41–50 of 116 posts
I'd love to see data on how the specific "ideal" income level varies by location.
Americans are materially wealthy relative to most of the rest of the world. I would suspect (without having any sort of citation to support it) that, when compared to Americans, most of the people who have ever lived in any time and in any country have known nowhere near the standard of living represented by a $60K annual income in the U.S. today. If that assumption is true, and if the premise of this piece is also c…
If I made, say, $1 million/year, I think I'd be happier -- for the simple reason that I could afford to only work one day per week (or a few months per year, or work for 5 years and then semi-retire, etc.). That would mean a lot more freedom to choose how to spend my time, to travel, and so on. (Of course, I'd probably end up doing something similar to "work" during a lot of my spare time, but there's an amazing diff…
Or, Trading $140k/year for $110K/year and _taking_ two weeks of vacation. I'm astonished at how few people in Silicon Valley companies take more than a week off per year. I think it's unhealthy, and, ironically, likely reduces their effectiveness overall. But, as one who took a day off, and came back to 192 email, at least 10-15 of which really needed me to pay attention - I don't understand how to leave the work pla…
Nop, happiness is about having $10M in assets and earning $1M a year in royalties. Believe me. Until then, keep coding...
If I had that wealth I would still keep coding... just for fun and for the sake of coding! Probably I would focus on something extraordinary, like robotics or AI.
Last time I read the number was 12,000: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07... I must say, I got by with 12k (what I made in 2004), but if any emergency would have happened I would have been in trouble. 60k is very comfortable here in Texas. I also know some very miserable millionaires who are depressed no matter how many pills they take.
Americans are materially wealthy relative to most of the rest of the world. I would suspect (without having any sort of citation to support it) that, when compared to Americans, most of the people who have ever lived in any time and in any country have known nowhere near the standard of living represented by a $60K annual income in the U.S. today. If that assumption is true, and if the premise of this piece is also c…
Sir, as always you make excellent points. Though in this case, I think you may be neglecting one thing. As the article mentions towards the end, humans are creatures of comparison. Someone earning around 60K in America can see that they are better off materially than most of the people in their city and if they pay any attention at all to the world they will know they are vastly better off than the majority of the wo…
Humans are competitive. If you have the best mud hut of everyone you know and know of, it seems likely that you'll be just as happy as that top trader, with regards to wealth.
If you make too little money, all you think about is money. If you make too much money, all you think about it money. I'd have to agree with this article. Personally, I think much of happiness comes from finding the middle ground where you don't don't have to think about money.
I forget who it was who said that money is like sex: you only think about it when you're not getting enough of it, and if you are you find something more interesting to think about. I also forget whether this was supposed to be a commentary on money or a commentary on sex. In any case, if you're getting enough of both you're probably pretty happy.
Another interpretation is that it currently requires $60,000/year for a US citizen to not be lacking the means to fulfill one or another step on Maslow's hierarchy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslows_hierarchy_of_needs Given that the [2008] US GDP is $14.4 trillion/year, and there are ~300 million US citizens, it turns out we're each, on average, creating $48,000/year in value. So, on average, each citizen is $12,0…
This isn't true at all. GDP is gross domestic product--not net. It doesn't factor in externalities (status/positional externalities, pollution, competitive externalities (e.g. two competing ad campaigns that both just serve to cancel each other out)).
Nop, happiness is about having $10M in assets and earning $1M a year in royalties. Believe me. Until then, keep coding...