Sharpe's Opinion

How do I calculate an appropriate salary?

Tim Harford on the relationship between happiness and money

[Economist Andrew Oswald] finds that, other things being equal, happiness rises with money, good health and a successful marriage, but falls as a person’s “expected income” rises. Expected income is the income that another person of the same age, sex and education level would typically earn. In other words, more educated people have richer peers and so tend to be less satisfied.

According to that, the secret to happiness would always be to try and outperform expectations, rather than just earn lots of money. That sounds about right to me.