How Much Money Do You Need To Be Happy?

They say you can't buy happiness, but I firmly believe one can rent it, right?  Handling money has never been my strong suit. I've lived on 20 thousand (somehow) and made into six figures and it seemed no matter how much I earned, I was still short  on payday.

I guess the more you make, you are naturally going to spend more.  When I think about what amount of money would truly bring me happiness, having a few million in a retirement account would do it for me, I think.

As a former bartender in some pretty ritzy establishments, I encountered many people with more money than they would ever need and some were really miserable sons of bitches.  Then there were the ones that wanted everyone to think they were wealthy and would throw their weight around.  We called them "10 cent millionaires".

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Purdue University conducted a study on the amount of money it would take to make a person happy.  I've known some pretty happy people that I know were constantly struggling financially. These people, I'm guessing, possessed the gift of appreciating what they had and their wealth came in the form of friends and family.

It's been said that any amount of money over $500 million cannot improve one's lifestyle one bit.  You have to wonder what these people with billions and billions of dollars can do with all that money.  Personally, I wouldn't be able to sleep knowing there were people, especially kids with not enough to eat or even a roof over their heads.

Anyway, the Purdue researchers concluded that a person hits their height of happiness when they earn $105,000 a year.  That's $36,000 more than the median income in the U.S. and and a little over $39,000 more than Minnesota's median household income.

The study showed anything above that amount does not add to a person's level of happiness.  Personally, I thought the amount would be higher.

Save yourself some money and check out below these restaurants where kids can eat free.