The step change for me was financial independence.
It's not about income, but wealth.
A basic example - the difference between a 50K a year job and a 200K a year job is enormous if you have no wealth.
If you are FI, then other factors like the nature of the work, the hours, the location and so on are far more important.
Because once you're there, it becomes clear that money has far less value than time - you only need enough of it to do the things you want to do (of course, if the things you want to do require a lot of money, that's a possible case...)
* About two months after getting my first full-time job, actually seeing my savings go up.
* After buying a place and moving in, something that wasn't possible without having enough money. Note that moving out of my parents' house and into a rented apartment didn't do it, but buying did.
* Upon paying off my mortgage, doing some math and realizing early retirement through financial independence was actually a possibility.
Depends on the persons age and maturity level too. At some point shiny new cars and other trinkets are not really what makes you happy...
Besides, if you're making a wage (whether way above average or not) you might not still be quite that independent that more money makes no difference (or draw your happiness from competing in the race)...
I don't know if I agree with that. Just because those things don't make you happy doesn't mean there aren't other things you can do with money that make you happy. Or maybe I just haven't matured enough yet?
At least I think I am at the point I don't care too much about having a fancy car or nice house.
Still, the thing that I have found to increase my happiness the most is giving it to someone else and seeing someone be really grateful. If I had more money I could do the same thing but to more people probably.
And probably just knowing that I have enough money that I don't need to worry would increase my happiness significantly. Even better would be that my parents don't have to work.
Well, that's not money then, that's helping others. One can help other people with no or little money too.
Also, "significant amount of money" is terribly subjective. I know people to whom $100 is a significant amount of money.
I think being a big fish in a small pond has a lot to say for itself in terms of mental satisfaction about one's place in the world. It's relative, unfortunately: someone else must be worse off for you to feel relatively better off.
It takes a lot of income to make a meaningful dent in your self-perceived place on the ladder in London, if your ladder includes things like owning a home in a safe area within reasonable distance of transport.
What about the point where increased work stesses outweigh additional gains? Personally, I may be hitting that point.
I've still not reached the point where more money hasn't increased my happiness, however I'm definitely making far more than an above-average wage in London.
I think a great number of people could be happier with more money assuming they have good ideas on how they can spend their money to improve their lives.