[lbo-talk] "Living Above Their Means - Unhappily"

[B.]

[Piece by Yahoo Finance that says "a new report from
the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research
Center ...  discovered unhappiness crept upwards from
1991 to 2004. Overall, 92 percent of participants
reported at least one significant negative life event
in 2004, compared to 88 percent in 1991, the last time
the survey was conducted." Most is financial related.
Kind of a no-brainer but interesting to see stats,
etc. - B.]

How to Boost the Happiness Barometer
by Laura Rowley

[...]

More people experienced difficulties related to living
above their means: The number of respondents harassed
by bill collectors jumped to 16 percent, from 12
percent in 1991. That's despite a 1996 law, the Fair
Debt Collection Practices Act, designed to curb such
abuses. The greater harassment is "entirely a function
of higher overall debt," says Smith.

In other personal finance categories, the number of
people who reported going without health insurance
rose to 18 percent, from 12 percent in 1991.
Respondents also experienced more hunger,
homelessness, evictions, utility shut-offs, and
transportation difficulties, although the rise in such
problems was smaller.

Who suffers most? Single parents, the unemployed,
people with low incomes, minorities, central-city
residents, and younger people, according to the study.
And adversity tends to beget adversity. "If you're
high in financial problems, you tend to be high in
job-related problems, and family and personal
relationship problems -- because it tends to have a
ripple effect," says Smith. "Financial problems in
general also correlate with health problems."

Money Buys Happiness -- to a Point

The study found that troubles decline as income
quartiles rise. So does money buy happiness? Smith
puts it a different way: "Money makes you happier --
as long as it keeps you from being poor."

[...]

http://finance.yahoo.com/columnist/article/moneyhappy/2306