Here’s an interesting thought on the correlation between money and happiness…
“On a scale of 1 to 7, where 1 means ‘not at all satisfied with my life” and 7 means “completely satisfied,’ the people on Forbes magazine’s list of the 400 richest Americans average 5.8 – the same as the Inuit people in Greenland and the cattle-herding Masai of Kenya, who live in dung huts with no electricity or running water. [from Money Really Doesn’t Buy Happiness, by Whitley Strieber]
I grade myself as a 7
Everything is relative. If you grow up in a cave, a simple bed might make make you extremely happy. If you grow up in a castle, going to a cave with a bed is probably going to make you sad.
Expectations play a key role.
You need enough money to cover all of your needs and a few of your wants.