On today’s Consumerism Commentary Podcast, Tom Dziubek speaks with Laura Rowley, columnist at Yahoo Finance and author of the book Money and Happiness: A Guide to Living the Good Life. Laura talks about money and its correlation to happiness including topics such as how much money it takes to feel satisfied, at what monetary point people plateau at in regards to happiness and mindsets that contribute to people feeling unhappy.
Laura Rowley, Money & Happiness: S04E5 / 105
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Table of contents
[00:00] Introduction from Tom
[00:34] Interview with Laura Rowley
– [00:49] The differences between satisfaction and happiness
– [03:59] Hedonic adaptation
– [05:11] Social capital and mastery
– [06:53] Money as a tool
– [09:10] Aspiring to achieve happiness – identifying what you value most in life
– [12:06] Addressing debt
– [12:58] Prioritizing your debt payoffs
– [16:43] Money & kids
– [18:22] Savings and retirement tips
– [20:09] Having the right mindset to achieve happiness
– [27:22] Buying experiences instead of “things”
[30:11] End
We always welcome feedback from listeners. If you have any comments for this episode or for any other, or if you have suggestions for future episodes, please leave us comments here or email us at podcast at this domain name.
Published or updated November 20, 2010. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
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Luke Landes founded Consumerism Commentary in 2003 and has been building online communities since 1990. Luke, also known as Flexo, has contributed to PC World Magazine, US News, Forbes, and other publications. 
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
What’s very interesting is that the study just years ago said the figure was $60,000. Nice like 25% jump in income happiness!
I think the real number threshold is $200,000 simply because the government will start persecuting and discriminating against you after that income level.
I like the experiences vs things part. As I’m growing older, I do appreciate and enjoy spending my money on seeing new places, eating new things, and learning new ideas more than accumulating a pile of stuff.
We find we want to spend our $$ on traveling and doing stuff together, not spending it on stuff.