> most people don’t get significantly happier after 75k or so a year
I call hard bullshit. Without even considering luxury spending, just not having to think about money very often is incredibly nice, and $75k is nowhere near any kind of plateau on that.
At $75k you had damn well better still be tallying up how much money's going in your cart at the grocery store. Not having to do that for basic stuff anymore, not having to worry much about coupons or bargain-shopping and just being able to say "I need this, or at least it would be very nice to have" and get it, no worry, no saving, no waiting for a sale, is such a GIGANTIC load off one's mind.
Car breaks? Take it to the shop, any plausible bill won't trash your budget for the month, let alone the year. Water leak? Yeah you could fix the drywall... but if you really don't feel like it this time, or are busy, you can just have someone else do it and the bill won't sting that bad. Groceries? Barely even pay attention to the total. Need some particular clothes for some purpose? Just buy them, and decent ones that won't look like shit and do fit right, at that. Kid breaks their arm? The cost barely even crosses your mind (it'll suck, but you'll be fine).
A relief doesn't make you happy though. It just makes you not stressed. IME there's totally a plateau where you realise more money just means more expensive toys with minimal increase in actual fulfilment or happiness.
Not being anywhere near as stressed, and spending at-most 5% as much time thinking and worrying about money as I did when we were struggling, sure frees up a lot of energy and time to pursue happiness, if not providing it directly (i.e. not even counting when I'm able to trade cash for things like free time to play with my kids or spend more quality time with my wife, let alone buying toys, which, hell, is also genuinely nice).
I'm certainly grateful every damn time we have some mid-tier emergency pop up and the part of my brain dedicated to money just goes "hm, that's a shame" and then shuts up, rather than screaming "OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK" for a day or three. It'd be madness to suggest there's not a strong correlation between that relief and general happiness.
Again, it's the 'way over 75k' part. A few hundred k max (and that's assuming a family), and there's not much difference after that.
I think a true sense of purpose to life is likely to make someone far happier, and ironically money can't buy that. Same with most things really worth having.
Its probably in the hundreds of thousands range according to newer studies. Think practically about whether you can do different things with 10mil than 100mil and whether those things are likely to make you happy.
If money makes you happy why do so many celebs die of drug overdoses? By your logic they should be constantly dancing in the streets. Instead we have morons like Trump.
If you can't infer from those peoples' behaviour money doesn't make you happy, I think you've got a long learning curve ahead of you.
What're suicide and OD rates like for non-famous trust fund kids? How often does a Rockefeller error none of us have ever heard of OD? (Maybe it's very high, I don't know)
Safety, improved-probability-of-continued-comfort, options, and freedom-of-action do great things for most people's happiness, and those are what money is.
I call hard bullshit. Without even considering luxury spending, just not having to think about money very often is incredibly nice, and $75k is nowhere near any kind of plateau on that.
At $75k you had damn well better still be tallying up how much money's going in your cart at the grocery store. Not having to do that for basic stuff anymore, not having to worry much about coupons or bargain-shopping and just being able to say "I need this, or at least it would be very nice to have" and get it, no worry, no saving, no waiting for a sale, is such a GIGANTIC load off one's mind.
Car breaks? Take it to the shop, any plausible bill won't trash your budget for the month, let alone the year. Water leak? Yeah you could fix the drywall... but if you really don't feel like it this time, or are busy, you can just have someone else do it and the bill won't sting that bad. Groceries? Barely even pay attention to the total. Need some particular clothes for some purpose? Just buy them, and decent ones that won't look like shit and do fit right, at that. Kid breaks their arm? The cost barely even crosses your mind (it'll suck, but you'll be fine).
It is SUCH a relief.