PA News
The old adage that money cannot buy happiness is wrong – but you need a windfall of at least £1 million to be euphoric, according to research published today.
A study by the University of Warwick found that receiving an inheritance or win of as little as £1,000 can improve people’s outlook on life, though less than £1 million is unlikely to have a lasting effect on their happiness.
The research found a strong marriage and good health were more likely to make people feel content than money.
Professor Andrew Oswald and Dr Jonathan Gardner based their research on the responses of 9,000 families in Britain throughout the 1990s.
They measured individuals’ psychological health using standard strain indicators to gauge their levels of happiness.
During the decade a number of the people had windfalls of hundreds of thousands of pounds, enabling the researchers to observe the impact.
Professor Oswald said: “There is a strong link between money and happiness, but it is a serious mistake to believe that the main influence on happiness is money.”
He said after people had received windfalls through lottery wins or inheritance their happiness and psychological health improved.
“We calculated that to turn an average person into a very happy one using money alone took £1 million.”
Professor Oswald said the factors which had the biggest impact on people’s happiness were a stable marriage and good health, while losing a job or getting divorced had the most negative effect on someone’s outlook.
The research found that women tended to be happier than men, and people in their 30s were least likely to be content.
Professor Oswald said happiness followed a U-shaped pattern, with people beginning life happy but becoming discontent in their early 30s, before their happiness recovered and continued increasing into their 60s.
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Hah! At last, what everyone knew turns out to be true after all. It's interesting that a cool million quid is what it takes. I guess that's because you could invest it and live comfortably off the income. Or start a business, if that's what spins your wheels.

But even though the pointy-headed perfessers' research proved money can make you happy, they're careful to pour a little ice-water on the idea. "It is a serious mistake to believe that the main influence on happiness is money.” How serious a mistake? So serious it would keep you awake at night, crying and chewing the sheets? (Real linen, lavender-scented sheets, embroidered with your initials and hand-laundered every day by your live-in maid. Unless you're off travelling of course, in which case the hotel staff will organise the laundry.) Oh, professor, I'm worried I'm already making that mistake! How dreadful.