<p>I would want AT LEAST 250,000 a year, but maybe more because I want a life were my wife doesn't have to work, and she can enjoy herself and not work hard at all.</p>
<p>I would be satisfied making a measly 85K a year with the opportunity for more income growth. In this job, I will work no more than 50 hours a week. Working in a big city with warm weather would be a plus. Anybody out there living my dream???</p>
<p>250k.. will please me.</p>
<p>85k is measly? At this point I live very comfortably on about 8k per year. Even if I was making 40k after tax, I don't know what I'd do with all that money. Well ok, I'd buy a $5000 piano and a PS3 with some games, but other than that, the only things I would want are a private library with a small observatory on the roof, and a little $15,000 yacht. You know, a small one with no engine, sleeps two with a little gas stove in the cabin. Living in amsterdam a car is useless; all you need to get everywhere is a bike, which costs $15. And then I'd want a small villa on the baltic sea - which costs another $15,000. </p>
<p>I could have all that stuff within two or three years of getting that lucrative 40k per year after tax job. So I don't see the point of making 400k per year, especially if it means i have to deal with greedy, shallow people all day and not have any time to read, play video games, or go sailing. Maybe it would be good to earn that 400k for three years, save it all and live like a student. Then live off the interest for the rest of my days, being able to do whatever I want and never having to answer to anyone. I could get so much reading done... :) .... I don't think that would make me happy though. It would probably make me lonely.</p>
<p>My requirements for a job are that I can travel with my job (and I mean really travel, meet people, see the place... not the overnight in a hotel and conference thing) or make enough money and have enough time off to travel on my own. That, and eventually I want a "library" in my house, so I'll need some money to buy books. :)</p>
<p>I don't need a ton of money to be happy. Since I don't want kids, at least for now 50k a year after taxes would be fine for now. I wouldn't spend the money either way, so it does not matter, even if I made a million a year I would probably just keep it in the bank regardless.</p>
<p>Threads like this always make me think that my life goals are vastly different from most people's here...</p>
<p>Unless I develop the sudden urge for a career change, in terms of today's dollars and living in a fairly average cost area of the country, I don't expect to ever make more than about $50,000 a year, and if I'm able to get a job after graduating making $30,000 I would be absolutely thrilled. Now I imagine that once I actually end up hitting 50, inflation will make it more like 70, but that's not the point. I don't want to wake up every morning and hate my job, and when I go home at 5pm I want to be able to leave all my work and accompanying concerns behind me. I want to live in a modestly sized, but nice, house and fill it with a modest amount of carefully selected nice things. I want a week-long vacation to look forward to every year. Ideally, I also want a husband who makes roughly the same amount of money and wants the same sorts of things, but I think that is the least easily obtainable aspect of my plan.</p>
<p>You can either have a life of meaning or happiness but you can't have both. A lot of people get caught in the trap and then realize this dilemma when it is too late. A perfect example is medicine. Lots and lots of kids pick medicine for the money and familial pressure under the guise of wanting to help people. They want a life of meaning on the surface, but what they really want is a life of happiness. People make the mistake of equating money with happiness, get trapped, and then look back and feel immense regret.</p>
<p>A life of meaning is completely different, because meaning is relative. One can have meaning to himself, his family, his community, or even his country. Politicians are great examples. As much as the media likes to portray politicians as sleazy, greedy, bastards, the reality is that most of them are extremely honest and hard working people that have truly found some meaning in their lives. They don't get paid a whole lot and they have to sacrifice a lot to make it work, but in the end they get what the want: some meaning.</p>
<p>The biggest problem with the way that kids grow up in America is how they are constantly taught that money is the single way to happiness by example. The reality of the matter is that money has very little to do with happiness in America. If one were to say that their neighbor is happier because he owns a Lamborghini Gallardo, nobody would agree. However, simply by dreaming of their own Lambo, people give into the idea and their kids do to.</p>
<p>All it takes a quick look at this board to see the difference. All the time you hear kids posting their little test scores and seeing if they can get into good schools because they superficially want to be rich. It doesn't matter if they supremely love medicine or if they love the idea of law; it ultimately comes down to whether they have made that choice between meaning and happiness. And when it comes down to it, most people on here have chosen happiness.</p>
<p>The ones that choose meaning get into the good schools. They don't post here. :)</p>
<p>Um my $5mln Manhattan penthouse apartment-$65k luxury car (even OWNING a car in Manhattan is preposterous)-$500/month garage-chauffeured black car investment banking lifestyle needs about $2mln net of taxes.</p>
<p>Oh wait, I'm not done yet. In addition to my penthouse apartment in Chelsea(which will be furnished VERY tastefully-like it just came out of the architectural digest) </p>
<p>I want a vacation condo right on the ocean in Cape Cod (which should set me back another $2mln), a summerhouse in the Hamptons, and a vacation house in Honolulu. And a nice car for me to drive on those rare occasions I would actually bother to get it out of the garage a block away, and a nice car for me to be chauffeured around in. That should set me back another few million. Um I'm guessing I'll need to make $3.5mln-ish NET of taxes. Since I don't have a huge trust fund or anything.</p>
<p>And I'm talking in TODAY'S dollars.</p>
<p>"You can either have a life of meaning or happiness but you can't have both. A lot of people get caught in the trap and then realize this dilemma when it is too late. A perfect example is medicine. Lots and lots of kids pick medicine for the money and familial pressure under the guise of wanting to help people. They want a life of meaning on the surface, but what they really want is a life of happiness. "</p>
<p>Not true at all.
