To some extent, money buys happiness. We want to be able to live comfortably, not have to work as much, and preferably be able to go on vacation once in a while. It has also been proven that people with financial problems are more unhappy. However, above a certain salary, every extra euro results in little extra happiness.
Researchers from Princeton have calculated the location of the peak. This is a much smaller amount than you think. Your happiness has already been maximized with a salary of €63,700 per year. Earning more does not make you happier. The Princeton scientists did not rush to reach this conclusion. They analyzed data from about 450,000 people.
The reason is that the time it takes to earn more than €63,700 per year comes at the expense of more important things, like spending time with family or enjoying your free time. It should be noted that this relates to the US annual salary. In the United States, people earn more on average, but the cost of living is also higher. So the maximum salary that would make you happy in Europe would be less than that.
Previous Gallup research came to roughly the same conclusion. The researchers looked at a large number of countries and reported that satisfaction occurs with an annual salary between 57,100 and 71,400 euros, although the differences between each country are large.
