Monday, January 21, 2008

More Money, More Problems

According to researchers at Princeton, the effect of income on mood [is] vastly exaggerated.
They performed a study on the moods of men and women with varying levels of income, and the results showed about an 11% difference is time spent happy, with incomes of 100k presenting with 11% more time spent happy. They also found that people with lower incomes spent 10% more of their time in leisure pursuits. No surprise there.

When deciding on a career path, income is something that we must take into consideration. Those of us who grew up in upper-middle class families have to consider whether or not their career paths will help them to maintain that lifestyle. But they must decide how important it is to maintain.

Potentially fulfilling jobs like teaching, which allow for takers to be involved in their more artistic or academic pursuits as part of their career, are off putting due to their repuation as low-income jobs.

Some people resort to more harrowing jobs like insurance sales, which can be very lucrative, in order to satisfy their hunger for a good income. However, there is an equation that everyone ought to consider when picking out their job.

More Money = More Wants

According to economist Richard Easterlin, who conducted a survey of 1500 people over a three decade time span, Wealth doesn't necessarily lead to joy and contentment. His findings also concluded that People with more money usually want more things.

Of course, there are issues of personal standards, and one shouldn't settle. But it is important to consider that making more money, isn't always the most important issue. Factors such as job quality affect quality of life, rich or not.

2 comments:

----t h rive---- said...

hey, thanks for stopping by my blog. Argh, I know, the things that go through my head as well when I'm writing and trying to manage it are endless. It's even a self-esteem issue sometimes. I've made many changes, and even switched blogs entirely. It's all about coming down to some sort of theme in the end i guess!

i've noticed you even changed the name of your site since i last visited...? i did that once too, then switched back. I went with 'Encourage Consulting Ltd.' for a while...

well, keep on 'er. and I'll be sure to be back again. with a topical comment too.

Answer said...

Thrive,
I guess I thought the previous name "succeeding after college" was too bland.
And I'm still not completely happy with the new one I've come up with. But, eh. There's only so much you can do.
I've seen a lot of blogs repeatedly use the term "Gen Y" so I thought I'd just deeper into the bandwagon.

Keep It Real.