what is quality of life 
quality of life is a highly subjective measure of happiness that is an essential component of many financial decisions factors that play a role in the quality of life vary according to personal preferences but often include financial security as well as job satisfaction family life social connections health and safety financial decisions often involve a tradeoff in which present quality of life is decreased to save money or earn more money for the future understanding quality of lifequality of life is strongly associated with financial factors beyond the basic necessities of food and shelter more money often means access to greater comfort freedom from many anxieties and an optimistic outlook for the future inevitably job satisfaction is a key component of quality of life for many of us it determines our degree of satisfaction with half of our waking hours add in the importance of a paycheck and it affects many other aspects of our lives if a job provides time to enjoy life but leaves the worker too tired injured stressed out or otherwise unable to enjoy their earnings it subtracts from quality of life today it is common to weigh both salary and quality of life when considering how good or bad a job is quality of life is also an issue when developing a personal savings plan in this case the tradeoff involves sacrificing current quality of life to improve future quality of life this may include postponing luxuries and leisure activities that improve our overall sense of well being quality of life factorscommuting to work is a good quality of life example it is often possible to save money on housing by living farther away from work the trade off is less time to spend with family or hobbies and more time sitting in traffic or waiting for a train cheaper housing areas also tend to be located farther from art culture and entertainment some people consider this tradeoff worthwhile while others choose to maximize quality of life by living closer to a vibrant city center some jobs expose employees to potential hazards such as harmful chemicals heavy machinery high risks or physical strain the possibility of harm that could lessen their enjoyment of life is weighed against earning a higher salary for doing an unpleasant job hours spent at the job versus free time can be another measure of the quality of life professionals may choose to take high paying jobs that regularly require extended or late work hours to earn the income they desire this may include prolonged business travel while such choices can increase income it limits the hours available to enjoy it quality of life depends on the individual but access to good healthcare clean and safe housing healthy food and a living wage are near universal factors countries with the best quality of lifenorway denmark finland switzerland and the netherlands consistently rank in the world s top 10 countries in terms of quality of life or standing of living according to a 2024 world population review analysis of recent results from three sources 1in fact the top 10 list from numbeo one of the sources included nine european nations oman was number seven 2safety health care economic factors and education were commonly used factors in the reports the united states did not appear in the top 10 list of any of the three sources which included the united nations human development index and u s news world report as well as numbeo 