The old expression goes, “Money can’t buy happiness but I’d rather cry in a Mercedes,” and that is a valid argument but can your happiness be bought? To some, money is life’s greatest treasure and to others, happiness is the best treasure. Our generation has this idea that if we aren’t millionaire stockbrokers on Wall Street like Jordan Belfort, we didn’t have a successful life. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with having that kind of drive when looking for a job in this economy but if you work that long and that hard to achieve the financial success of your dreams there is a good chance you didn’t do anything to make yourself happy along the way.
According to Andrew Blackman of the Wall Street Journal, results of resear
ch done over years and years suggests, “people with higher incomes are, broadly speaking, happier than those who struggle to get by.” Obviously someone who doesn’t have to live paycheck-to-paycheck will be happier in life but that doesn’t mean that they are necessarily “happy with their life” their life is just easier than most. For example: in most movies involving a wealthy family, the father is never around to see his children and the mother is either shopping or laying by the pool where she “shouldn’t be disturbed.” Granted, they live in a huge mansion and vacation to Europe 6 times a year, but they are not a happy family.
In an interview with Susie Poppick of time.com, economist Justin Wolfers concluded after research on the issue that, “the relationship between income and happiness is extremely strong. When I say rich countries are happier than poor countries, I don’t know whether it’s the greater money that makes the average American happy or whether it’s the greater opportunities.” Wolfers’ argument is that greater income leads to greater opportunities which could possibly lead us to a happier life. The problem with answering the question, “can money buy happiness?” is that everyone’s definition of a happy life varies. There is no correct answer to the question, it must be answered by each and everyone of us if having more money makes us happier.
Money is coveted by everyone and having a lot of it is extremely nice, but on your journey to financial success make sure you don’t lose sight of the things that make you happy because once you achieve your goal you could be left alone with all that money and no one to spend it with.
Sources:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/can-money-buy-happiness-heres-what-science-has-to-say-1415569538
http://time.com/money/2802147/does-money-buy-happiness/
My opinion on this matter is as follows: to be happy, you have to be happy with who you are. That is something that is intrinsic and totally up to you. To be very happy, I think you need to make a positive impact on many people’s lives. You will feel fulfilled by doing that. To be able to reach the masses of people and help them you need to have influence. Influence comes from high positions in communities, businesses, and government. Those positions are often high paying. So money does not buy happiness. But I think it is something that comes along the ride for happiness
This is a really good article. There is no real answer to the question, which made me think alot. I actually do think that money can buy you happiness but that doesn’t mean being a millionaire or anything like that. I think living a comfortable life style for that individual will make them happy because they won’t have as much limitations to do what they want or need to do. Pretty much everything we do involves money. Whether its going on vacation, going to a movie or going shopping for an item that you desperately want. These things can all bring someone happiness. I know that personally these things bring happiness but then again everyone has a different version of their ideal happiness.
Great blog! It really got me thinking. Here’s what I came up with: If someone killed my wife and I want to pressed charges on the murderer, but instead the murderer offers me $10 million to drop the charges so I accept. There is no way that the $10 million will love me unconditionally like my wife would have or better yet, that $10 million will never bring back what made me so happy.
This is a very interesting issue, especially in American society. There is so much emphasis on money, and I do think it really comes down to the person. Maybe you aren’t “buying happiness” per say, but what you do with your money is allowing for more opportunities of happiness. For example, if you get to take two vacations a year with your entire family, and you all just talk, hang out, laugh and overall just bond the entire time, you didn’t buy the happiness your family is giving you, you just paid for the opportunity. Other people might see that as a negative example though. I guess like beauty, happiness is also in the eye of the beholder.
This question has always been very interesting to me as my mom use to always say sometimes having too much money isn’t good. Based on the articles that I have researched, they say it depends based on the attitude you have when you increase in income. If you see yourself as successful with an increase in income and are more optimistic, you will be happier. If you decide that it isn’t good enough and you keep craving more, the raise in money is not true happiness.
I personally believe that money can’t buy happiness! However, I do agree that it varies with each person and his or her economic situation. I thought this was a very interesting article and it really made me think. I like how you compared the correlation between money and happiness with other countries. I also liked how you mentioned that movies often reflect the unhappiness of rich children. Overall, this was a great blog and I really enjoyed it!
I’ve always found this to be a question worth pondering and I came to two different conclusions. The first was instead of looking at money to buy you happiness it has more to do with providing someone an avenue to freedom. Working hard and climbing to the top can provide you the accessibility to buy the things you want or go where you want to go if so desired by that individual and less to do with the excessiveness of the luxuries we can obtain. My second observation came when I was living with a family in Denmark who lived a more simplistic lifestyle then I was used to, but yet were some of the happiest people I’ve ever come across. There emphasis on being with the friends and family they loved brought them more joy then any materialistic possession could and a dose of being outside in the sun a few hours a day to play or eat a snack was more rewarding to them too. I agree that everybody’s definition of happiness varies, but I think it’s important to note that if financially things aren’t going your way, fall back on what you do have and enjoy the little things life has to offer as your ultimate eternal source for happiness.