Money represents the ability to meet your needs and the needs of those that rely on you. The lack of money or ability to meet the needs of yourself and your dependents is stressful. Of course money is linked to well-being, when stress is one of the biggest health and mental health contributors there are and one of the main things that aggravates pre-existing conditions. Pre-existing health and mental health conditions also lead to reduced income, which creates a sort of chicken and an egg situation, a feedback loop consisting of lack of money, stress, and health.
People talk about bettering your life, as if existing while poor isn't taxing and stressful without adding on yet another job, yet another responsibility, school or an internship, or even just learning new skills in your "spare time" between the obligations you must attend to just to meet the basics of shelter, food, and sleep.
I had a rough childhood, was very poor at points in my adolescence, and I do accumulate money, it represents safety, security, never going without. I have a threshold balance I will never go below, the number that represents never being in a bad financial situation again should all my income dry up immediately.
Many studies have shown that there is a happiness plateau around $60k (USD), in my personal experience this has held true. At $60k, I could afford all of our needs, (health care, housing, food, utilities, transportation) and most of our wants. Having that behind me, I still don't spend much more than that on our family annually, except in the case of extraordinary expenses and donating.
This magic number varies in many areas based on the cost of living.
I can buy more stuff, more expensive stuff, replace stuff that still works, but there isn't much that can be bought that further enriches our lives.
IMO, UBI is crucial to people reducing their stress enough to even think about bettering their lives. In my case, it came in the form of a scholarship that covered what I needed it to.
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