> The study, which analyzed Gallup surveys of 450,000 Americans in 2008 and 2009, suggested that there were two forms of happiness: day-to-day contentment (emotional well-being) and overall “life assessment,” which means broader satisfaction with one’s place in the world. While a higher income didn’t have much impact on day-to-day contentment, it did boost people’s “life assessment.”

Couple huge notes here:

1. Overall life assessments improves; that is a part of happiness.

2. These numbers are 2009.. during the recession. They are way higher now almost certainly.

3. Needs to be COLA adjusted (linked article does that)

4. Is this pre-tax or post-tax?

5. I can't find the study itself, but I can't see how household composition wouldn't affect this number.

$130k single person in SF Bay Area might have well peaked on day-to-day happiness - you are generally making enough to not stress about breaking a budget.

At $130k living in the SF Bay Area with 2 young children, you are still going to need to budget, leading to heavy marital arguments about money that hurt day-to-day happiness. I would venture that $350k (pre-tax) is about the level where such a couple would peak by eliminating budget pressure.