How Much Money People in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa Need To Make To Be Happy

Can money buy happiness? Or does mo money mean mo problems? Researchers at Purdue University say money can definitely help: “income can correlate with emotional well-being and life satisfaction.”

The Purdue study found $105,000 was the individual income that led to ideal life satisfaction in America. GOBankingRates used that number and each state's cost-of-living to calculate how much residents in each state needed to be happy. Below you’ll see the minimum salary you need to make to be happy in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin.

Want to make more money? Check out the 30 highest-paying jobs in Minnesota at the bottom of this story.

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To understand this study, you need to understand how “life satisfaction” or happiness is defined.

According to this article published by the National Academy of Sciences, there are two elements in happiness: 1) Emotional well-being, “the emotional quality of an individual's everyday experience—the frequency and intensity of experiences of joy, stress, sadness, anger, and affection that make one's life pleasant or unpleasant.” And, 2) Life evaluation which is “the thoughts that people have about their life when they think about it.”

 Minnesota: Minimum salary needed to be happy: $106,260

Iowa: Minimum salary needed to be happy: $95,655

Wisconsin: Minimum salary needed to be happy: $101,850

It’s important to remember that emotional well-being and life evaluation are factored into those huge salaries. The research shows that a person’s emotional well-being peaks with an annual salary of $75,000.

Paying off debt or going on an awesome vacation are two things that could definitely make you happy. Especially, when you’re using someone else’s money. We’re here to help! Listen for 10 chances each weekday to score $10,000!  It’s easy to win Free Money! Just listen to us on the radio or app while your work. You’ll hear 10 codes each day, enter them on our app, and you could win. The more codes you enter, the more chances you have to win. Good luck!