How many times have you heard, "Money can't buy happiness?" Uh huh, sure, because it would have been so sad to win $730 million in Powerball last night.
A new study at the University of Pennsylvania found that despite what people say, money can buy happiness and there might not be an upper limit.
A similar study in 2010 found that more money does make us happier, but it plateaus at $75,000 a year. They said more than that doesn't affect how happy you are day-to-day. But in the new study, researchers had 33,000 people use an app called "Track Your Happiness" and they didn't see any kind of plateau.
Basically, they found that yes, $20 means more to someone who makes $25,000 a year than someone who makes $100,000. But if your income doubles, you see a boost in happiness regardless of how much you were making before.
In other words, someone who goes from $100,000 to $200,000 a year gets the same type of boost as someone who goes from $25K to $50K.
They think it's mostly because more money equals more control. But equating money with success isn't a good idea. The study also found that people who think being rich makes you "Successful" are less happy overall.
