Saturday's column:

One benefit of living in a rich country is that we can pay psychologists and professors to explain why wealth doesn't make us very happy.

It's true. Researchers have found that, once people can meet basic needs, psychological dividends from additional money steadily decrease. Making $100,000 does not make you twice as happy as $50,000.

So why does losing money, and the prospect of losing money, make us so miserable?

The short answer is that it doesn't have to. If you think about money in the context of what economics says about true fulfillment, having less of it shouldn't be quite so painful.

With our retirement savings cut in half, vacation plans scrapped, car purchases postponed and debt up to our nostrils, let us hearken to the good news of happiness research.

Read the whole thing.