Can money buy happiness

 It’s a tough question, an easier one might be how much do happy people earn? This is an interesting question and one that the United Nations has examined.

The World Happiness Report is an annual survey by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network for the United Nations. This report examines global happiness in 156 countries, ranking countries using the Gallup World Poll according to six factors: levels of GDP, life expectancy, generosity, social support, freedom and corruption income. The World Happiness Report was first launched in 2012.

Another study looked at the relationship between salary and worldwide location, with judgements based on self-reported happiness around the world.

The world’s 25 happiest countries, in order of happiness, are Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden, New Zealand, Austria, Luxembourg, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Israel, Costa Rica, Ireland, Germany, United States, Czech Republic and Belgium.

The happiest country in the world is Finland and in Helsinki, its capital, the average salary is £27,936 (about $36,000). Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, the second happiest country in the world, has a much higher salary of £34,342 ($44,255). The U.K. was the 15th happiest city, where people earn an average of £33,396 ($43,023).

People in the ten happiest U.S. states earn, on average, $44,903. The top ten happiest states in the U.S. in order are currently Hawaii, Utah, Minnesota, North Dakota, California, Idaho, Maryland, Iowa, South Dakota and Nebraska. (Amongst these states, 63 is the average retirement age and 80 is the average life expectancy).

The average salary across these ten states is $44,903, although it was markedly less in the happiest state, Hawaii, where the average annual salary is $38,604 and life expectancy is the highest of any U.S. state at 82.3 years. Utah was second with an annual salary of $45,563 and Minnesota was third with $51,339.

I should note that these figures are based on self-reported happiness. However, it is impossible to assume causal relationships between happiness and money earned—there are always other factors to take into consideration. For instance, there is a lot of research to show that globally, societies are happier where there is less inequality.

The old rules don't apply

I have talked about the three stages of retirement and what that means for health and lifestyle. I have not talked about how these stages impact you financially. When retirement planning the rule of thumb is you should expect to live about 70% of your pre-retirement income. Between the ages of 60 to 70, you will spend more. Some people will spend up to as high as 110% of pre-retirement spending. They are travelling, collecting the newest toys or expanding the amount of aid they give to loved ones.

Between the ages of 75 to age 85, we spend less. For some of us, our costs may drop to 80% of pre-retirement income or less after the first spouse's death. Between the ages of 85 and 95, our costs may be lower or higher than 70% of our pre-retirement income. This depends on what we are spending on health care. 

And then there is inflation which over time averages between 2 and 4%. This means that our spending power goes down by this amount every year unless we have investments that bring a greater return than this amount. All this means is that none of the old ways apply to retirement today.

 

Tech Enhanced Life

 I am a Longevity Explorer, and it is an interesting and exciting group. They are part of Tech-enhanced Life. This is a company that is exploring the future of aging and the intersection of aging and technology. Its mission is to improve the quality of life of older adults and their families

What We Do

We create insights for older adults (published on this website) — with an emphasis on pushing off the day at which getting older impedes living life to the full.  

We provide advisory services for companies — that want to develop products and services that older adults actually want, need, and will pay a premium for.  

We enable, and lead, the Longevity Explorers: a unique sharing, evaluation, and ideation community—made up of older adults (in their 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s), and their friends, families, and caregivers.

About The Company

Tech-enhanced Life, PBC is a Public Benefit Corporation, incorporated in Delaware, USA. This relatively new class of corporation combines the features of a mission-driven, non-profit organization with the focus and innovative spirit that comes from being a for-profit business. As a PBC, we have a dual purpose: making our shareholders happy, while also focusing on our mission.

The specific public benefit purpose of the corporation is to improve the quality of life of older adults and their families.

We believe in the power of market-driven capitalism as a force for change, which is why we are a PBC rather than a conventional non-profit organization. While our business model is still a work in progress, we expect to share the economic benefits of this adventure with the members of our collaborative community — and especially with the Longevity Explorers.

We are based in Silicon Valley but aspire to create a global community that can make a real impact on the quality of life of ageing people around the world.

The Underlying Idea

We believe that there is huge potential for the development of clever new products and services that will improve the quality of life of all of us as we age.

Unfortunately, all too often the people who understand the problems, and the people who could solve those problems, inhabit different worlds.

We want to bring these groups together and work collaboratively to identify and/or help create new solutions to the challenge of living longer, with higher functionality — at costs that are affordable to individuals and to nations.

Collaborators & Contributors

The Tech-enhanced Life website is how our community of Longevity Explorers share what we learn with older adults around the world. It is also a platform where experts, evaluators, makers — and others interesting in improving the quality of life as we age — share their learnings.

We publish learnings from our community of Longevity Explorers, as well as insights from domain experts, and original research by our internal analyst team and other collaborators. We especially like to publish explorations by citizen evaluators of product categories, and “hacks” by makers trying to improve their own quality of life, or that of their parents.

I recommend that if you are interested in helping seniors age in place, this is a great place to start. Join us at https://www.techenhancedlife.com/user/register?destination=home

Are you being watched?

 Do you ever have the feeling you are being watched? Guess what? you are being watched. Daily, hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second, unseen eyes admire you. These are the eyes of the people who love, understand, and need you.

They deeply understand you. They honour your actions and inactions. These people salute your thoughts and deeds and admire how you cope with your fears and challenges. Your loved ones admire the courage it took to overcome them. (Yeah, you overcame them.)

Having a connection with a soul as adventurous as yours gives all of them a reason to celebrate and party like “the roof is on fire”.