Here’s How Much Money You Need to Be Happy in New Jersey

Happiness can be hard to quantify, but researchers at Purdue gave it a try, and then GOBankingrates.com tried to break it down by state to determine how much money you need to make a year to be happy.

The Purdue study determined that the ideal income for life satisfaction in North America is $105,000.

GOBankingrates then factored in each state’s cost-of-living index and used the $105,000 figure as the “benchmark.” They also issued separate figures for what it takes to achieve “emotional well-being” and “happiness.” Crime rates were also considered.

So, I know you’re wondering: what’s the magic number to be happy in New Jersey?

According to this study, it’s $120,960. For just emotional well-being, it’s $69,120.

The authors write:

The Garden State might have some of the lowest crime rates in the country, but it’s also coming at a high cost of living, 9 percent higher than the national average. And that can’t be easy to bear right now, with an unemployment rate over 4%.

Surprisingly (at least to me) is that we’re only 12th highest in the country. I just figured with our high cost of living (including our tax burden) we would be in the top three or four.

Hawaii is the state where you need the most money to be happy: $202,965. People in Mississippi need the lowest salary to be happy: $87,465 (for emotional well-being that number drops to around $50,000).

For our neighbors in PA, the study says it takes $107,625 a year to be happy, while in New York, that number is $155,610 (that’s behind only Hawaii’s eye-popping requirement).

h/t to News 12 New Jersey for pointing me toward this study.