What Amount of Money Buys Happiness?

Fortunately in our society we have answers to everything, so I suppose it should come as no surprise that an exact amount has been calculated in terms of an annual salary that will make you happy. I think they rounded it off to make for a nice figure, and that figure is $40,000. This has been confirmed by an article in Oprah Magazine (didn't read it!) and some Harvard psychologist (never heard of him!) But figure, while the Oprah people may fall short on the academic research for their conclusions, and the Harvard geniuses may forget to take into account Real Life, they are in agreement on this one. So it must be true! (I am awaiting an announcement by Oprah about the upcoming multi-million dollar salary cut.) The reason is that if your salary goes from, say, $20,000 to $40,000 annually, you will definitely be able to move to a nicer neighborhood and stop buying every last thing on sale. But if your salary goes from 40K to 80K, your life doesn't improve enough to outweigh the accompanying hassles and new expenses. Like you might move to a neighborhood where people care what kind of car you drive. And you might have to insure your jewelry if it's worth anything! This is why I buy cheap sunglasses. So I don't have to have remorse when I sit on them. When we visited Naples, Florida (which is pretty ritzy) Hubby said we would look like the Beverly Hillbillies compared to these people. And who needs to wait in a two-hour line for a restaurant? Once you hit that magical $40,000 figure, you're better off working on enjoying what you have and improving your outlook on life, rather than finding ways to make more money. It turns out the people at the top of the earning charts are just as dissatisfied as the people at the bottom! They are never making enough to be happy. And they are always comparing themselves to other wealthier people, and somehow imagining that THOSE people must be happier. When I look at celebrities there seems to be a brief period of time when they are on the way up that they seem ecstatic. They are making more money than they've ever seen in their lives, and people are stopping them on the street for autographs! Everyone knows their name and is sending them a script. A few years later their careers are stalled, or their work seems boring, or they've had a few flops or bad reviews. Then the tabloids make up stories about them and dissect their every weight gain, DUI crash or public spat. And all these stupid fans are interrupting their dinners with requests for autographs. Life was better way back when! But I have to say life was perfect when I was seven. And I wasn't even making close to 40K.