$75,000 the tipping point on well-being scale

If you were making $75,000 and received a handsome raise, would your feeling of well-being increase? A new study concludes that it wouldn't.

The idea that additional money doesn't result in additional happiness for those of us who live in affluent societies was the product of a landmark study by economist Richard Easterlin in the 1970s. The oft-quoted conclusion, called the Easterlin Paradox, has been called into question recently by several new studies that illuminate the relationship between happiness and wealth.

One new study by Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton of the Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton, further complicates the question. The two reviewed responses to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index of 450,000 Americans from 2008-2009.