Suppose you are making 30, 000 yuan every month. Do you think you are rich? Does your income（收入） make you feel happy?
Well, these days, not even the rich feel rich. According to a survey（百万富翁） considered themselves wealthy. Some of them had more than 85 million, but they still didn't feel rich. If millionaires don't feel wealthy, then who does?
I visited Elizabeth Dunn. She is a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia. I asked her, "Once people have enough money to cover their basic needs, what would make them feel satisfied with what they have? "Dunn said she didn't know of any studies that tried to directly answer this question. But she did point to some research that seemed to provide some possible answers to it.
First comes social comparison. Dunn says that it plays a very important role. If a person is richer than the people he compares himself with, then he is going to feel rich. In a 2005 study in Germany, people were happier when their incomes were larger than those who were similar to them in terms of age and education. Another study found that people were less happy the more their neighbors earned. Things were worse when their neighbors won the lottery（彩票）.
Dunn also noted a couple of other factors（因素） that might lead people to feel richer. She brought up a 2016 study. It found people's bank balance（账户余额） could influence their life satisfaction. Some people feel pretty good about their level of income, it may be because they always have at least 5, 000 dollars in the bank. That number is able to make them feel safe.
It also matters a lot what people do with their money. Spending money in certain ways can make people feel better. Generally speaking, it helps to spend more on unforgettable experiences. Paying others to do the things that one hates the most, such as cooking, also brings feelings of happiness.
"It's not just how much you have, but how you spend it, " Dunn told me. "If you make excellent spending decisions, then you can really turn a middle income into enough happiness. "
