This quantitative research is to investigate the relationship between debt obligation and subjective well-being. The data used in this analysis were from 3,289 people aged 15 years and over who were interviewed under the project, “The Well-being Indicator : Western Study in Thailand” conducted by the Institute for Population and Social Research (IPSR), Mahidol University in 2005. In this study, regression analyses were performed to identify the effects of debt obligation on the level of subjective well-being. Results show that 35.1 percent of people living in Kanchanaburi province were in debt. The Thai Government Village Fund was the main source of lending institution to these debtors. 43.8 percent of people who borrowed money from the Thai Government Village Fund used the loan for their spending on agricultural production. About 73.1 percent of these debtors reported that their debt obligations were a moderate to heavy burden to them. The study finds that the mean subjective happiness level among people in Kanchanaburi is 5.8 from the scale of 0 to 10 (10 = most happy) while the mean expected future happiness level is 7.2. Approximately 70.0 percent of the people interviewed reported that they expected to be happier in the future, which revealed their optimism towards their future well-being. Results from multiple regression analyses suggest that debt obligation has a negative effect on the subjective well-being. The study finds that the source of fund (formal or informal) does not have statistically significant effects on the happiness level, but the burden of debt has a statistically significant negative effect on happiness level. Specifically, having debt that was a heavy burden had significant negative effects on the happiness level while people who had debts that were not burdensome had a similar level of happiness to that of people who had no debt. Other factors found to have statistically significant effects on the happiness level include the level of education, income, the adequacy of earning, health status, home ownership, type of dwelling, dependency ratio, and social capital in the community.