So maybe money does make you happier?

Try contentedness instead.... you'll be happier and more contented.

Sorry, it's spelling... but this minor spelling difference has a very different meaning!

 

Try contentedness or contentment instead.... you'll be happier and more contented.

Sorry, it's spelling... I didn't want to be a spelling Nazi but this minor spelling difference has a very different meaning! So much so it basically means the exact opposite....

 

Money itself doesn't make you happier. It's not like rich people fill their bath tub with $100 notes and roll in it! However, having the resources (funds) to pursue your interests and goals provides the feeling of well-being we all strive for.
I have noticed though, too regularly, people who come by money easily, often squander it and lament their actions; easy come, easy go I suppose. Whereas those who have attained wealth through effort are far more protective of it.

 

Money simply brings forward decisions you would have made anyway. Whether those are good or bad decisions will determine your happiness.

 

For me, having money means being able to make choices. And the strange thing is that now I can, if I chose, have xxxx, the desire to have it is so much less.

 

My attitude is summed up in the first 4 lines of Queen's song - I want it all and I want it now!

 

Money can buy happiness.... if you let it.

 

When I hear friends or colleagues say "money just isn't important to me".

I'm like "dude, 5-6 days a week you wake up at 5am every morning to get ready for a job you don't enjoy, what are you on and on about".

I see having your finances in order is the same as eating healthy and having a solid family life. Yes you can go through life without it, it's just not as fulfilling.

 

you bet your arse it is.

and i give you another qoute to add to your repertoire

Money is not everything.... but without money you are nothing !.

very derogatory.. but somewhat true in modern day society

 

I,d rather be rich and miserable than poor and miserable, if that was the choice.

 

money can give more choices,

difficult to be happy if one has no choice,

choices can let one get away from pain & suffering ( to some extent)

if one doesn't need to worry about money, won't he feel relieved?

 

I may have to disagree on that one.
Research has shown, too much choice actually increases anxiety.

Happiness generally is gauged by the gap between expectation vs reality.
If you see many choices, a, b, c, d.
You don't simply choose a against b, or c, or d.
You choose a against b+c+d.
So decrease in satisfaction even after choosing.

It's like the story of the farmer that receives 99 gold coins. He becomes eternally anxious, that he will 1. loose his 99 pieces of gold, and 2. he is perplexed as to how to get to the 100th piece of gold.

The Paradox of Choice - Wikipedia

Like me now. I can easily afford a PPOR in Blacktown.
Now if I could only afford to live in Blacktown. I'd be happy enough to settle down there.
However I can ALMOST afford say, Neutral Bay.
Now I'm not particularly happy with living in Blacktown anymore. Hell, not even too happy if I end up in Parramatta. Yet I can't quite afford Neutral Bay. If only I had that little bit more...

 

Agreed - simple example. Go to a restaurant that has loads of choices, makes it so hard to decide what you actually want. Have a 5 items on the menu, decision is simple and less stressful.

 

Some people are always going to be anxious regardless of number of choices.

Others are far more decisive and have no difficulty choosing between 5 options or 55.

And some people are never happy, always wanting more, even when they have more than enough. They move into their dream home, then very soon start looking for something they perceive to be better.

As far as I am concerned, the more choices the better.
Marg

 

I think Eric's comment was referring to how money could perhaps help lessen or eradicate suffering caused by sickness for example. Where, money (provides choice) could help with medication/treatment.

If someone was sick & there was a treatment, they probably wouldn't have 'anxiety' about choosing which choice to go with (treatment & health restored or nothing & continued suffering) provided they had the money to pay for it. Point being that money has given them choice that they would otherwise not have had.

 

Well said!
Amazing post that describes something that has happened to me recently.

I wanted to travel the world all over. Mainly because "everyone else" was doing it and I wasn't.
Did 3 OS trips and have been looking to plan others, but really, now we have consolidated and moving into the early stages of "retirement" Im quite happy to stay home and just chill in the very nice place we have secured for ourselves on the NSW mid north coast.
Must do the UK & Ireland and a couple spots around the Mediterranean, but after that Im happy to stay in Oz. Ive lost that burning desire to travel extensively.

Mind you, Ive been all over the globe...........via Google Maps ! Such a brilliant tool but I know there will be others who will say (my wife 1st) that travel without knowing too much in advance is better. I disagree. Especially when it comes to being able to drive in a foreign country on limited time and know where you are going!

Anyway, money does give you more choice but you only need one choice in the end and that is to be truly happy with life every minute possible.

 

I think a certain amount of money makes you happy and any extra makes no difference. But in truth working up to your first target ie 1, 10 or 50 million is much more fun than the day to day management after you have achieved your financial success.

 

All I can say is that I know people who are in their 50's, 60's who are struggling big time just to stay a float with no prospects of ever retiring with anything and that is a rotten thing especially if they also have health issues.
I know people who are in their 70's who have to keep working because the pension is not enough to pay the bills. Lot of these people also are stuck in the means testing system where if they work too much they lose their pension, so it's not ideal.
I think that's why its important to advise young people in their late teens and early 20's to start investing and lestning all about financial literacy, something that our state high schools and universities either don't teach or in fact teach against it.

 

I have heard once that money will make you 'more off' the person you are. So if you are generous you will be more generous, if you a bad it can make you worse....so if you do good deeds with little money you will do more deeds with more money, if you were corrupt you may be more corrupt.
Interesting food for thought....I really liked that explanation, so you become MORE of WHAT you already are!

 

I think I can give some insightful advice because when I turned 30 I came into a fair bit of money. I got a mid six figure sum from a successful investment which I cashed out, and I also just about doubled my income by going from a wage-earner to a small business owner. (No, it wasn't Herbalife and I'm not here to sell you anything.) If anything, I found that the money made me less happy. This is what I found:

1. I became very defensive about my money. Previously I was just on the 37% tax bracket. Now I was on the 47.5% tax bracket. I felt resentful about that. I resented paying tax on my investment windfall.

2. I started focussing on money to the detriment of my work/life balance. Possibly this is due to the nature of being self-employed, I don't know. When you're an employee, your wage is more or less fixed so you never work your hardest. You take sick days, you do work half-arsed. Even if you don't think you do, you do; you're not living and breathing your work. But now as a business owner, I started treating money as a game, setting myself targets. Dollars became just figures, like mining resources in Age of Empires. That sort of disassociation is probably not healthy.

3. I got a lot more disconnected from others, I think because there was a divide that opened up and I found it a lot harder to empathise.

Maybe these are all just character weaknesses. All I know is that I found money did not make me happy. I still chase money, because I want to retire early, but I've been working with a counsellor to try to moderate things and re-learn how to be satisfied with what I have.