What monthly salary would suffice to make you happy?

I don’t need much to survive, the trouble is, on my current monthly wage I am only just ableto pay the bills and have enough left for food and fuel etc. I wouldn’t need much extra though, £200 more than what I already geta month would make life a bit easier. I would be happy knowing that aftermy bills have been paid, I still have money to get me to the end of the month.

Right now I’m living on next to nothing (1k a month). I can do it, but I can’t save anything, so I’d like to make a little more so that I could save up at least something.

There are many things I want to do in life, and having just enough money to pay the bills wont cut it for me. I want to travel, live all around the world, and live comfortable. So I think the ideal salary that would make my dreams true would probably be around 8k.

Maybe you guys didnt understand, but I said what would be the ideal salary to bring you happiness. Consider me a genie giving you the option to choose how much money you want to make, without being too greedy. You guys gotta shoot higher than that. You guys gotta dream!

Ain’t nothing wrong with making millions on top of millions. Some get offended by sports players making so much. Whenever I hear about some short stop who negotiated 3 million for the next season, I always think “Go for 4 or even 5 next season. get as much as you can.” Their salary has nothing to do with me. As in, if he made 20 thousand a year and not 3 million, it would not effect my life in the least, would take nothing away, so I say go for it. If you don’t, someone else will.

As far as a monthly salary? I’d say enough to pay all bills by the end of the month, not get into debt, and have enough saved up after 35 years so you could retire and not depend on Social Security or the like to keep you solvent for your retirement years. This number will vary depending on region you live, lifestyle, just good old plain spending habits, and how the economy as a whole is doing. Some would say 8k is excessive, but you couldn’t live in downtown Chicago on that amount, even if that is the after-tax and other deductions salary. Still, best you could do is after making that 96 thousand a year, which is really a high salary considering, is go for, say, 100 thousand the following year, which is just about a 5% raise. The following go for another 5% or so and don’t settle.

Oh, and how much I make or potentially would like to is a secret I’m taking to my grave. Nothing personal.

I’m completely happy with what i’m earning right now. I don’t feel that cash rules my world anyway, although a touch more wouldn’t go unappreciated.

@12Oaks Yeah, money can always buy something better, the more the better. One million dollars in the bank account is good, but still not enough to get into the yacht club for example. Probably the nice sports car club, but then you`d be taking 20% of your money for a car.
So you are right, 100k a year won`t be enough, depending on where you are or what you want to do.
As for me, I`d say that 100k would officially make me happy, as to which i wont complain about my salary, and be able to do the things I want to do. In other words, if i am unhappy, it wont be because of the money i am making.

Edit: 100k a year

I honestly don’t know. Since I have no income save for the student loans I’ve gotten and what my parents help me out with, I really don’t know. I’ve always lived in “official” poverty since I moved out of their house, so I can’t say. Even when I was working full-time, I was able to pay the bills and that’s it.

I don’t believe that money can bring happiness. It can bring security in the sense that you don’t have to worry about whether the bills will be paid or what will happen if the car breaks down, for example, but that’s not happiness.

Happiness is about how you live your life, not how expensively you live it.

About £40k a year.
In my dreams.

To live in a decent neighbourhood in my current area of NYC on my own and all the rest (food, clothes, bills, savings), ~$8K/month.

To live in my goal area in London and all the rest, ~£8K.

Living in any of the world major cities is expensive.

Twice what last month’s salary was. Which I suppose means that salary alone isn’t going to cut it as, in only a couple of years, I’d have to be earning billions a month just to keep the fun going!

It doesn’t matter. Out goings always expand to match incomings. I’ve had monthly salaries ranging from tens of thousand to a few hundred. Neither extreme made me happy. You always need a little more.

1k a month would allow me to stop the debt cycle. Now each month I slide more and more in debt. I would be eternally grateful for that 1k.

I have been applying for numerous jobs and am willing to work more than one but the job situation here is bleak.

It would depend on whether I liked my job. If I hated my job and dreaded (no pun intended) going to work every morning, no amount of money would be enough to make me happy.

Unfortunately, the corollary doesn’t hold true. Even if I loved my job beyond all expectations, I couldn’t work for nothing and would need at least 3–4K/month for bills, student loans, dog-related expenses, etc.

I would be happy with 90% of the people in my trade (CNC Machinist) at my level of experience earn, which is about 50% more than I currently earn.

I would be ecstatic if I earned the median income for my trade, which is somewhere around $40k/year, or more than my wife and I combined currently earn.

However, I am not going to leave my current job for the prevailing wage simply because I value working for a laid-back company that has never had lay-offs in it’s history! Yeah, I am underpaid, but I will be underpaid next year and five years after that, as opposed to my last job which paid me prevailing wage and laid me off a month later, or Boeing which hires and las off in cycles.

Since my partner doesn’t work and both of our kids go to an expensive school and we both are paying out loans, I would need a salary of around 100,000K to be completely comfortable.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir 100k a month? Wow!

I’m being paid more than I’m worth in money and benefits. I’m also a member of a union that is currently threatening to strike. I told management that no way would I ever walkout. I’m a good and loyal worker bee.

I’m doing ok for now but I’m working seven days a week for it! :-/

@Lightlyseared oh, a year, a year!

@Simone_De_Beauvoir ;)

To be Honest I haven’t got much of an idea of how much… but enough to pay for A high end university In London, enough to pay for some good clothes, a nice car, enough to keep that car going with fuel too, lol!
Oh and a few hundred to spare for the bank account,,,just in case.

I’d be happy with taking home $4,000/mo after taxes.

I’d much rather make no money but also not need it. If it weren’t for bills, rent, etc. I’d be fine. Just need to pay off my debt, buy a cabin on a lake with a good gardening spot, and I’ll be able to do that.

If it was just me alone to support where I live now then I could make $5K a month work.

With a family of 6 (two teenagers and one soon-to-be teenager) we would be good with $5000 a month.

We are fairly comfortable with our current level of around $7,500 a month, but we also support several family members who are unemployed. I would prefer to be able to save a lot more toward my old age requirements.

$150T a year so after taxes I still have the means to travel twice a year since that’s what I need to maintain a sense of balance in my sanity.

Supporting a family where I am now runs about $100k/yr, so about that. As for right now, I’d be happy with 30–40k – enough for a decent apartment, proper car maintenance, bills, rainy-day money, and a bit to splurge now and then.

$1500 per month would suffice quite nicely.

Happiness due to the amount of money you make does not exist. There’s always something to drag a person down to near depression to suicidal thoughts. For instance, say you have hundreds of thousands of dollars but you have bad knees. Or spine problems. Or a partner you can’t stand but don’t wish to be alone. Or heart disease and you need a bypass. Who cares how much money you have then? Good health for you and your loved ones and a cute house you can easily afford is the road to happiness.