Not everyone believes the saying, “money can’t buy happiness.” And for good reason.
Texans need to be making $96,705 or more to be happy, according to a data analysis by GOBankingRates based on academic research published by Purdue University. In Dallas, workers need to earn even more — $113,085 — to be happy.
However, Texas residents can at least find a state of emotional well-being when they hit a salary of $55,260 or, for Dallasites, a salary of $64,620. Your emotional well-being is about feeling OK day to day, while being happy means have an overall feeling of satisfaction with your life.”
The Purdue research, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, concluded that income can correlate with emotional well-being and life satisfaction.
There are five industries in Dallas-Fort Worth where workers are being paid the Texas happiness benchmark of $96,705, which translates to about $1,860 a week, according to weekly wage data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those sectors also meet the Dallas happiness benchmark of $113,085, or $2,174 weekly.
Making at least $55,260 in Dallas to achieve emotional well-being translates to what you need to make to afford the average D-FW rent price, which rose nearly 18% year-over-year in May to about $1,500.
Someone being paid $55,260 in Dallas and spending $1,500 in monthly rent would have to commit 33% of their gross income on rent. Most personal finance experts generally recommend spending no more than 30% of your income on housing costs.
The median household income in Dallas is $54,750, according to 2020 U.S. Census Bureau data. That’s significantly lower than the U.S. median household income of about $65,000, even though the median rent in Dallas is slightly higher than the national average, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Inflation in Dallas-Fort Worth has also run higher than in the rest of the nation. The yearly increase to pay for everything from gas to rent to food rose to 9.1% in May compared with 8.6% for the rest of the nation.
The state with the highest minimum salary needed to be happy based on the study is Hawaii at about $203,000. Mississippi was the state with the lowest minimum income to achieve happiness at about $87,500.
The Purdue study found that the ideal income for life satisfaction in North America is $105,000. GOBankingRates said it used the $105,000 figure as a benchmark and factored in each state’s cost-of-living index.
