Numerous studies have shown that there is a “satiation effect” where, beyond a certain point (approximately $75,000), people with more prestigious jobs and more money are no happier in their lives.
Beyond that, thinking that something miraculous will happen once you have achieved some landmark economic event simply pushes happiness into the future, where it stays perpetually out of reach.
So once you’ve achieved basic economic security, you need to have some other way of knowing when enough is enough. For me, that’s the concept of “value.”
It means constantly asking: What’s important? What are my priorities? What does that next incremental purchase really bring me?
Is it frivolous or does it have real utility? And does its price correspond in any way to that utility?