Money. Some people have it, some people don’t. Some people spend it on anything they can possibly think of, and others don’t. The definition of money is different for everyone and how hard they work for it also differs. 

But now comes the question: Does money really correlate to happiness?

You might be shouting “yes, of course!”, and I would agree, but the answer is more complicated than that.

According to a study conducted by Princeton University, happiness does increase simultaneously with wealth, but only up till a certain amount. 

“The lower a person’s annual income falls below that benchmark [of $75,000], the unhappier he or she feels,” says Belinda Luscombe, a reporter at Time magazine.

This means that if an annual income was lower than $75,000, they felt more aware of their problems, and thus felt less happy. 

The Princeton study also found that “among divorced people, about 51% who made less than $1,000 a month reported feeling sad or stressed the previous day, while only 24% of those earning more than $3,000 a month reported similar feelings. Among people with asthma, 41% of low earners reported feeling unhappy, compared with about 22% of the wealthier group.”

The study proved that having money definitely seems to make problems look less intimidating, and this makes sense because money allows for many possibilities in terms of living freely.

But even millionaires can be unhappy if they keep wanting more. They will be unsatisfied with what they have and in a constant state of stress. 

Although money allows you to buy your dream house, any clothes you want, travel to exotic places, and so much more, in the end, it’s up to you to decide how you want to live and whether you should really depend on materialistic items to determine your status in life. 

However, it’s often rich people who say that you don’t need money to be happy. If you have everything you ever wanted, why would you want anything else? So, of course, you can say money doesn’t matter because to you it really doesn’t. 

In conclusion, wealth does translate to happiness. If you have money, you have more opportunities and therefore more satisfaction with life.