Will making more money make you happier, and if so, how much?

Tldr; > "We think the message is clear: if you want a satisfying career, once you’re earning above about $40,000, don’t focus on earning more money. "

I object that it clearly wouldnt work for expensive cities where rent is nearly equivalent to $40k pretax.

Some people don't need more money.

We call this 'wealth', as distinct from 'income'. If you're focusing on income you're probably doing something wrong.

Of course, the analysis is nonsense. More money will make you happier. However, when people look at these observational data sets, they fail to take into account that more money is usually correlated with more effort or more opportunity cost.

As a side note, the appeals to cardinal utility and interpersonal utility comparisons set us back by more than a century and are embarrassing.