In this paper subjective well-being measured by survey questions on life and material
satisfaction is investigated. Our context is Hungary, between 2000 and 2002. We identify
some basic variables that have important effect on how individuals perceive well-being in
competitive pressure situation, namely, relative income mobility, subjective mobility, relative
income position and subjective wealth position. We find that perception of changes in the
relative income, wealth, and labour market positions, and the future prospects of these
variables effect strongly on subjective well-being. Analysing the deviation between the
objective and subjective trends of these variables and the reactions of households under these
influences, we find that the objective trends of income and income mobility are very
important with respect to satisfaction, but how people perceive their past relative income and
income mobility, and their prospect of upward mobility in the future are what really
determine satisfaction. The majority of respondents underestimate the real size of changes in
their past financial positions, and the uncertainty of the competitive pressure situation is
what really leads to this underestimation.