Ask Lemmy

Universal basic income and universal healthcare so I (and everybody else) don't have to worry about a job, being able to work, retirement, disability, and employers will have to offer meaning, increased quality of life, and actual respect to attract employees.

The day I got signed on for 120k was the day all my financial anxieties went away. I'm not rich by any means. My rent is still stupid high. My bills never stop coming in. But I can finally afford furniture. I can finally afford to visit my family when I want to. I don't worry about min-maxing at the grocery store. I'm not "happy" but it's the closest I've ever been

UBI paid for by liquidating billionaires

I earn enough, I'd rather just halve my hours.

The more money I make the sooner I can stop working.

So bigger salary = bigger happy. Always. There's no number that is "enough".

I enjoy my job, so working 20 more years isn't that onerous.

But I'd rather retire tomorrow than work for anyone else.

the amount you need to make in order to afford the ever-fleeting american dream is about $140k right now. so I want 280k

I remember a time when someone making "six figures" was extremely wealthy. Now six figures just seems to be the baseline for even having a chance at tackling home ownership in suburban areas. 120k is probably ideal. I don't likely need more than that and it should be enough to pay for a comfortable lifestyle.

Getting there is the tricky part.

Salary? No. Stipend, yes. Give me enough to comfortably live on and pursue interests and hobbies with no requirement for work. That's the closest money would get to making me happy.

I am fine with my current salary. None of the problems I have are due to having too little money. It is more that I have hardly any time to spend that money and live a fairly lonely life. None of that would be fixed by a higher salary, which is why I have little motivation to try to get promoted.

Enough to cover my living expenses, working expenses, retirement fund, savings, etc. at about 8-12 hours of work/week.

Bills plus car fuel and maintenance plus the cost of good quality food plus full coverage of medical insurance plus deductible (yay America) plus mortgage payments plus 10-20% on top of that.

Basically, cover the cost of very comfortable living and take the financial worry out of being alive.

Edit: echoing other comments, this would not make me happy directly. It would open up more possibilities to pursue the things in life that bring/grow happiness.

I'm happy with my salary.

Enough that I didn't have to worry about not being able to pay rent and bills.

Hey you guys, how for away do you think that mirage is?

No amount will make me happy.

Once your basic needs are met, the equation becomes: Salary = Expenses + Savings. So, the questions becomes, how much savings makes you happy?

If you are happy to work in your job until "retirement age", a small savings rate will do, in theory; that is if the salary is adjusted for cost-of-living and tax.

Are you happy working this job for the rest of your life? Full time (whatever that means in your work culture)?

For me, other factors are much more important than the salary.

A tedious job with unpleasant colleagues would never make me happy, no matter how high the salary. On the other hand, if I had a job that was fun and had nice colleagues, I would be happy with a salary that only covered the essentials.

Also, I would rather have a salary that only covers the essentials for 30 hours a week than a salary twice as high for 60 hours a week. What good is money if I can never spend it?

There are more factors that are more important to me than the salary. How much physical labor is involved in the job? Do I have to work at night? Do I work shifts or do I have flexible working hours? Does the employer offer a pension plan? Are there any other benefits? Where would I have to work, close to friends and family or far away? ...

Yeah, there really isn't just one threshold value that would make me happy. More is better of course, but there are too many other factors.

Though it's probably worth mentioning that I don't have any children and don't plan on having any.

One that would leave me not thinking about it anymore

I live in a third world country, if I can get 3K USD per month I believe I'll pretty good.

$1,000/week UBI.

In the short term? $50k. Enough to get by and save for big purchases with enough left over to get a faster motorcycle.

In the long term? $100k. Enough to seriously save up for an actual house to live the American Dream.

I don't have a solid answer.

Money alone isn't going to make me happy. Yeah, it removes a lot of one type of stress. But it can also be a trap. Like, I'm doing solidly okay in my job, but it's enough that I can't easily quit and start over in a different career, even though I stopped caring about this one a decade ago. And a high-paying job can come with a lot of other stressors, things that keep you working harder and longer hours than you otherwise would.

$100k would probably seem pretty good for a long time, given where I currently live. If I had to live in NYC, I'd probably say more like $500k.

Money has long ceased to provide happiness. >80% of my salary ends up in a savings account, no idea if I'll ever touch it.

A question like this could be an intro to a shady MLM pitch. Break the ice, get the conversation going and gain a sense of the range of numbers to make up for earnings examples.

1/3 median home price for area of employment.

I make 120k in a medium sized city where the median income is about 75k. I'm pretty content, tbh. I also don't buy shit i don't need. Most of my expenses are my hobbies. I do have a lot of hobbies. But I still make enough every two weeks where I'm able to stash it away in a savings account.

Now if I only knew how to and had the balls to invest beyond retirement accounts.

Something like 100k€ would enable me to do all the traveling I want to do and simultaneously save up enough money for a comfortable early retirement. Currently I'm focussing more on having a job that isn't soul-crushingly stressful and full of overtime though.