Depressing new study appears to disprove claim that money doesn’t buy happiness

The rich really do have more fun!

If inflation doesn’t have you depressed yet, new research has found that happiness levels are statistically correlated with income.

The world’s billionaires – like Jeff Bezos and Kim Kardashian – enjoy life to the fullest, compared to the average American worker.

“I think a lot of what happens is that when people have more money, they have more control over their lives,” said study author Matthew A. Killingsworth. CBS MoneyWatch“The money happiness curve continues to rise, well above $500,000 a year.”

Much-cited research from 2010 found that a person experiences peak happiness when they earn $75,000, which equates to about $110,000 when adjusted for inflation.

Last year, the senior fellow at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania debunked the well-known 2010 study. However, his original study lacked data from people earning more than $500,000, raising uncertainty about whether higher salaries improve happiness.

Killingsworth surveyed more than 33,000 working American adults between the ages of 18 and 65, asking them to rate their overall satisfaction with life compared to their income, on a scale of one to seven.

He compared his group’s rating to a study of the ultra-rich, who earned between $3 million and $7.9 million.

He found that the wealthy rated their life satisfaction much higher than those who had six-figure incomes, studypublished in Happiness Science, shows that happiness in relation to your income knows no limit.

“I suspect it’s much more fundamental and psychologically profound than just buying more stuff,” he told CBS.

He found that people making about $30,000 gave their lives an average score of four, while people making about $500,000 gave their lives a score higher than a five.

Multimillionaires, on the other hand, typically gave themselves a number closer to six.

“It certainly doesn’t appear that half the population is past the point where more money doesn’t matter,” Killingsworth said.

That doesn’t mean the super-rich are always happy, though. Killingsworth found that people who didn’t start out with a high income value the higher amounts more and are therefore happier.

He found that people making around $30,000 gave their lives an average of four out of seven, while people making around $500,000 gave their lives a five or above. Multimillionaires, on the other hand, typically gave themselves a six.

People earning more than $150,000 reported experiencing more financial stress than those earning between $40,000 and $149,000, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

“A given amount of money seems to bring much more happiness to people who have less money to begin with,” he said. “Economic trends in the U.S. seem to be going the other way: the poorest people have benefited the least in recent decades, and the richest people have benefited the most.”

However, all is not lost for people on lower incomes, because their salary is not the only factor that determines happiness.

“I think it’s important for everyone – policymakers, administrators and ordinary citizens – to remember that there are so many other things that matter besides money,” he said.

Alternatives include spending quality time with friends and family and focusing on your well-being.

“It is perfectly possible to be rich and miserable, or poor and happy,” he said. “The main reason is simply that there are many other things that matter for happiness besides money.”