Is there a relationship between wealth and wellbeing?

The well-worn saying that “money can’t buy happiness” has faced numerous practical challenges over time. One might argue that you can’t produce happiness, but there’s no denying that financial resources provide comfort and opportunities that contribute to quality of life. When you’re freed from financial anxiety, granted access to enjoyable experiences, and blessed with time flexibility, it seems counterintuitive to imagine that you could be unhappy… right? Subjectively, yes. Evolutionarily, yes. Scientifically, it seems that way.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs offers a valuable framework for examining how money genuinely contributes to our emotional well-being. Developed by psychologist Abraham Maslow, this hierarchy organizes human needs in a five-tier pyramid structure, proposing that individuals must satisfy basic needs — like access to food, water, shelter, warmth, and sleep — before progressing to higher needs, like motivation and self-fulfillment.

That’s not to say that the hierarchy is strictly linear — people can pursue different needs simultaneously and may prioritize higher needs when lower ones aren’t fully met. This revision by Maslow aligns with real-world observations that even people facing material hardship often find joy in relationships, creative expression, and meaningful pursuits.

The direct impact of money on basic needs: The needs at the pyramid’s foundation consist of basic physiological needs and security — areas where money plays a clear and direct role. Financial security can positively affect someone’s wellbeing and increase their happiness by reducing the stress surrounding constant efforts to secure those needs.

The science: A longitudinal study in Zambia demonstrated this by providing regular financial support to women experiencing poverty. After 48 months of aid, these women showed marked improvement in both emotional well-being and personal development. Similarly, research in the US revealed a significant correlation in adults between financial difficulties and mental distress. The relationship between income and wellbeing is particularly strong in lower-income countries. Gallup World Poll analysis found that in nations with GDP per capita below USD 10k, increases in national income strongly predict improvements in life satisfaction. However, this correlation weakens significantly in wealthier nations, suggesting diminishing returns from economic growth once a certain standard of living is achieved.

The middle tiers: Moving up the pyramid to love, belonging, and esteem needs, money’s influence becomes more nuanced. Financial resources can facilitate social experiences such as travel and entertainment — activities that research from San Francisco State University links to increased happiness. Additionally, accumulated wealth, possessions, and status symbols have become intertwined with self-worth, potentially boosting self-esteem and enhancing social interactions. However, while wealth may enable these experiences, money serves as an indirect catalyst rather than a direct source of happiness.

The downfall of the pursuit of happiness: In specific cases, the drive for monetary gain may actually harm social connections. When individuals become fixated on financial success, they often distance themselves from loved ones. In such cases, pursuit of wealth comes at the expense of meaningful relationships, which negatively impacts happiness.

It’s lonely at the top. This phenomenon is reinforced by research from the University of British Columbia, which found that materialistic values and the excessive pursuit of wealth correlate with higher levels of loneliness and decreased life satisfaction. Additionally, a longitudinal study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology followed 12k individuals over several decades and discovered that those who prioritized financial success over relationships and community engagement reported lower levels of life satisfaction and higher rates of psychological distress, even when they achieved their financial goals.

Self-actualization is beyond money’s reach. At the pyramid’s apex lies self-actualization — encompassing morality, creativity, potential and other elements of person fulfillment that money cannot directly purchase. Research indicates that individuals who prioritize meaning and purpose achieve higher levels of sustained happiness. This phenomenon helps explain why many bn’aires continue working despite enormous financial success — they’re pursuing a sense of purpose and fulfillment that transcends wealth.

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's concept of “flow” — complete immersion in meaningful, challenging activities — provides insight into why money alone cannot satisfy our needs. His decades of research show that people across cultures and income levels experience their greatest happiness during flow states, which are accessible regardless of financial status. Meaningful work, creative pursuits, and deep learning can induce flow whether one is wealthy or not, suggesting that the path to self actualization depends more on engagement than exposure.

Relying on wealth for happiness proves unreliable due to the Hedonic Treadmill effect. This theory suggests that regardless of financial gains, people quickly adapt and begin desiring more, making happiness temporary. Once basic needs are met, happiness often plateaus. A 2010 study proposed that wealth-based happiness peaked at an annual income of USD 70k (at the time), suggesting that additional income had minimal impact. However, more recent research changed the goalposts, raising the threshold to USD 500k annually. As the researcher Matthew Killingsworth noted, “In the simplest terms, this suggests that for most people [since the threshold is reached by few] larger incomes are associated with greater happiness.”

Social comparison is the enemy. A significant challenge in wealth satisfaction involves the Social Comparison Trap — people tend to value relative wealth over absolute wealth. As Karl Marx observed, “A house may be large or small; as long as the neighboring houses are likewise small,” but place that same house beside a palace, and “the occupant of the relatively little house will always find himself more uncomfortable, more dissatisfied, more cramped within his four walls.”

Modern research in behavioural economics supports Marx’s observation. A landmark study by economist Richard Easterlin (known as the Easterlin Paradox) found that within countries, richer people tend to report higher happiness than poorer people. However, when comparing across countries or over time, average happiness doesn’t increase as societies become wealthier as a whole. This paradox highlights how relative position, rather than actual wealth, drives satisfaction. Going one step further, neuroimaging studies have shown that the brain’s reward centers respond more strongly to favorable relative position than to absolute gains, suggesting our tendency to compare is hardwired into our neural architecture.

The relationship between money and happiness varies significantly across cultures. Research from the World Values Survey shows that in more collectivist societies like those in East Asia, the correlation between income and happiness is weaker than in individualistic Western societies. In Japan, for instance, social harmony and group belonging contribute more significantly to life satisfaction than individual wealth. Similarly, countries with strong social safety nets like Denmark and Finland consistently rank among the happiest nations despite not having the highest per capita incomes, suggesting that how societies distribute and provide access to resources may matter more than absolute wealth levels.