What will make us happy: High salary or job satisfaction?

Read the article below. 

Who doesn’t want or need more money? Whether it’s for a new car, a holiday or just to pay off those credit cards – people would always appreciate some extra pennies in their pockets. However, is having a job that pays really well but offers not much else really the key to long-term overall happiness? The term ‘happiness’ is defined in many different ways by various people. To some, happiness is simply having a roof over your head and food on your table. To others, happiness comes with having nice things such as technology, nice clothes, cars, etc.

Various factors come into the debate of job satisfaction vs high salary. At first, the answer to overall happiness seems to be fairly obvious: Get a job that you love and work your way up to earning a lot. However, there are other factors to consider. For example, what stage are you at currently in your life? If you don’t have responsibilities back at home such as children then you might be more open to working long hours for a high-earning job. If you’ve just moved in with your partner you’re going to want to spend more time at home considering how much you’ll be spending on bills and rent or mortgage. 

We spend approximately a third of our lives at work. We want to be happy while we’re there. If you can’t seem to get yourself out of bed in the morning because you fear the job so much, generally speaking, it’s not going to get much better further down the road.  Everyone has both ups and downs in their jobs – but if you’re having more downs than ups, is the higher salary actually worth it? As Jim Blasingame says on Forbes, “If you can’t be happy without money and [material] stuff, you aren’t likely to be happy with it”. This is speaking with the assumption that a higher paying salary means misery – it really doesn’t. A lot of people who have higher salaries can’t get enough of their jobs. Happiness tends to be achieved depending on the attitude of the person seeking it. If you can go to work and laugh, have fun and find joy in the work you do, then you have basic career happiness right there. If you’re emotionally suffering at your job every day, then no amount of money in the world will ever make you happy.