The accepted view among psychologists and, increasingly, economists is that household
income has statistically significant but only small effects on measures of subjective wellbeing.
Income, however, is clearly an imperfect measure of the economic circumstances of
households. Using data drawn from the 2002 wave of the Household, Income and Labour
Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey, this paper demonstrates that wealth, which can be
viewed as providing a degree of economic security, is at least as important to well-being and
ill-being as income.