We are always told it doesn’t, and how do we define happiness, etc. However, a study of life satisfaction by the journal ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’, reported in This is Money, found that “while people may feel more positive in the short-term [when they have more money], the shine quickly wears off. However, within an individual country, the rich are happier than the poor.”

So, it’s not simply the amount you earn that matters but, more importantly, that you earn more than your peers. This theory is known as the Easterlin Paradox, after its first proponent Richard Easterlin, who coined the term in the 1970s. According to Easterlin, “Simply stated, the happiness-income paradox is this: at a point in time both among and within countries, happiness and income are positively correlated. But, over time, happiness does not increase when a person’s income increases.”  He added, “China’s growth rate implies a doubling of real per capita income in less than 10 years, and Chile’s in 18 years. Yet both China and Chile show mild declines in life satisfaction.”

While any longitudinal study is always interesting, the crux of the issue – does money make you happy? – is still a humdinger, and one that can be framed in so many ways that the words ‘can’ and ‘worms’ spring to mind.

Here at 247Moneybox.com we think that while money may not make you happy, being out of control of your finances can certainly make you unhappy, and that’s where we might be able to help.