--- title: Longevity Secrets: Money Could Be the Key to Longer Life description: Is being rich a one way to ensure a long life? According to the latest study, yes canonical: https://time.com/4287498/money-does-help-you-live-longer/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-11T13:42:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:06:15.096Z article:section: Health og:title: Money Does Help You Live Longer og:description: Is being rich a one way to ensure a long life? According to the latest study, yes og:url: https://time.com/4287498/money-does-help-you-live-longer/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3689492e7df0dd01/69888e662dce01dfe99e892b/gettyimages-135541556.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5019 og:image:height: 2823 og:image:alt: 135541556 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Money Does Help You Live Longer twitter:description: Is being rich a one way to ensure a long life? According to the latest study, yes twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3689492e7df0dd01/69888e662dce01dfe99e892b/gettyimages-135541556.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Life Expectancy Varies Based on Your Income > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=b9501cc8-028b-4ccc-befa-98cf3add4bc4&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: How to Maximize Happiness With Your Spending: An Economist Explains [Watch (HLS stream): How to Maximize Happiness With Your Spending: An Economist Explains](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Ypg3UoAM.m3u8) (1:29)  _Published 2014-06-09. University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers explains how best to spend your money to maximize happiness._  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Apr 11, 2016 1:42 PM UTC  Detail of a senior woman holding US banknotes Detail of a senior woman holding US banknotes Jonathan Gelber—Getty Images/fStop  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Apr 11, 2016 1:42 PM UTC Money may not buy you happiness (or love) but it might just buy you more time to find them. In the most comprehensive look at life expectancy and income—based on tax returns filed by every American from 1999 to 2014—Raj Chetty, professor of economics at Stanford University, and his colleagues report in _JAMA_ that with more income, people tend to live longer. Some experts had expected that at some point, the relationship would level off so that making more wouldn’t provide any added years, but Chetty’s study showed otherwise. While the amount of added life started to shrink as incomes grew, more money essentially lead to more years of life. Overall, people with the top 1% in income lived nearly 15 years longer than those at the bottom 1%. At the other end of spectrum, lower income was associated with shorter life spans, with no plateau. That suggests that life spans can’t necessarily be traced to something that people are buying to stay alive longer — such as better health care or state-of-the-art drugs. Yes, medical care is important for longevity, but what’s more important, according to this data, are behaviors that can affect health. **MORE:** [Read more secrets of Longevity from TIME’s recent special issue](http://time.com/tag/longevity/) The data also showed interesting differences in life expectancies among those with lower incomes depending on where in the U.S. they lived. While previous studies found that people in urban areas tended to have shorter life spans compared to those living in certain suburban and rural areas, presumably because of the higher cost of living in cities and the added stress of being in a densely populated area, Chetty found the opposite to be true. In fact, lower income people living in cities like New York and San Francisco enjoyed longer life expectancies than those living in Detroit or Tulsa. While it’s not clear why, Chetty suspects that there is a trickle-down effect in certain cities where public health efforts to improve living conditions, enforce policies like smoking bans and removal of unhealthy ingredients like trans fats benefit people at all income levels. People with lower incomes in cities with such policies tended to be less obese, smoke less and have better health behaviors than people in other cities that didn’t advocate for such health-promoting behaviors. “Inequalities in life expectancy across areas are more likely explained by different behaviors rather than access to life-saving medical care,” says Chetty. **MORE:** [The Strange Connection Between Saunas and Longevity](http://time.com/3719354/sauna-live-longer/) By analyzing data at the local level, he was able to discern differences in life expectancy that national level data don’t pull out. And that’s important for understanding how public health officials can start to bring some of the benefits to people in other income brackets as well. “The big picture message is that there is a lot of talk about inequality at a national level, but this paper shows that in the context of health, for one of the most important outcomes, life expectancy, the debate should be a local one,” says Chetty. ## Transcript Other ways you can better use your money to get more happiness bang for your buck. The research seems to suggest there are ways in which you can. The first would be to say, focus on experiences rather than goods. Right now you might covet a new car, and you might think that one of your next get to sit in a fancy new sports car, that you'll be so much happier. The truth is you'll be sitting in traffic. You'll be thinking about the day you just had at work. We think about other things and the fact that you're in a shiny new car won't be that salient you won't get that much joy out of it. Think instead about a, a great vacation. You can probably remember the last great great vacation you had. And you can still enjoy dining out on those memories. And that's the sensing in which it makes sense to focus on spending. On experiences rather than things. And then there are actually techniques we can use to do a even better job of that. I remember when I went to the World Series. I didn't just go to the World Series. I bought a, a baseball cap, that always reminds me of the fact that I went to the World Series with my stepfather. That elongates the experience. Like I get to relive having been at the World Series many, many more times. And then there's research from Mike Norton at Harvard who says that, giving money can actually yield greater happiness. And it's an instinct that's within many of us. And I, the way I interpret Mike's research is don't let the inner, inner economist or the inner Grinch within you squash that impulse. Because it's one that can also serve you well in terms of your well being. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4287498/money-does-help-you-live-longer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4287498/money-does-help-you-live-longer/"},"headline":"Life Expectancy Varies Based on Your Income","datePublished":"2016-04-11T13:42:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:06:15.096Z","description":"Is being rich a one way to ensure a long life? 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