The happier you are, the richer you will be, study suggests

**Happiness could be the key to wealth, according to research carried out by a professor at the University of Warwick.**

People have spent a great deal of time debating whether money can bring them happiness, but according to a recent study by Dr Jan-Emmanuel De Neve from UCL Political Science and Professor Andrew Oswald from the University of Warwick, having a happy childhood could be the key to being wealthy in adulthood.

The study showed that happy adolescents are more likely to become wealthy adults than those who have unhappy childhoods.

The data was collected from 15,000 young adults across America. Dr De Neve and Pr Oswald discovered that individuals who had higher ‘life satisfaction’ were more likely to go on to make a notably higher income than those who reported lower levels.

The study revealed that, when the subject’s life satisfaction was measured on a scale from 1 to 5, an increase of 1 degree in a 22 year old is linked to an almost $2,000 wage increase per annum at 29 years old.

This link was attributed to people who are happier having a greater chance of earning a degree and finding employment than those who act more solemnly.

The study states that the results are reliable because they included various influencing factors, from genetic variation and IQ, to health, education, and how happy the individuals were at the time.

The findings suggest the value attached to creating a positive, happy environment for children, said study co-author Pr Oswald: “If you take our work at face value, it suggests that if you could make young Americans happier, then they would later become richer.

“It is possible that it could work for a whole economy. A happier U.S. would translate, eventually, into a richer one.”

The study was aimed towards “figur[ing] out what happiness actually does,” Pr Oswald said. “We might think that human happiness is important in itself as a goal, but does it cause other things, perhaps other good things?”