To have a happy life in California requires "a lot" of money, according to a new study.
How Much Money Is Needed to Be Happy Living in California
The study from Purdue University and GoBankingRates found that a minimum annual salary of $143,220 is needed to be happy in California, citing the state's "notoriously high cost of living."
According to Fox 11 Los Angeles, this figure is even lower from 2023, when it cited a salary of $145,365 to be happy living in California. In the study, California's unemployment rate of 4.7% trails only Nevada.
If happiness is not what you seek and you are okay with a comfortable lifestyle, recent data from SmartAsset showed that a single adult would need an income of $65.74 per hour, or $136,739 per year, to live comfortably in San Jose, the most expensive city in California.
Data also shows that a single person needs an annual salary of $110,781, or $53.26 per hour, to live comfortably in Los Angeles.
States That Require a Higher Salary Than California to Be Happy
Besides California, Massachusetts and Hawaii also require a higher salary in order to be happy. In Massachusetts, you need $155,400 a year to live happily, while in Hawaii, you need more than $188,160 yearly to be happy.
Kansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and West Virginia were among the states with the lowest minimum incomes required to be happy. The minimum annual income required to be happy in these states was less than $91,000.
The study was derived from an analysis of the cost-of-living-adjusted minimum salary needed to be happy based on income satiation levels determined by researchers at Purdue University.
The results were also based on each city's cost of living index, unemployment rate, and property and crime rates. However, the researchers said that "happiness" is subjective, and the cost to live comfortably still varies from person to person.
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