​

Financial Samurai

Slicing Through Money's Mysteries

  • About
  • Invest In Real Estate
  • Top Financial Products
    • Free Wealth Management
    • Negotiate A Severance
  • Buy This, Not That (Bestseller)

The Key To Happiness Is Saving More Not Making More Money!

Updated: 12/16/2019 by Financial Samurai 62 Comments

The key to happinessWe’ve discussed the curiosity of financial hoarding as well as one way in which to eradicate the disease by revealing our desires for public shaming. If we feel ashamed, we simply don’t spend as much money. Some folks found it a little strange that I find delight in getting judged for having spending desires. After all, we should keep our thoughts pure in order to reach salvation.

The truth of the matter is that my love for saving money almost always trumps whatever negativity or difficulty I’ve got to endure to save more. The pain of working 14 hour days in my 20s was no match for the joy of having more savings in the bank. The delight of making active income keeps me engaged in retirement for 2-4 hours a day despite generating enough livable passive income to not have to work. Each comment I get about being wasteful for even thinking about spending money on a new vehicle or a watch makes me happier because it reinforces my desire to save more in order to save the children.

I even sacrificed eating tons of yummy cheeseburgers from Shake Shack and In N’ Out Burger since 2000 just so I can always fit in my pair of Diesel jeans I bought for $140 on 5th Avenue in NYC. The guilt of spending over $50 for a pair of jeans at the age of 23 made me want to stay in shape forever so as to never have to buy another pair again! (Read: A Weight Loss Tip To Die For if you’re serious about permanently losing weight)

Another reason why I’m obsessed with saving money is because I’ve been ripped off one too many times. From the Mumbai taxi driver who takes the scenic route to my hotel, to the electronics salesman who strongly pushes a product despite knowing it will be on sale the next week, to borrowers who promise to pay me back but never do – I’ve been thoroughly traumatized by my money spending experiences that I figure if I never spend money, I’ll never lose!

The Key To Happiness: The End Game

The main focus on Financial Samurai is to achieve greater happiness through financial independence. We need to do more of what makes us happy, and less of what makes us sad. Based on my experience of earning $3.65hour flipping burgers at McDonald’s to making much more than the President Of The United States during my time on Wall St., I absolutely believe that $200,000 a year is the ideal income for maximum happiness.

The one enigma I’ve been dealing with for the longest time is wondering what the hell is wrong with me for continuing to want to save so much. How much does someone really need after accounting for all the basic necessities for survival, especially if there’s already a decent flow of passive income? I then stumbled across a survey by Ally Bank which really made a lot of sense.

Their conclusion based on surveying more than 1,000 people is simple: the more you save, the more likely you are to be happy. But what’s more interesting is that saving money affects happiness MORE than how much you earn.

Take a look at the breakdown of the percent of people who felt very happy based on savings amounts:

  • 57 percent who have $100,000 or more in savings <— Big jump!
  • 42 percent who have $20,000 to $100,000 in savings
  • 34 percent who have less than $20,000 in savings
  • 29 percent who have no savings

Now take a look at the breakdown of the percent of people who felt very happy based on income:

  • 45 percent who earn $150,000+ <— A 3% decline!
  • 48 percent who earn $100,000 to $150,000
  • 43 percent who earn $75,000 to $100,000
  • 40 percent who earn $50,000 to $75,000
  • 25 percent who earn $25,000 to $50,000

There is a massive 15% increase in the amount of people who feel very happy when their savings increases to over $100,000. Meanwhile, there is a 3% decrease in the amount of happy people when income increases to over $150,000. Fascinating!

My hypothesis about the decrease in ‘happy people’ making more than $150,000 is simply that making more money usually entails more stress and more work. The stress on Wall St. gave me a couple years of sciatica and lower back pain until I read Dr. Sarno’s book in 2001 which changed my life forever. Towards the end of my career I had constant golfer’s elbow as well as TMJ, where I grinded my teeth at night. Like magic, both symptoms disappeared within two months after I retired.

