When is enough enough?

Published 3:42 pm Thursday, May 2, 2024

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Let me begin today’s endeavor, friends, with a question It’s about money and happiness.

More specifically, “Exactly how much more income do you think you need to be happy?”
That was the question asked by the Wall Street Journal which published a survey regarding this.

Tanner Hoyt, of the Hoyt Family Wealth Management in Greenville, passed along responses of those surveyed. Along with this there is a good measure of philosophical refection that is well worth considering. I’ll pass along a few of the responses.

The general result was that people across every income level felt they needed about 50 percent more income to be happy. That’s very interesting. For example, the study showed that people making a median salary of $75,000 felt they needed $100,000 to be happy, while those already making $100,000 felt they needed $150,000. Even people making $250,000 felt they needed $350,000 to be happy. While that’s the top end of this study, Tanner feels the same trend would persist at higher incomes as well. You know, almost everyone feels like they need just a little more.

This phenomenon is not just limited to income; it’s the same with wealth. Another study by Harvard Business School, focused exclusively on millionaires, showed a similar belief that “more wealth equals more happiness.”
In this study, across 2,000 millionaires, the consensus belief was that it would require at least two times as much wealth to be happy. Such beliefs seem endemic to the American human condition.

While I included herein only a portion of the survey results, and opinions thereof, I think we all get the point.
A sidebar here is that Hoyt was a very prominent family name here in our Little Washington for several generations. Good people.

Let me close by passing along a quote that was used at the conclusion of the
survey: “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.”

Have yourselves a good weekend, friends.

Peace.

APROPOS -“Nothing is enough for the man for whom enough is too little.”
-Anon