GET FIT & RICH
In our new column, MH’S Ed Vanstone examines the stumbling blocks on your road to a mentalhealth PB. First, let’s talk about your pay cheque
In our new column, we ask whether a bigger pay cheque can buy you a balanced life
Money matters. When people are asked what single thing they feel would have the greatest effect on their quality of life, the most common answer is as banal as you’d expect: more cash.
In truth, at an everyday mood level, the amount of dough you’ve squirrelled away has remarkably little bearing on your sense of contentment. We are capricious, hormonal creatures, and factors such as sleep, hunger and the number of likes on your new Instagram post have a far larger influence on your moment-to-moment glee levels than the billions you do – or don’t – have sequestered in Zurich. The overworked number cruncher in his cubicle about to enjoy an al desko lunch is happier – in the purest sense – than his gilded, fine-dining CEO, stressing over profits 50 floors above.
However, in terms of that illusive reward system ‘life satisfaction’ – in other words, how pleased you are with the way your life is going, rather than how happy you feel at this very moment – your pay cheque does make a difference. It might not be able to buy you love but money can, it turns out, purchase happiness.
Unfortunately, acquiring joie de vivre is not a transaction that comes cheaply. In a study using polling data from hundreds of thousands of people across 155 countries, economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers found that, no matter where in the world you reside, higher household income correlates with higher contentment levels. No surprise there. What’s more interesting, though, is just how savagely the law of diminishing returns hacks into the happiness gains that more money provides.
Put simply, every time you double your income, you gain about 0.5 in life satisfaction on a scale of 1-10. So, for example, a young sales exec, starting out on £18k with a self-reported life satisfaction rating of 6/10, would have to secure several promotions, and another 18 grand to up his cheerfulness score to 6.5. Beyond that, he’d need a £72k director-level position to reach a chipper 7, and a staggering £576k annual paycheck to pull himself all the way up to an exultant 8.5. Whoever said that number crunching was joyless?
Given that, outside of the murky realms of investment banking, hedge funds, and a handful of casino
professions, £576k jobs are a little thin on the ground post-brexit, those seeking a psychological windfall might be better off pursuing alternate routes. For starters, why not – and you may well have thought of this already – look after your health a bit better and find a partner that you like.
Economic researchers Kateryna Chernova and Richard Ball have calculated that, for the average single individual, the happiness spike incited by getting married is equivalent to a 767% increase in income. Improving your health significantly delivers a happiness boon that even 20 Swiss bank accounts could never match. Of course, it’s not quite as elementary as all that. Everyone’s different. You might hate exercise. You might love Fabergé eggs and gold-plated sports cars. You might be so hopelessly infatuated with your 22-year- old first love that, to be honest, you’ve entirely forgotten money exists. You might, on the other hand, be a lazy, misanthropic father whose loathing for his third wife is mirrored, every day, in the derision meted out by his five volatile children. In which case, yes, all things considered, you might as well try to get rich. At least you’ll be able to afford a nicer lunch.
Everyone else: don’t stress too much about your next raise. The sad truth is that happiness can indeed be bought, but it’s often poor value for money.
“Better health can make you happier than more money”