There is no happiness plateau with saving money in the survey because savings gives people peace of mind, pride, and independence. The less fear you have of going broke and the more freedom you have of doing whatever you want should definitely make people more happy! I just wish the Ally Bank survey didn’t stop at the $100,000+ level.

Happiness And Financial Hoarding

We should eradicate the words “financial hoarding” from our lexicon and replace the words with “super saver.” Super savers are acting in a perfectly rational manner – we are saving more because the positive effects of more savings makes us more happy.

The only people who seem to bag on super savers are those who don’t have the ability to save a good percentage of their own income or simply don’t have a lot of money and are resentful towards those who do. Is it just human nature to try and make others feel bad for things which we cannot do. Perhaps the crazy people are the ones who get into massive consumer debt by spending more than they earn because their actions make them less secure about their future. But then again, I’m just judging because I haven’t possessed the ability to splurge since I was in my early 20s.

The conclusion for ultimate happiness is to therefore earn roughly $150,000 – $200,000 a year and have over $100,000 in liquid to semi-liquid savings. But don’t forget, if you are making $200,000 a year, based on my net worth by income chart, you should have about $160,000 in savings at 35, $240,000 in savings at 40, $360,000 in savings at 45, $480,000 in savings at 50, $600,000 in savings at 55 and $800,000 in savings at 60 if you allocate 20% of your net worth to risk-free assets.

It’s amazing how all things come together now if we do a little detective work!

Related: Solving The Happiness Conundrum In Five Moves Or Less

RECOMMENDATION

Track Your Wealth For Free: In order to optimize your finances, you’ve first got to track your finances. I recommend signing up for Personal Capital’s free financial tools so you can track your net worth, analyze your investment portfolios for excessive fees, and run your financials through their fantastic Retirement Planning Calculator. Those who are on top of their finances build much greater wealth longer term than those who don’t. I’ve used Personal Capital since 2012. It’s the best free financial app out there to manage your money.

Planning for retirement when paying for private grade school

Link up your accounts and see whether you’re on track to retirement in great shape or in poverty

Updated for 2020 and beyond.

Tweet
Share
Pin
Flip
Share
Buy this not that instant bestseller Wall Street journal banner

Filed Under: Budgeting & Savings

Author Bio: I started Financial Samurai in 2009 to help people achieve financial freedom sooner. Financial Samurai is now one of the largest independently run personal finance sites with about one million visitors a month.

I spent 13 years working at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse. In 1999, I earned my BA from William & Mary and in 2006, I received my MBA from UC Berkeley.

In 2012, I left banking after negotiating a severance package worth over five years of living expenses. Today, I enjoy being a stay-at-home dad to two young children, playing tennis, and writing.

Order a hardcopy of my new WSJ bestselling book, Buy This, Not That: How To Spend Your Way To Wealth And Freedom. Not only will you build more wealth by reading my book, you’ll also make better choices when faced with some of life’s biggest decisions.

Current Recommendations:

1) Check out Fundrise, my favorite real estate investing platform. I’ve personally invested $810,000 in private real estate to take advantage of lower valuations and higher cap rates in the Sunbelt. Roughly $160,000 of my annual passive income comes from real estate. And passive income is the key to being free.

2) If you have debt and/or children, life insurance is a must. PolicyGenius is the easiest way to find affordable life insurance in minutes. My wife was able to double her life insurance coverage for less with PolicyGenius. I also just got a new affordable 20-year term policy with them.

Financial Samurai has a partnership with Fundrise and is an investor in private real estate. Financial Samurai earns a commission for each sign up at no cost to you. 

Subscribe To Private Newsletter

Comments

  1. Noor Ullah jan Jan says

    November 20, 2018 at 8:34 pm

    The actual argument over whether you need to invest or repay debt usually targets financial numbers, for example rates of come back and interest costs. Maybe happiness should participate the equation too.

