For me, other factors are much more important than the salary.
A tedious job with unpleasant colleagues would never make me happy, no matter how high the salary. On the other hand, if I had a job that was fun and had nice colleagues, I would be happy with a salary that only covered the essentials.
Also, I would rather have a salary that only covers the essentials for 30 hours a week than a salary twice as high for 60 hours a week. What good is money if I can never spend it?
There are more factors that are more important to me than the salary. How much physical labor is involved in the job? Do I have to work at night? Do I work shifts or do I have flexible working hours? Does the employer offer a pension plan? Are there any other benefits? Where would I have to work, close to friends and family or far away? …
Yeah, there really isn’t just one threshold value that would make me happy. More is better of course, but there are too many other factors.
Though it’s probably worth mentioning that I don’t have any children and don’t plan on having any.
If I live in 90% of the US, something like $150k would buy me a very comfortable life. If I was in the major cities, I would say $300k would be enough for me to not worry about finances.
It’s not like rural areas are back in a pre-currency feudal era. You still have costs. 150k is very comfortable but you can easily spend it living out in the country, especially if you want to bootstrap a homestead, hobby farm, or just generally make good use of land.
I am fine with my current salary. None of the problems I have are due to having too little money. It is more that I have hardly any time to spend that money and live a fairly lonely life. None of that would be fixed by a higher salary, which is why I have little motivation to try to get promoted.
I would suggest volunteering at animal shelters on your days off might help with the fairly lonely life. The one by me let’s you check out dogs to go to the beach with and return.
Happy as in “all absolutely necessary for survival bills are getting paid on time, all outstanding debts are getting paid down regularly, and I can afford to eat at a restaurant slightly above fast food grade once a month or so?”
$308,740/yr for the first year would do it.
After that I could probably look at halving the salary and live, if not comfortably, at least without constant worry.
Maybe start putting something away so I can retire before I hit 70.
Happiness doesn’t come from money, but it sure would reduce stress.
$150k/year. Enough to afford the house I’m in and still have enough left to not have to worry about being short on any recurring bills. Note: I’m in California. Most other states and id be fine at 90-100k.
I reckon I’d have severely diminishing returns past 6 figures, and I would (and do) trade income for less hours with a better work environment well before that.
Something like 100k€ would enable me to do all the traveling I want to do and simultaneously save up enough money for a comfortable early retirement. Currently I’m focussing more on having a job that isn’t soul-crushingly stressful and full of overtime though.
I actually like my job, and the salary is enough for me and the rest of my household to live off of while making down-payments on the house and the car. Now, if only I was a happy person…
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