That's what it boils down to I guess (er, no pun intended). Disposable income, quality of life etc Do you earn more than you need to pay out. Dickens had it right.
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six , result happiness.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery”
Although what he missed out, is that (in the first scenario) if your income rises to 21 pounds, although it's really only gone up by five percent, your disposable income has (more than) doubled.