NewsCloud.com Happiness News

Hey, Big Number, Make Room for the Rest of Us

In the absence of any statistic of comparable cachet, however, the G.D.P. is regularly asked to do more than it was designed to do. It measures wealth just fine, but as a stand-in gauge for the nation's overall well-being, this supernumber is less than perfect. Or, as Robert F. Kennedy put it 40 years ago, the G.D.P. "measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile."

The Age Blogs: Management Line: Choosing happiness

How do we get the stuff that makes us happy? Why does money fail to buy happiness?

Can't buy me love?

Money really does buy happiness, according to a new study

The Age Blogs: Management Line

People are happiest at the beginning and end of life and most miserable when they are middle-aged. The study, based on data collected from two million people in 80 countries, found that in the United States, happiness reached its lowest point around age 40 in women and age 50 in men. In Britain, unhappiness was greatest in men and women at age 44.

Affluence overload

Markets are booming, people are wealthier than ever before but they are not happier. Economists now say that the pursuit of growth, choice and wealth is what's making people unhappy. Affluence breeds impatience, and impatience undermines well-being.

Retirement Contentment in Reach for Unhappy Men

The researchers found that, in addition to a happy marriage and a sense of purpose, the most important factor in a happy retirement was learning how to "play" again. The scientists define play as engaging in activities that are highly gratifying, lack any economic significance, cause no social harm and do not necessarily lead to praise or recognition from others. In other words, many of the factors that allow happiness in retirement appear to be quite different from those that assure a contented and economically secure middle age.

Unhappy? That's rich . . .

Happiness and money not correlated after basic needs met.