According to a lecture I listened to by Daniel Kahneman, a behavioral psychologist who earned the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science (2002), $70,000 is the amount needed to be happy (maybe it's $77,000. now). This comes from a twenty years study of 300,000 people (hopefully I'm remembering correctly) and done in big cities...I think it was San Francisco, Chicago and possible New York...anyway three largely populated cities for a family of four. I found it hard to believe but he is a pretty respected guy and the length of the study and the amount of people involved let me allow for the possibility. I will say it cost less at retirement than I thought it would.