what is the bare minimum, in your area, for one to be happy ?

[steve2470]

What is least amount of $ that you would require in your area in order to feel "happy" ? The poll is in pre-tax 2005 dollars per year.

[leftofthedial]

1. money can't buy me love

[7th_Sephiroth]

2. if by happy you mean

not feeling like uncle sam is crushing you slowly with his thumb 150,000 plus we got defistated by a hurricane and the price has gone up for everything, plus that refinery in texas going up added 75 cents to our gas plus the 50 cent rate hike plus the diesel rate hike because of all the contractors

[fortyfeetunder]

3. I am hoping for a housing bubble burst

because I can't figure out how anyone of average means can afford to buy a "starter" house in my neck of the woods at $300,000...in Seattle area...

[steve2470]

4. kick nt

[Celeborn Skywalker]

5. I live in New Mexico and the cost of living here is very low

One can get a decent two bedroom apartment for $375 a month. I have a friend who's single and pays $305 a month rent and makes about $6.50 an hour at Sonic. He lives OK as in he's not starving and he has money for an internet connection, but things are still tight.

[Schema Thing]

6. On the curve of what most Americans earn....

the jump between 20K and 50k in your poll leaves alot of peoples' real life experience behind.... especially given the nature of the question.

[Nikia]

7. Money and happiness aren't always related

Some people are happy even though they live as modest as possible. If they incur some sizeable debt from unexpected emergencies (medical or otherwise), it might not really bother them. Some people will be unhappy no matter how much money they have, which may or may not have anything to do with money.
In this area, I put a living wage (with no outside assistance from government, charity, friends, or family) to be about $9/hour working full time for an individual. Minimum advertised rents are at about $350/month. Groceries and other necessities are average price or below.
Rereading the post I noticed that you said "you". If this is supposed to be personal, I make just under $30,000 per year and have an unemployed husband not being paid unemployment. We do have debts that I'd rather not worry about and wish that could be paid off. We could theoretically live meagerly but we don't and that isn't my fault completely. When we lived in another town, for $25 more in rent and made a combined $50,000, we didn't have to worry much about money.