Look, this is our personal finance thread

[YungBoba]

Personally I'd pay it towards the car but that's just me because I hate debt with a passion. Did you finance that through the dealer or did you use a personal loan? If the former, I'd definitely pay towards the car just to be done with it faster and make it easier to sell if that ever becomes something you need to do.

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[Tweeder]

Jeep is on an auto loan through a local credit union. It’s a 2013 so I got about as low of a rate as I could. Only way to get lower would have been if my credit score was in the 800s.

I financed it long for the cheaper payment if times ever get tough. I also financed it longer because I pay my car loans off early. I’ve already started paying it down faster. I’m thinking maybe split it up. The extra monthly go to investments and then use the bonuses/extra paychecks to pay the loan down faster. It should take roughly 2 years to pay it off that way.

[shikataganai]

https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2020-43605-001

So money can buy happiness.

[Integra96]

I wonder how that graph would look in other countries.

[OrbitalEllipses]

Originally Posted by Integra96

I wonder how that graph would look in other countries.

The same.

[340Duster]

Wasn't there some research that showed happiness increasing with income up to like $250k and then flattening out? I'm currently too lazy to look

[thechickencow]

I think there is some number out there I’m sure it’s location dependent. I totally agree - once you hit a point where you can sustain things and not worry about money that’s a big change in stress for sure. It’s so variable - there are people that are leveraged making big money that probably stress about money but there are people with lower income that make smarter choices that probably don’t.

What I will say from personal experience is my satisfaction from being able to buy things I’d want is very short lived, it’s just not all that satisfying to me personally to have a ton of things. So yeah I agree with the flattening out of how much happier one can get.

As an example I could buy a new car and make it something fun. I’d obviously enjoy having it and it’d be great but after I’ve had it 6mos is it going to make me as excited as the day I got it? Probably not.

[samagon]

hello NASIOC finance!

how much of my available HELOC should I leverage to buy lotto tickets for Friday?

[flat_tire]

Originally Posted by samagon

hello NASIOC finance!

how much of my available HELOC should I leverage to buy lotto tickets for Friday?

That's a stupid question.

All of it, obviously!!

[fliz]

Originally Posted by samagon

hello NASIOC finance!

how much of my available HELOC should I leverage to buy lotto tickets for Friday?

Depends, how much have you put in crypto?

With lotto, it's all about increasing your chances by an order of magnitude.

To win, you need a big increase. I recommend 6x OM increase, it's only $200k, pretty easy to swing on a HELOC.

[f4phantomii]

Originally Posted by 340Duster

Wasn't there some research that showed happiness increasing with income up to like $250k and then flattening out? I'm currently too lazy to look

No idea, but makes sense. There's probably multiple plateaus.

Once you get to a point where you are able to live comfortably, pay the bills, keep things repaired, take the family on a nice vacation once in a while, and still put money in a savings account and retirement account regularly and have stability in your life...

I would think there would be a happiness plateau at that point. Earning another $20k on top of that won't significantly impact your lifestyle.

Then there would potentially be a step change in happiness when your income rises to the point where you feel comfortable picking up some $150k sports car, or a second home, or charter a yacht for a month.

But you are still working to pay for all that and likely still managing a lot of it yourself. So the stress of all that responsibility likely starts to offset the increase in happiness. Your leisure time may have actually gone down.

Then at some point net worth has risen to where you are financially independent and no longer need to work to earn an income. You effectively have the ability to do just about anything you want, whenever you want, and pay people to handle the day to day responsibilities of paying bills, keeping things repaired, getting food delivered, etc.

At that point you have virtually no real responsibilities other than to occasionally approve recommendations from people you pay to ensure that whatever activities you happen to enjoy are never interrupted by activities you don't. And you likely pay someone to manage those people for you.

[XanRules]

My recollection is that it flattens after $75k and then bumps up a little again around $250k before flattening back out.

[Tweeder]

Originally Posted by thechickencow

I think there is some number out there I’m sure it’s location dependent. I totally agree - once you hit a point where you can sustain things and not worry about money that’s a big change in stress for sure. It’s so variable - there are people that are leveraged making big money that probably stress about money but there are people with lower income that make smarter choices that probably don’t.

