Happiness levels tend to bottom out around 30. Eventually, after 5 or 10 years, you come to terms with yourself. You learn to control your aspirations. After you’ve done that, it’s easier to get steadily happier again.” How To Lead a Rich Life
Now add to that the Merilus tanking and being unemployeed when a man loses his job, it costs him $60,000 in happiness units beyond his missing salary.
and my feeling of things really changing at 30 makes some being married contributes the same amount of happiness to your household as an extra $100,000 in annual income
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So the big question is does engel feel happier and richer after the wedding?
One reply on “Economics of Happiness”
In a roundabout way, yes I do. I think the extra $100,000 was already there BEFORE getting married, but the legal/social aspect of marriage is making a difference. I am just now getting out of the “paranoia of poverty” and starting to look at my future in a different way. More long term.
All that said, I think it is dangerous to start putting numbers to happiness.