more about it, they'll mention a famous 2010 study by Nobel Prize winners Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton. That study found that higher household income correlates with greater emotional well-being, but only up to around $75,000 a year. After that, more money didn't seem to matter.

This was a famous study by two famous academics. The result stood for over a decade. And it feels good, right? Maybe the rich aren't so much happier than anyone else. But researchers have recently done a complete 180 on this idea. In 2021, psychologist Matt Killingsworth found nearly the opposite: That more money does correlate with more happiness. And that the relationship continues well beyond $75,000 per year.

Today on the show: Does more money mean fewer problems? Two researchers with totally different takes come together to hammer out a better understanding of the relationship between money and happiness.

This episode was hosted by Sally Helm and Nick Fountain. It was produced by Sean Saldana, Sam Yellowhorse Kesler, and Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Meg Cramer and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Engineering by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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Transcript

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0:27.0	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:30.5	Back in 2010, a piece of research came out that kind of changed the way the world thought about an age-old question.
0:38.0	Can money buy happiness?
0:42.0	Yeah, the key finding, or at least the key finding that I took from it when I was in my 20s,
0:47.2	was that money can buy happiness, but only up to a certain point. After you make about $75,000 a year, it doesn't matter.
0:57.0	Nick, I also heard about that happiness plateau back when I was in my 20s, and so did Bernadette Joy Cruz Mullion. I called her
1:06.3	up because I wanted to talk about this happiness finding with someone who felt like
1:11.6	they had lived it.
1:13.0	And Bernadette turned out to be the perfect person.
1:17.0	I noticed that around that mark was where I do remember feeling like,
1:21.0	okay, I'm not lacking for anything,
1:23.6	and I'm not in this bracket where I feel like I have to keep up
1:26.3	with the people with the nice cars and shoes and all of the other stuff.
1:29.7	Bernadette confirmed, for her $75,000 a year felt like this happiness sweet spot.
1:35.4	She'd grown up middle class, her dad was an accountant, her mom was a bookkeeper, they
1:40.2	were a big family, money was tight. Like, she loves roller coasters. And she said, growing up, going to the
1:46.0	museum park was like a really special occasion. They could only afford to send her maybe once every four years.
1:53.2	Bernadette had a well-paying corporate job in her 20s,
	...

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