This paper explores the components of subjective well-being (SWB) by examining various aspects of life, such as health, financial situation, job, leisure, housing, and environment. The authors propose a two-layer model where individual SWB is influenced by domain satisfactions, which are further broken down into long-term and short-term effects. The model is estimated using a large German panel dataset from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) for the period 1992-1997. The study finds that general satisfaction is composed of various domain satisfactions, with finance, health, and job satisfaction being the most significant determinants. Leisure satisfaction ranks next, followed by housing and environment satisfaction. The results also show that the shock effects of health satisfaction are larger than those of financial and job satisfaction, except for Eastern workers. Additionally, the model accounts for individual random effects and time fixed effects, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing SWB. The paper concludes that the assumption of interpersonal ordinal comparability of satisfactions is valid, and that objective measurable variables can explain domain satisfactions to a large extent. The findings have implications for the evaluation and design of socio-economic policies and for understanding the composite construction of individual well-being and preferences.This paper explores the components of subjective well-being (SWB) by examining various aspects of life, such as health, financial situation, job, leisure, housing, and environment. The authors propose a two-layer model where individual SWB is influenced by domain satisfactions, which are further broken down into long-term and short-term effects. The model is estimated using a large German panel dataset from the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) for the period 1992-1997. The study finds that general satisfaction is composed of various domain satisfactions, with finance, health, and job satisfaction being the most significant determinants. Leisure satisfaction ranks next, followed by housing and environment satisfaction. The results also show that the shock effects of health satisfaction are larger than those of financial and job satisfaction, except for Eastern workers. Additionally, the model accounts for individual random effects and time fixed effects, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing SWB. The paper concludes that the assumption of interpersonal ordinal comparability of satisfactions is valid, and that objective measurable variables can explain domain satisfactions to a large extent. The findings have implications for the evaluation and design of socio-economic policies and for understanding the composite construction of individual well-being and preferences.