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A recent study has shown what people in Ferarri’s have known forever – money can buy happiness. The study looked at the correlation between income and contentedness and found a distinct increase in happy people as their salaries grew. The bad news for those outside the happy club is that the study also showed that the limits at which happiness ‘plateaus’, meaning what is considered enough, has risen sharply in the last decade.

According to Bloomberg, the study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that happiness increases steadily as you earn more, and even accelerates when you reach R1.5 million a year – based on their 33 391-person focus group.

There were a few surprising results from the study, including how much more of a difference money makes to those who have less of it.  According to Matthew Killingsworth, “For very poor people, money clearly helps a lot, but if you have a decent income and you’re still miserable, the source of your misery probably isn’t something money can fix.”

The happiest 30 percent of the population sees their happiness accelerate even faster once they start earning more than R1.5 million a year. But on the opposite end of the spectrum, the unhappiest 20 percent of people begin to hit a happiness plateau around that same R1.5 million.

It forces us to reexamine our attitude toward what we see as ‘enough money’, or happiness for that matter. Towards this, the researchers added their study group reported happiness levels equal to a salary increase when given time off work.

Their findings have been supported by a Nobel prize-winning economist, Daniel Kahneman. but as an economist, he would agree.

We like money, but we like our weekends more.

[source:robbreport&newscientist]