What I will say from personal experience is my satisfaction from being able to buy things I’d want is very short lived, it’s just not all that satisfying to me personally to have a ton of things. So yeah I agree with the flattening out of how much happier one can get.

As an example I could buy a new car and make it something fun. I’d obviously enjoy having it and it’d be great but after I’ve had it 6mos is it going to make me as excited as the day I got it? Probably not.

That is why we have a lot of shopping addiction in the US. I think it was Harvard that put out a long term study that showed the key to happiness is quality relationships.

[junebugfareast]

All I can add is that I lost more than 1/2 of my income when I retired. I am definitively happier, but could be marginally happier with a GT3 in the garage.

That's all I got.

[shikataganai]

Originally Posted by XanRules

My recollection is that it flattens after $75k and then bumps up a little again around $250k before flattening back out.

nah

https://forums.nasioc.com/forums/sho...postcount=9853

[samagon]

Originally Posted by fliz

Depends, how much have you put in crypto?

With lotto, it's all about increasing your chances by an order of magnitude.

To win, you need a big increase. I recommend 6x OM increase, it's only $200k, pretty easy to swing on a HELOC.

so question number 2, when I win and quit my job, do I get to apply for food stamps because my yearly income will be lower than the poverty limit?

[340Duster]

Originally Posted by shikataganai

nah

https://forums.nasioc.com/forums/sho...postcount=9853

I R teh dum and don't understand that chart.

[shikataganai]

Originally Posted by 340Duster

I R teh dum and don't understand that chart.

X axis is income deciles, e.g. 0-9.9 percentile, 10-19.9, etc.

No big plateau anywhere. Fairly continuous positive correlation between increasing income and increasing happiness by their metric on the y-axis.

[XanRules]

Originally Posted by shikataganai

nah

https://forums.nasioc.com/forums/sho...postcount=9853

Interesting, I skipped right over that one.

It's different than the study on the same subject that I'm familiar with, but is also newer!

[TheViking85]

Originally Posted by XanRules

Interesting, I skipped right over that one.

It's different than the study on the same subject that I'm familiar with, but is also newer!

I think the other one may have referred to reported contentment?

Might track different than happiness.

[Jack]

Originally Posted by f4phantomii

Then at some point net worth has risen to where you are financially independent and no longer need to work to earn an income. You effectively have the ability to do just about anything you want, whenever you want, and pay people to handle the day to day responsibilities of paying bills, keeping things repaired, getting food delivered, etc.

No. Just being financially independent means that indeed you no longer need to work to meet your needs. The rest of that....paying people to do stuff maybe comes in at another level. I'll also say that you can be FI but your wife says NO to things you want to do, cars you want to buy and such.

I'm describing me.....

[shikataganai]

[quentinberg007]

Originally Posted by shikataganai

X axis is income deciles, e.g. 0-9.9 percentile, 10-19.9, etc.

No big plateau anywhere. Fairly continuous positive correlation between increasing income and increasing happiness by their metric on the y-axis.

The happiness index is bumped from 1.95 to 2.4 across the entire span. I’m too lazy to see what that actually means, but I’m hesitant to say that the top 10% is only 25% happier than the bottom 10% for fear I’m misusing the metric.

My theory is that everyone is basically miserable just with the root cause of the misery varying.

[shikataganai]

Originally Posted by quentinberg007

The happiness index is bumped from 1.95 to 2.4 across the entire span. I’m too lazy to see what that actually means, but I’m hesitant to say that the top 10% is only 25% happier than the bottom 10% for fear I’m misusing the metric.

My theory is that everyone is basically miserable just with the root cause of the misery varying.

I'll look up the metric they used once I get access. I don't have immediate access so have to bug the interlibrary loan peoples.

[Integra96]

Originally Posted by TheViking85

I think the other one may have referred to reported contentment?

Might track different than happiness.

That's the one I remember.

It's hard to imagine happiness going up much past some relatively low amount of income/wealth. Anecdotally, the richest folks I work with/take care of are often neurotic, miserable weirdos on tons of drugs. So, just like everyone else. *shrug*