Ryan Daniel Moran (speaking in a short YouTube clip) argues that money is an excellent motivator up to roughly $400,000–$500,000 per year because it continues to produce lifestyle-driven dopamine rewards; beyond that range its motivating power shows diminishing returns and additional non-monetary motivators are needed to drive further growth.
Money is a very good motivator until you're making at least like $400,000 a year. And the reason is because there's a difference in lifestyle that happens. You're getting all kinds of dopamine clicks up to about 400 or 500,000 after that. It's not that it's not a motivating factor. It just has diminishing returns. So once you're at a certain lift off, there needs to be some other motivator to keep you hungry, to keep growing. But money is an awesome motivator.
