More than half of six-figure earners said they would have to double their income to feel financially secure.
“People used to feel when you got to six figures or above that it was a sign of financial stability,” said Libby Rodney, chief strategy officer and futurist at The Harris Poll.
Mr. Rodney is full of shit, whether he knows it or not. There was a study done on the psychology of earning more money than you need to live. There’s an interesting phenomenon that arises; people always think they need more to feel secure. $100k feels they need $150k, $400k needs $600k, and this pattern continues all the way up to $15m, on average. I wouldn’t be surprised if the peak is even higher nowadays, the study was conducted in the early 2000’s I think. I will come back and edit this with more details of said study so I’m not just talking out my ass.
I thought that there was a study that showed limited returns on happiness beyond a certain threshold ($75k at the time, which is now surely well out-of-date).
I think that the idea was that there is a special point where you feel secure and nothing beyond that makes any difference. But that $75k number sounds familiar. It’s probably more like $120k today.
Bingo. People typically spend more and more as they make more… making themselves financially insecure in perpetuity.
When I was making 30K a year I was spending only about 20K in expenses. Now that I make 150K a year I’m spending more like 120K. According to most of my peers I am ‘struggling’ because I’m not driving a brand new BMW 5 series and living a 2 million dollar house. So much of people’s fiancially problems is just them overspending to impress other people. I drive a 10 year old Honda. It works great. I also chose to get rescue animals rather than designer purebred animals. I shop at a cheap grocery store, not the luxury ones. and I live in a ‘boring’ area where rents/mortgages are cheaper.
Mr. Rodney is full of shit, whether he knows it or not. There was a study done on the psychology of earning more money than you need to live. There’s an interesting phenomenon that arises; people always think they need more to feel secure. $100k feels they need $150k, $400k needs $600k, and this pattern continues all the way up to $15m, on average. I wouldn’t be surprised if the peak is even higher nowadays, the study was conducted in the early 2000’s I think. I will come back and edit this with more details of said study so I’m not just talking out my ass.
I thought that there was a study that showed limited returns on happiness beyond a certain threshold ($75k at the time, which is now surely well out-of-date).
I think 75k was where commute time started mattering more than income
I think that the idea was that there is a special point where you feel secure and nothing beyond that makes any difference. But that $75k number sounds familiar. It’s probably more like $120k today.
Found it- from 2010. Today that is $111,333 if you believe the bls CPI.
https://time.com/archive/6597645/do-we-need-75000-a-year-to-be-happy/
Bingo. People typically spend more and more as they make more… making themselves financially insecure in perpetuity.
When I was making 30K a year I was spending only about 20K in expenses. Now that I make 150K a year I’m spending more like 120K. According to most of my peers I am ‘struggling’ because I’m not driving a brand new BMW 5 series and living a 2 million dollar house. So much of people’s fiancially problems is just them overspending to impress other people. I drive a 10 year old Honda. It works great. I also chose to get rescue animals rather than designer purebred animals. I shop at a cheap grocery store, not the luxury ones. and I live in a ‘boring’ area where rents/mortgages are cheaper.
it’s almost as if security is never actually produced by hoarding more and more resources for your personal nuclear family. Odd.