Happiness is...........

According to a new study people who make $75,000 per year are the happiest - less then that and they're more unhappy and more doesn't make you happier.  To that I say - wowser - that's a lot of dough.  We are in the process of raising 11 kids and somehow we've managed to be pretty happy I think with considerably less.  I certainly understand that at a certain point when you don't have to worry about paying your bills or if you can provide for the necessities of life including health care, but every thing after that is really gravy isn't it
  I learned early on in parenting from a friend not to take kids shopping unless necessary.  Her philosophy was it just creates discontent about what they have when they discover what they don't have.  How true that is for all of us, especially those of us who live in overindulgent suburbia.  I had to remind my kids often that - no - we are not poor.  We just happen to live amongst people that contrasted to the rest of the world are completely rich.  In fact, contrasted to the rest of the world - we - are really rich.

 How very skewed our perspective can get.  This is why traveling is so very important.  When you are exposed to how the rest of the world lives it is easier to keep things in perspective.  Now, maybe if we did fall into that $75,000 income range we could do more of that traveling - maybe that would make me happier - most likely I'll never know.