Knowledge Marketplace
My First Million

My First Million

The best business ideas come from noticing what's working and doing it better, faster, or for a different audience.

Back to Takes

The '$70k happiness threshold' research is completely wrong - money continues to improve life well beyond that level through service purchasing

Spiciness
Personal Finance Philosophy

The Reasoning

Money allows you to eliminate tasks you hate (cleaning, administrative work) and optimize for tasks you enjoy, creating significant quality of life improvements at much higher income levels

What Needs to Be True

  • People have tasks they genuinely dislike doing
  • Service providers can effectively handle these tasks
  • Time freed up gets used for more enjoyable activities
  • Services scale reasonably with income levels

Counterargument

Beyond basic needs, additional income may have diminishing returns on core happiness measures

What Would Change This View

Longitudinal studies showing no life satisfaction improvement from service purchasing at higher income levels

Implications for Builders

Service businesses targeting higher-income individuals are valuable

Products that save time rather than money may command premium pricing

Focus on solving annoying tasks rather than just optimizing existing processes

Example Application

Build premium services targeting successful professionals who value time over money - house cleaning, meal prep, administrative assistance.