If the high cost of living has been getting you down, it turns out you're more than justified in feeling blue. According to a new study, happiness has a dollar figure attached, and (spoiler alert!) it's quite expensive here in Australia.
Researchers have calculated the exact amount of cash you need to be making to be happy while living in different places around the world, and Australia cracked the top three out of 164 nations. That's definitely not a list that we want to be ranking highly on.
Apparently, to be 100 per cent happy Down Under, you need to be making a grand total of $121,191 USD – which equates to about $190,819 AUD a year. A super-high figure that rules out most of us succeeding in the quest to buy happiness, considering the median annual income for Aussies is only $52,338 AUD.
There is a method behind the madness of this big figure. Currency exchange website S Money used information from a Purdue University study to find the price of happiness in locations across the globe. The study focused on the relationship between money and happiness, and concluded that a greater income generally improves people’s moods – but only to a certain point, which they refer to as 'income satiation'. Past this tipping point, the correlation between increased satisfaction and increased salary massively dwindles.
It also took data from a Gallup World Poll, which surveyed a representative sample of 1.7 million people worldwide. With this in mind, they calculated how much happiness costs in each place, taking into consideration specific factors like the purchasing power of each country's currency and the local cost of living.
Yep, cost of living in Sydney – ugh, housing in particular – is ridiculously high. And it's crucial to happiness that people have enough to live on. But we're not so sure the people with the $200K salaries are, across the board, the happiest people we know. Debatable, of course.
Luckily, we’re in the business of finding happiness-inducing stuff to do around Sydney even without big bucks. Start creating your budget-friendly bucket list with our guide to the best free things to do in Sydney. You can soak up the sunshine with a picnic in one of our glorious parks, head to the beach for a summery coastal walk, go for a dip in one of Sydney’s salty ocean pools, or get some culture at one of our city’s many free galleries and museums.
As a champion for good times, good food, and good drinks, we've also done the hard yards and rounded up the very best happy hour deals here in Sydney. You can snag $2 rock oysters and $10 Martinis at Jane; $5 gildas and $12 house cocktails at Gildas; $10 lobster rolls and Mini Martinis at Menzies Bar; plus a whole lot more, which you can check out over here.
Looking for cheap places to eat? You don’t have to splurge because we’ve got a list of affordable restaurants serving up dishes that rival anything you’d find in a fancy fine diner. From banh mi at Marrickville Pork Roll to tonkotsu ramen at Ryo’s Noodles, biang biang at Xi’an Eatery to vegan burgers at Mary’s CQ, you can eat for under $20 every night of the week.
If you’ve got a little dough in the bank, then we’ve got your back with these 25 fun yet cheap things to do in Sydney for $25 or less. Go stand-up paddle boarding, learn to rollerskate, go thrift shopping and end the night with a comedy show at the Laugh Inn.