Studies have repeatedly suggested that the greatest predictors of happiness/wellbeing, content are health and relationships. Biologically it makes sense because apart from basic needs for nourishment and shelter, to live what is a good, productive(biologically) life is health and a being part of social groups, partnerships with other humans, that help you all thrive together and further the species.

Personally, for me, it certainly feels that way. I don't want children or marriage but the things that always mattered to me the most, from adolescence until today, at the age of soon to be 30, are connections, love, intimacy of all kinds, shared experiences ...and health. The lack of all those ,except for health, has made me terribly unfulfilled and unhappy despite living the middle class life.

Job titles, accomplishments, amassing fortunes, that all means nothing to me in terms of actual emotional satisfaction and joy and at the end of my life, even if I were to earn billions, fly into space, invent things and see the entire world, if I didn't get to have intimate, deep bonds and love and experiences with partners and friends, my life would have been wasted and unhappy. It has nothing to do with being grateful, it's just that things like work, money, careers, are what people are pretty much forced to get into because the structure of society requures you to earn money in order to be able to satisfy the most basic needs. So, think about it, how many of us would dream of putting all our time and effort into working and advancing in a work field if we didn't have to? It's a tool not a need in itself. At the core it's all about basic needs and social/emotional needs.

So, for me, it's love and connection. Then it would be seeing the world.

If we're talking in terms of essentials for living then ofc u have food, water, shelter and, thus, we all need funds for that.