Be wealthy

The relationship between money and happiness is real but more subtle than most people assume. Kahneman and Deaton's influential 2010 study in PNAS found that day-to-day emotional wellbeing plateaued around $75,000 in annual income, while life evaluation — how you rate your life overall — continued to rise with income. However, Matthew Killingsworth's 2021 study, also in PNAS, challenged the plateau finding, showing that for most people experienced wellbeing continues to increase with income well beyond $75K, with no clear ceiling. A 2023 collaboration between Killingsworth and Kahneman reconciled these results: the plateau exists primarily for the least happy 20% of the population, while the majority do benefit emotionally from higher earnings. Wealth provides optionality — the freedom to leave bad situations, invest in health, and reduce the cognitive burden of financial scarcity. Research on scarcity by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir (2013) shows that financial stress literally reduces cognitive bandwidth, impairing decision-making across all life domains. Building wealth is not about greed; it is about expanding the choices available to you and the people you care about.

• 1
  You have no investment strategy or have not reviewed your portfolio in over a year
• 2
  Your spending consistently exceeds your income with no plan to close the gap
• 3
  You avoid looking at bank statements or financial summaries
• 4
  Peers at your income level have significantly more savings or assets than you do
• 5
  You have no clear financial targets for one, five, or ten years from now

Consider these questions to understand where you stand: