Road to rapture
Some pathways to happiness are instantaneous (like, say, eating a slice of pie)... while others can take longer, like achieving enlightenment (or, say, eating several slices of pie). Indeed, humans are so multifaceted that a full exploration of “what makes us happy” is far beyond the scope of this newsletter — but, there is one pretty powerful driver that most agree on: money.
Mo money, less problems?
A recent survey from Empower found that nearly 6 in 10 Americans — including 72% of millennials and 67% of Gen Z respondents — believe that money actually can buy happiness. Another study of US adults from this year found that, despite previous research indicating that emotional well-being didn’t progress much beyond an annual income of $75k, “happiness” did in fact increase with income far beyond a $200k salary.
The same poll found that the average amount of wealth that American adults reported would bring them happiness was around $1.2 million — about 6x greater than the median net worth of a US household in 2022 (~$190K), with every generation also agreeing that they’d need to make significantly more than the $74k US median annual salary to be fully content.
