How Much Money Do Wealthy Families Need To Be ‘Happy’ In NYC? The Number Will Make You Sick

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The ‘happiness number’ is that amount of money a family needs in order to be truly happy in life. This number varies widely from person to person. Location can have an enormous impact on that Happiness Number.

New York City is one of the most expensive places in the world to live. Cost of living in the city has been driving millennials out to the ‘burbs for years. The city is also home to more billionaires than any other city on the planet. A billionaire’s Happiness Number is going to be drastically different from the Happiness Number of a millionaire whose net worth is somewhere between $1-3 million. According to Business Insider, around 5% of Americans are millionaires with 95% of those millionaires having a net worth between $1 to $5 million. After reading that stat, I’m fucking blown away by the ‘happiness number’ for NYC according to Town & Country Magazine:

An analyst from US Trust cited in the Town & Country report estimated the hypothetical couple would need to have a net worth of $190 million to sustain this lifestyle.
Here are some of the costs considered in the estimate:
Real estate: $18 million apartment on Fifth Avenue facing Central Park, $2 million for furniture and decor, $20 million for a weekend home in the Hamptons and a vacation spot in the Caribbean.
Education: $1.7 million a child for a “no-expense-spared educational strategy,” which includes private school and tutors, music lessons, sports, trips abroad, and four-year Ivy League tuition.
Philanthropy: $25,000 annually to sit on the board of a New York City museum, plus $15,000 a table at annual charity events.
Staff: $190,000 annually for a driver, a chef, and a housekeeper.
Art: $20 million to $100 million apiece in a seven- or eight-piece collection, or about $1 million annually.
Health and beauty: $150,000 annually for wardrobe, grooming, trainers, and cosmetic procedures. (via)

How in the actual fuck can someone possibly NEED $190 million in order to be happy? That’s just a comical amount of money and further proof that the wealth distribution in America has reached a point that the lower and middle-income classes cannot even begin to comprehend.

Then again, I shouldn’t be too surprised because I was just reading this morning that you need an annual salary of $272,000 in order to live comfortably in the Central Park South neighborhood and over $248,000/yr to live comfortably in TriBeCa. Makes you feel pretty poor, doesn’t it?