I don't need to be rich to be happy. I think SacTown pointed it out earlier though, being self-employed is nice. Having the freedom to go where you want at any point without having to get anyone's permission is nice. You don't necessarily have to be rich to do that.
Too much money can have an effect on people, whether they admit it or not. There's an optimal amount.
It's human psychology. The money that is out of your reach is the amount that makes you more than well off.
Lot's of families get by on half that, or less. My parent's made less than that while I was growing up, and we were pretty happy. I don't think you need to be rich to be happy. With that said though, my parents pretty much made it their life goal to have their kids be more financially well off than they were. They knew money was important, but just not everything and taught us that along the way. I still feel that way, even though I have a decent job, house, and car. Rich is also a pretty relative term. My parents would tell you a household making $100K or more is pretty rich, because they never got close to that and probably never will. People making $100K would probably tell you $500K is rich. Really just depends.
agreed. $80k for a family of four in Houston is more than enough. of course, if you think your kids only deserve the best and send them to private school you're going to have trouble making ends meet.
You will get by on what you have. When I was kid, we got by on less than 400 a month for a while after we just came to the US. Today that would not even pay for half my mortgage or half a month of child daycare cost. I used to think if as a household we have 100k we would do great, but now I think 100k is just enough for everything plus a little bit of savings.
Not enough if you have a mortgage, a car and 2 daycare to pay for at the same time. 150k is the number to have if you don't want to stress out at any time point of your life, assuming you don't buy cars with the model number ending with s', don't go on trips on a luxury boats, don't send your kids to private schools and your wife don't buy LVs and tiffany's so often.