A sur­vey by Marist Col­lege found that money is, after all, a crit­i­cal fac­tor in per­sonal sat­is­fac­tion with life. In a sur­vey con­ducted for Home Instead Senior Care by the Marist Insti­tute for Pub­lic Opin­ion, researchers found the gen­eral cut-off point for hap­pi­ness involved a house­hold income of $50,000. That means, essen­tially, that 93 mil­lion house­holds in the coun­try fall below the thresh­old for gen­eral hap­pi­ness, which was based, in the sur­vey, on 10 “indi­ca­tors of sat­is­fac­tion,” includ­ing fam­ily, neigh­bor­hood safety, hous­ing, spir­i­tual life, health, social life, recre­ation, com­mu­nity involve­ment, finances and work.