I was listening to some music on my phone, when a certain song came up that made me start to think. Buy Me A Boat, by Chris Janson, has lyrics that say, “money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy me a boat.” I found this quite humorous and began to think about the cliché saying that money can’t buy happiness.
If you just think about it, generally speaking people that have higher incomes do not have to struggle to get by in life so they are most likely happier. According to the Wall Street Journal, money cannot alone make a persons life better, but what truly matters is what that person does with that money (Wall Street Journal). Those who give back, or make donations are more likely to feel better about themselves and in turn be happier. Another study done by Stanford Graduate School of Business shows that the most satisfying way to spend one’s money is by investing it into others, and those who give away one dollar have been proven to feel better about themselves. In this same article, it says that spending even just a little money will help improve our well-being and even our lives.
A Time article says that there are five ways that money can in fact buy happiness; “Buy moments not stuff, Spend on others, Buy small splurges, Buy what you like, and Spend with others” (Time). The article goes on to describe each one and says that you have to spend your money wisely if you want to be happy. The researchers say that you should spend your money on experiences and not items because they will create memories that will last forever. Adding to this, buying gifts for others or giving back will make you feel good about yourself, so the more money you have, the more you are able to give away. Another way to use your money is by spending it to do activities with your friends and family, which will also create lasting memories (Time).
As US News puts it, “Money can’t buy you happiness, goes the generally accepted wisdom that was probably made up by someone poor, who wanted to bring his rich friends down a few notches.” This statement is not entirely true but it does back up the side saying that rich people can buy a few things that will make them happy. So in the end, money can only bring people happiness if they do the right thing with it. If they give back and use their money to make memories with the people that mean the most to them, yes, they will most likely be happy.
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I think this question is really depend on who people define “Happiness”. For example ,for an tramp, a cup of free coffee at Starbuck may be consider “Happiness”, for a newly married couple having a baby may consider “Happiness”, so money can buy happiness because Happiness my be really simple for some people and money cannot buy happiness because to someone on the way of pursuing money, they have already loss to much that they can not sense happiness anymore.
I really loved your blog and I can agree with you that money buys happiness if you spend it in the right way. People need to realize that it is not always necessarily how much money you have but more importantly what you do with it. The line that stood out to me the most was that “researchers say that you should spend your money on experiences and not items because they will create memories that will last forever”. Your post brought up some really great points and you did a really great job discussing a commonly asked question among individuals today.
Hello, I really appreciate this piece of blog. I think it mentioned a part that money can actually buy happiness if we use our money correctly and wisely. I strongly agree the concept that we can consume to make others feel happier that eventually make us happier with money. This can be counted as that money can only buy happiness of others but it will bring happiness in this process. We need happiness in our real life but not gathering wealth greedily and finally we can reach our real happiness, not by money, but by hearts.
I totally agree with you that money can buy you happiness if you spend it on things that can make memories. I definitely feel that some people waste their money or have too much money and are just not happy people. That makes me sad that some people think that the only way they can be happy is if they have a lot of money. I loved how you said that money can buy people happiness if they do the right thing with it. I 100% am in agreement with that statement, and hope others realize that as well!