Money Actually Can Buy You Happiness, According to a New Study

A new study out of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania seemingly contradicts the age-old saying that money can't buy you happiness. 

The findings were self-published by happiness researcher Matt Killingsworth on July 17. Killingsworth sampled 33,269 working U.S. adults ages 18 to 65 with household incomes of at least $10,000 a year, and then asked them a battery of questions that they answered on a "satisfaction with life" scale. He also used data from wealthy people with median net worths between $3 million and $7.9 million to compare their results with everyone else. 

The study found that the happiness gap is bigger between the wealthy and middle-class participants than the middle and low-income participants.

"The difference in life satisfaction between the wealthy and those with incomes of $70,000 to $80,000 [per year] was nearly three times as large as the difference between $70,000 to $80,000 [per year] and the average of the two lowest income groups," Killingsworth’s study said.

When speaking to The Guardian about the findings, Killingsworth broke down what he believes to be the role money plays in people's lives and how it might have something to do with the results he turned up. 

“Money is just one of many things that matters for happiness, and a small difference in income tends to be associated with pretty small differences in happiness,” Killingsworth said. "But if the differences in income [and] wealth are very large, the differences in happiness can be too."

He went on to surmise that the reason rich people might be happier is "more fundamental and psychologically deeper than simply buying more stuff."

"A greater feeling of control over life can explain about 75 percent of the association between money and happiness. So I think a big part of what’s happening is that, when people have more money, they have more control over their lives. More freedom to live the life they want to live," he said. 

It looks like money does indeed make the world go 'round.