At which salary level would you be happy?

And Happy means, not spending 100% of your energy to fruther your career

10k take home per month and 60k take home bonus

on western soil-100k

most of the third world-50k.

seriously.

Re: Briscoe: that is not even 250k total. are you sure?

Quite honestly, I could be a happy dude at Lbrisco’s level. If I had a stress free job and real free time, I would be a happy dude.

I live a simple lifestyle and don’t need designer coffee, luxury SUVs, rims, models and bottles, etc.

yup.

downsizing is the way to go with some leftover for ‘models and bottles’

^^Agreed. I could live pretty well on $200k/year.

Some of you who live in NYC and pay $5,000 per month for a 100 square-foot apartment and pay $40 for mediocre deli sandwich won’t believe it, but in *most* areas of the US, you can be pretty comfortable on that.

If you make 100k, you yearn for 120k and if you get it you fantasize about 150k, then with 150k you are absolutely certain that everything would be just perfect with 200k, once there you absolutely need 250k to cover all your needs and so on…

200 k is a lot of money.

don’t think that counts as downsizing…

I think there’s truth to what my Eskimo brother is saying.

No matter how much anyone makes, the answer to how much they “really” want to make is “just a little bit more.” And when we get that little bit more, we look for another “little bit more”.

much wants more

Yeah, someone once asked John D. Rockefeller (at the time, the richest man in the world) “How much money is enough money?” He replied “Just a little bit more.”

A better way to go about this is figure out what you want to do with your life, and how much money that will require. Then go about figuring out how to get that amount. CvM seems to be more or less on this page. If you haven’t done the work to figure out what you want to do with your life, having more money isn’t going to answer that question for you. If you think of dollars in the bank as if it were the number of points you get in a video game, you’ll never have “enough” and will always be dissatisfied that you aren’t even better off.

I think we need money for more or less 6 things:

  1. To buy daily necessities (food, shelter, etc.)

  2. To save so we can retire when we are too weak to work hard, yet retire without fear of poverty.

  3. To educate our children and prepare them to compete in an increasingly impersonal world.

  4. To take a vacation once or twice a year.

  5. To be kind and generous to those we love (friends, family, etc.).

  6. (For some people, if they want that) To produce/create/sponsor something for ourselves or our community that we can feel proud of.

The American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large fin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.

The Mexican replied, “only a little while.”

The American then asked why he didn’t stay out longer and catch more fish?

The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.

The American then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?”

The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos, I have a full and busy life.”

The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA, CFA, BSD Afer and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat, and with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats. Eventually, you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually NYC where you will run your expanding enterprise.”

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this take?”

To which the American replied, “15-20 years.”

“But what then?”

The American laughed and said that’s the best part. “When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions.”

“Millions?” asked the fisherman, “Then what?”

The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evening, sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos!”

In NYC it’s about 300k – 200k base and 100k bonus. I think this is a good number, you can spend 5k on housing/expenses, 2.5 on saving and 2.5 on entertainment. Plus you get the option to buy a nice ride, new kitchen, etc every year. Yeah, I think that should do it, but as others have said once you get there you want more.

The definition of “enough” changes based on income and life situation. At first, you just want a basic salary to support your living expenses and compare yourself to your peers. Eventually, you feel the need to accumulate wealth for buying houses or for kids’ college tuition. If you are more successful later, your focus changes to “financial independence” or contributing to political or social causes. These changes are a function of age and of financial status. There is always room for “a little bit more” as your priorities change.

Depends on how much your wife spends and how many mouths you have to feed…

I had a conversation with a PM I worked with about this when I was younger…

Basically what he said is money is a scorecard to him. It doesn’t matter what is reasonable or what he needs, he always wants more. just like a pro athlete doesn’t want to beat an opponent 2-1, he wants to win 10-0 or score as many points as possible.

That is how successful people look at compensation.

For once Blake is actually right about something. I know enough people that have done well and could retire today, most of them will work til they die. They always want to do something bigger, make more, leave more behind…

Professional poker players say the same thing about money, its only used to keep score.

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Money is going to make people happy after a certain point, so they’ll always think they need “a little bit more” to be happier. Jump on the hedonic treadmill