[ido]

Maybe you weren't sufficiently poor before?

When I went from making $45k/year to $75k it wasn't as a huge a difference (i also liked the job better which made me happier, but money wise the happiness difference didn't seem that significant). However I'm self employed which means my income can vary a lot more than an employee's.

And when I got sick and couldn't work for a few months, and as a result suddenly went from $75k to maybe ~$30k you bet your ass it made me VERY unhappy - constant money stress, fought a lot more with my wife, staying up at night worrying about paying rent, etc.

It was a real eye opener into the lives of the working poor.

So I'd phrase it as "lack of money can cause unhappiness" rather than the other way around.