    Studies in a number of countries, including the actual U. S., Norwegian, Ireland and The country, have found high amounts of financial satisfaction among seniors. Happiness with the money situation has a tendency to rise with grow older, even though the income peaks in midlife after which generally declines.

    Reply
  2. Jim says

    January 11, 2014 at 8:48 pm

    “Readers, do you agree that more savings is more important than a higher income for a higher happiness level?”

    I would agree. A higher income doesn’t really do anything for my happiness. My OCD, for better or worse, is centered around financial “hoarding”. Whether this contributes to happiness or not is debatable. It’s just how I am “wired”. It is what it is.

    “How much savings in the bank do you think it would take until your happiness plateaus?”

    I am 41 and my wife is 38. Speaking for myself my happiness plateaued when our net worth hit $2m. We’re at $3m now and our happiness level hasn’t changed in awhile. Consumerism used to provide happiness when we were in our 20s, but now I just find that material things just wear out and look “old and worn” after a year or so. Which further discourages me from pursuing materialistic sources of happiness.

    The brain is a weird thing, however, and it always throws hints that I might be happier if I considered buying that car, or that watch or whatever else looks “cool” at the moment. But it also recognizes that this isn’t true – that I will become bored of that item within months of it’s purchase. If not sooner.

    The sad cliché appears to be true – that the only way that I have found to maximize my happiness is to spend time with family and friends over drinks and food. Everything else has very limited to minimal impact on my happiness. Especially as I get older, this idea, for better or worse, seems to be the only means of happiness that I have been able to come up with.

    Reply
    • Financial Samurai says

      January 12, 2014 at 7:53 pm

      Great feedback Jim. I feel the exact same way. It’s kinda sad when $1 million bucks does nothing to increase happiness, but it is true once you have enough!

      Reply
  3. brydanger says

    December 30, 2013 at 11:54 am

    Totally agree..although more than 50% is easily manageable depending on your income or if you have multiple incomes in the house. My wife and i buckled down for years to reduce debt and save for an extended sabbatical driving through mexico/central america.

    Now, were back and convinced there’s no reason to go back to work (at least yet). We dont have an income so savings isnt possible, but there are other ways to reduce costs/spending. We are currently converting our garage into a small “mansion” for us to live in. We will keep renting the house and live in a great neighborhood rent/mortgage free!

    Reply
« Older Comments

Trackbacks

  1. Top Financial Resolutions For The New Year | Financial Samurai says:
    March 10, 2015 at 10:01 am

    […] a Blackout Fund. Your Blackout Fund is the money used to have such a fantastic time you blackout! Saving more cash makes us feel happier, but it’s more than likely you will die with too much money if you’re this serious […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


n

Top Product Reviews

  • Fundrise review (real estate investing)
  • Policygenius review (life insurance)
  • CIT Bank review (high interest savings and CDs)
  • NewRetirement review (retirement planning)
  • Empower review (free financial tools and wealth manager, previously Personal Capital)
  • How To Engineer Your Layoff (severance negotiation book)

Financial Samurai Featured In

Buy this not that Wall Street journal bestseller

Categories

  • Automobiles
  • Big Government
  • Budgeting & Savings
  • Career & Employment
  • Credit Cards
  • Credit Score
  • Debt
  • Education
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Family Finances
  • Gig Economy
  • Health & Fitness
  • Insurance
  • Investments
  • Mortgages
  • Most Popular
  • Motivation
  • Podcast
  • Product Reviews
  • Real Estate
  • Relationships
  • Retirement
  • San Francisco
  • Taxes
  • Travel
Buy this not that WSJ bestseller 728
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
Copyright © 2009–2023 Financial Samurai · Read our disclosures

PRIVACY: We will never disclose or sell your email address or any of your data from this site. We do highly welcome posts and community interaction, and registering is simply part of the posting system.
DISCLAIMER: Financial Samurai exists to thought provoke and learn from the community. Your decisions are yours alone and we are in no way responsible for your actions. Stay on the righteous path and think long and hard before making any financial transaction! Disclosures