Abstract

Prior research has showed that the subjective perception of objective wealth might be affected by various individual difference variables, such as one’s love of money, level of desires, or materialistic inclinations. This paper examines an impact of attitudes towards money on the relation between personal net income and household income, and its subjective evaluation, measured as financial satisfaction and subjective economic well-being. The results of two studies revealed that the affective dimension of money attitudes partially mediated the relationship between income and financial satisfaction. Moreover, the instrumental dimension of attitude towards money moderated this relationship: The relationship between the two was stronger for individuals highly concentrated on money management than for those with low scores on this factor.