About 1/3 of the worlds population would be happy with 3$ / day. In the US it's reasonable to live on rent + utilities + transportation + 10$/day. However, most tech people pass this so quickly it's not obvious.
Anyway, I am 27 and make twice what I did at my first post collage job and I still spend most of what I make. Back in collage a friend of mine went to school full time made ~10$ /hour and supported his wife and kid on that. I think he was happier then than I am now because he was going to make it to a better place. It's easy to assume you need have some life style to be happy but I think a reason for living is far more important than your income or your wealth.
For me, more than I have now. It could be that no matter how much money you make, its always 'more than I have now' (but then again I'm a poor college student so that may just be me).
But anyways, my main problem with your original article was that whenever someone tells people that you can't buy happiness, it seems that person is always well off. Maybe thats because they're the only people who would know for sure, but it seems a bit like me going to some third world country and saying, 'You know, living in America and not working in a factory for 14 hours a day really isn't all its cracked up to be.'
So if "happy" == "completely happy", it's somewhere around $2E6 for me. Enough interest to cover the basics so I can work on anything I like. Anything after that is just icing on the cake, and it's still fun whether I win or lose (the bills are already taken care of).
I imagine answers to this question vary wildly, but tend to cluster around 3 points: $0, something like my rough calculation, and some large-ish percentage of the GDP.
- Spend more time with my wife (including doing some of the rest of these things together), when she's not working to achieve her goals
- Hack on several ideas that I have, work with/invest in interesting startups (what I would normally save or put into less risky investments)
Also
- Help my friends out of the rut
- Read more math, physics, sci-fi
- Learn to fly planes
- Keep my thumb on what's going on in the tech world via the web
- Build cool stuff: electronics, etc.
- Buy cool gadgets and hack on them
- Maybe some political stuff, EFF or atheist issues
- I like the OLPC project, I think they should work with American kids too.
- Pick up the piano and violin again, maybe travel a bit
- Say what I think more often
- Some normal leisure stuff now and then
Of course, this would be after 2 weeks of sitting around in awe that I had arrived at what I dreamed of as a teenager.
I can do many of these things in some capacity right now, but I can't really dig in to most of them. I do my current job in hopes of freeing up a half-of-my-waking-life time slice so I can, but that is definitely a gamble. Self-determination is an enticing thing.
I imagine that, even though I've done a fair share of it, there is some introspection to do when you arrive. I wish I had more time to think about this question. What's the view like from there?
The main difference is that, except learning to fly planes (although I've looked up nearby flight schools, know how much time+money it requires, read up on the basics, and learned what is required to get a private pilot certification) and working with OLPC, I have done these things in my free time already, even concurrently. And when I had more free time (just a couple of years ago), I did them more often.
There is just very little doubt in my mind that the choice afforded by a nice passive income would help me do more things that make me happy.
I also wonder if an entrepreneur who already has their $2E6 could focus more on what the user wants. You don't have to worry about what the landlord or electric company wants.
Define "how much" - some people think in terms of a good salary etc (but then question of security dilutes value) - a lump sum in some liquid form? Or cashflow from a passive income source.
I guess its not just money but the security that it brings.
Anyway, I am 27 and make twice what I did at my first post collage job and I still spend most of what I make. Back in collage a friend of mine went to school full time made ~10$ /hour and supported his wife and kid on that. I think he was happier then than I am now because he was going to make it to a better place. It's easy to assume you need have some life style to be happy but I think a reason for living is far more important than your income or your wealth.