You determine what makes you happy. You determine what has meaning.
It's like the story of the men piling stones one on the other. One man was just piling stones one on the other. The other was very enjoyably "building a cathedral."</p>
<p>It's not the title of one's job that gives it meaning any more than the amount of material goods that one has determines one's happiness.</p>
<p>More on meaning and happiness.</p>
<p>"Dr. Martin Seligman, the father of Positive Psychology, coined the term authentic happiness to describe happiness that is more enduring and stable as opposed to happy moments that come and go. Authentic happiness is not a constant state of bliss, but instead represents an overall summary of life satisfaction and well-being. </p>
<p>The three main ingredients of authentic happiness are: pleasure, engagement, and meaning. Pleasurable feelings can occur in the present, such as listening to good music. They can occur with regard to the past as one recalls pleasant memories. And, pleasant feelings can occur in thinking about the future. Although pleasure is an important ingredient to happiness, it plays a less important role than most people think.</p>
<p>Research shows that engagement and meaning are more important ingredients in the recipe for happiness. Engagement refers to when we are involved in activities that absorb our attention and interest. When we are engaged, time tends to disappear and things about us tend to recede into the background. We feel fully focused. Meaningful activities are those that are engaging but also serve others…or serve a higher purpose than our self-gratification.</p>
<p>So, when you chase a better job to make more money so that you can have a bigger house, better car, better vacations, etc., are you on the road to happiness? Research says “No.” After someone has enough money or resources to obtain food and a reasonably safe environment, more money does not add significant amounts of happiness. Overall, rich people and poor people are not very different when it comes to their degree of happiness. And, it seems that having good relationships matter a lot more than how smart someone is or how much he or she has achieved.</p>
<p>As it turns out, according to positive psychology, happiness has much more to do with living true to yourself – your interests, talents, values, and strengths of character."
<a href="http://www.alicenter.org/walkwithali/positivepsych.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.alicenter.org/walkwithali/positivepsych.html</a></p>
<p>Excellent post, northstarmom. Also, you should all look into reading Industrial Society and its Future - a very short but incredibly interesting book. The only way you can really be happy with spending a lifetime performing surrogate activities is if you totally ignore reality.</p>
<p>above 100K</p>
<p>I would be happy with above $60,000, but I would want to make more then that so I could live a more fulfilling life with the money.
I have always considered above 50K a large salary, but with people on here saying that it would take 250k to just be happy I am completely amazed.</p>
<p>man ur all like my cousin he believes he will make a lot of money while i have doubts that he will be able to afford college(his mom is single minimal income...lives in the bronx..) hes gonna need a lot of FA...welll w/e i hope to live confortably...i would like to live on long island...its been my home forever..and i love it and its close to the city seriously tho not all long island homes r really expensive u can get a decent sized 3 bdr house in some places for like 500k..in a safe area..u can get the same for less in other long island towns</p>
<p>I'd be fine on 70 or 80K. Here, that is equivalent to making in the 100K's in NYC, LA, or San Fran. Oh, how I love a conservative government who lets you build and sprawl out as many houses as your heart desires.</p>
<p>
[quote]
man ur all like my cousin he believes he will make a lot of money while i have doubts that he will be able to afford college(his mom is single minimal income...lives in the bronx..) hes gonna need a lot of FA...welll w/e i hope to live confortably...i would like to live on long island...its been my home forever..and i love it and its close to the city seriously tho not all long island homes r really expensive u can get a decent sized 3 bdr house in some places for like 500k..in a safe area..u can get the same for less in other long island towns
[/quote]
</p>
<p>ONLY 500k? Jeez, that will buy a fairly large house here. You can buy a 4 br/3ba, 2200 sq ft for 150-250 in many neighborhoods.</p>
<p>I personally know a guy (I won't name whom) who's married to a former Hollywood star. His residence is in the exclusive Bel Air but he doesn't seem happy to me. He "looks" happy to people when he's driving the Bentley because many people would love to be able to own the kind of things he has.</p>
<p>I'd be happy making $40,000-$50,000 a year. </p>
<p>I'm happy right now and my family's income is only $30,000. My dad is working and my mom is going to a state uni.</p>