Introducing Planet Money: Can Money Buy Happiness?

Slow Burn

Slate Podcasts

News, Society & Culture, History, Documentary, Politics

4.6 • 25.1K Ratings

🗓️ 1 January 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

People often say that money can't buy you happiness. Sometimes, if you ask them to tell you more about it, they'll mention a famous 2010 study by Nobel Prize winners Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton. That study found that higher household income correlates with greater emotional well-being, but only up to around $75,000 a year. After that, more money didn't seem to matter. This was a famous study by two famous academics. The result stood for over a decade. And it feels good, right? Maybe the rich aren't so much happier than anyone else. But researchers have recently done a complete 180 on this idea. In 2021, psychologist Matt Killingsworth found nearly the opposite: That more money does correlate with more happiness. And that the relationship continues well beyond $75,000 per year. Today on the show: Does more money mean fewer problems? Two researchers with totally different takes come together to hammer out a better understanding of the relationship between money and happiness. This episode was hosted by Sally Helm and Nick Fountain. It was produced by Sean Saldana, Sam Yellowhorse Kesler, and Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Meg Cramer and fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Engineering by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, we've got something fun for you today. It's a great episode about a genuinely important question from Planet Money. Planet Money is a podcast that week after week looks at the economy and figures out what's most interesting about it. Sometimes it explains the biggest and most confusing stories in the news. But sometimes it's not about the news at all, just something that's a part of
0:21.8	all of our lives. Like decodering, it notices things hiding in plain sight, tries to tell the
0:28.1	hack out of the stories about them, and then to leave you delighted and also with something to think
0:33.3	about. This episode in particular is about the truly important question of whether or not money
0:39.2	can buy happiness and the study that said it can't, but actually might be wrong. I really liked it,
0:47.5	and I think you will too. Enjoy. This is Planet Money from NPR.
1:03.9	Back in 2010, a piece of research came out that kind of changed the way the world thought about an age-old question.
1:07.3	Can money buy happiness?
1:12.4	Yeah, the key finding, or at least the key finding that I took from it when I was in my 20s, was that money can buy happiness. Yeah, the key finding, or at least the key finding that I took from it when I was in my 20s, was that money can buy happiness, but only up to a certain point. After you make about
1:19.6	$75,000 a year, it doesn't matter. Nick, I also heard about that happiness plateau back when I was in my
1:27.1	20s, and so did Bernadette Joy
1:30.0	Cruz Mullian. I called her up because I wanted to talk about this happiness finding with someone
1:36.8	who felt like they had lived it. And Bernadette turned out to be the perfect person.
1:42.8	I noticed that around that mark was where I do remember feeling like, okay, I'm not lacking for
1:48.9	anything and I'm not in this bracket where I feel like I have to keep up with the people
1:52.8	with like the nice cars and shoes and all of its other stuff.
1:55.7	Bernadette confirmed for her $75,000 a year felt like this happiness sweet spot.
2:02.2	She'd grown up middle class.
2:03.4	Her dad was an accountant.
2:04.5	Her mom was a bookkeeper.
2:06.2	They were a big family.
2:07.6	Money was tight.
	...

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