Budget Snob

The Money and Happiness Relationship

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I have an unexpected fascination with money and happiness. Unexpected because I didn’t realize how far my quest to learn about the subject would take me. I’ve written about it before here, here, and here.

A recent Bucks Blog article by Carl Richards resumes my fascination with money and if/how it impacts our overall happiness.

Mr. Richards cites a recent study by Princeton University quoted in Time magazine.

According to the study,

people reported an increase in happiness as their incomes rose to $75,000 a year. Then, the impact of rising income on happiness levels off.

What’s odd about this statement is that it pegs happiness at a specific number—75K per year.… Read the rest

Can Money Buy Happiness?

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We’re supposed to say no but, according to a recent Gallup World survey, most people think money can buy happiness:

“Pulling in the big bucks makes people more likely to say they are happy with their lives overall—whether they are young or old, male or female, or living in cities or remote villages, the survey of more than 136,000 people in 132 countries found.”

But this may have more to do with our perception of how we think people with more money that us should feel and act:

“…people may initially define their happiness by income because they are comparing themselves to the ubiquitous Joneses…But here’s something to consider: Many of the people you envy for their outward appearance of wealth are probably just as jammed up with debt as you are – or a paycheck away from being broke.”

… Read the rest

How Men and Women View Money

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Differently, of course. Thankfully, my better half is the bargain hunter. I, on the other hand, think that higher price = better value. According to GoBankingRates.com,

“Men and women have very different attitudes toward saving for retirement, levels of bargaining ability and confidence when dealing with investments. Not only that, but on average, women make a significantly lower amount of money than men, even when they work in the same position.”

Men Women and Money
See the full-size infographic at GoBankingRates.com.… Read the rest

Where did we get the $ Sign?

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In a recent Slate article, writer Christopher Beam states that…

We got the $ from the Spanish. In the late 18th century, merchants in the North American British colonies traded mainly with two currencies: the British pound and the Spanish dollar. When the United States adopted its own currency in 1785, it used Spanish money as its model–a deliberate “screw you” to the British. Scholars have since theorized that the $ sign evolved out of an abbreviation for peso: The plural for pesos was “ps,” which eventually became “ps,” and then simply an “S” with a single stroke denoting the “p.”

… Read the rest