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There is no correlation between the level of happiness in someone's life and the amount of money they make. The useful questions are what the money is for and whether it buys better friends, a better marriage, or a better relationship with your kids.
Dalio's own number was small. He needed to pay for the basics, and his kids could go to a good public school. He counted how many months, and then years, of living that way he could afford if everything shut down. That was freedom money, an easy number to reach, and much less than a million dollars at the time.
A lot of people stay stuck in a job they don't like with a boss they think is a jerk, because they don't realize there are multiple possibilities. A clever person who tries can find many ways to a happy life, and a lot of money is not an important part of that. Success is knowing your nature and finding the best path through it, so that you can look back and say that was the life you wanted.
Why doesn't more money keep making us happier?
Psychologists Philip Brickman and Donald Campbell described the hedonic treadmill in 1971: people adjust to improved circumstances and return to their earlier baseline of happiness. A 1978 study by Brickman, Coates, and Janoff-Bulman compared lottery winners with a control group and found winners were not notably happier. The research points to adaptation as one reason that rising income does not translate directly into rising satisfaction.
Why do people stay in jobs they dislike?
Economists William Samuelson and Richard Zeckhauser described status quo bias in a 1988 paper. They found that people tend to stick with their current option even when switching would be as good or better. The existing choice feels like a baseline, and a change feels like a loss.
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