Money really does buy happiness and the correlation extends well beyond the US$75,000 (S$100,000) annual salary threshold that had been seen as the upper limit for making an impact, according to a team of scientists, including the Nobel Prize-winning psychologist who introduced the idea of a happiness plateau more than a decade ago.

Contentedness does increase steadily in line with incomes and even accelerates as pay rises beyond US$100,000 a year – as long as the person enjoys a certain baseline level of happiness to begin with.