The Correlation Between Money and Happiness?
Jul 11th, 2007 by Jennifer Lynn
Millionaire Mommy Next Door poses an excellent question of Can Money Make You Happy? on her personal blog today. Here is my response to her.
Hi Mommy Millionaire!
There can be a deep correlation between happiness and money. Money has the potential to make us happy through the freedom it provides. It can extend our impact on a grander scale through providing both necessary leisure and adequate resources at our disposal.
There are also many abstract ideals money can’t buy (love, spirituality and contentment, for example)
It’s certainly an interesting topic. Being from a lower middle class family, my lack of income has helped me appreciate money more intensely. And I can see myself still finding happiness here, even now at rock bottom.
If I can find peace and contentment with so little, the more I gain through wise decisions and planning will add another zestful layer into my meager life.
In conclusion, is it easier to find happiness with money? Absolutely! Is money absolutely necessary for happiness?
No, I believe it truly isn’t.
Be sure to nip over to Millionaire Mommy to offer your opinion.
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Obtaining Happiness Through Freedom
In contemporary consumerist society, it’s far too easy to unknowingly become swept up and become a slave chained to persistent debt. Freedom unexpectedly becomes squashed when we’re continually forced to stack personal desires on the back burner in order to pay the incoming bills for next month. And for many Americans, those bills containing their debt can feel excruciatingly overwhelming.
So where have so many gone wrong? Is the problem with society or with ourselves? More importantly, where has our personal happiness vanished to?
Accepting Responsibility Through Conscious Spending
It’s crucial for each of us to approach this question with an honest assessment of our personal financial spending. Perhaps asking yourself some of the following questions might help.
Can you really afford the lifestyle you’re trying (or struggling) to maintain? How many of your daily purchases are completely necessary? To what depth and enjoyment does each purchase amplify your life, to enhance and help you grow as an individual? Will your purchases appreciate over time - or depreciate?
Are you, in fact, spending as consciously as you should be?
Learning Contentment for What You Have
The biggest danger with accumulating items (what I also lovingly refer to as ’stuff’) is that often, it doesn’t end after one purchase. When we become ensnared to a consumerist mode of thought, it helps perpetuate a vicious cycle of never feeling adequately satiated (aka, the ‘never having enough’ syndrome).
Where is the line drawn of what’s in fact enough ‘stuff’ to keep us happy?
Finding Balance With What You Enjoy While Avoiding Debt
Individuals who comfortably afford luxuries by paying cash and avoid making purchases with future earnings, are situated on one end of the spectrum. May we all be so lucky and wise to be in a similar situation one day, with a surplus of wealth!
However, those remaining individuals who choose to hand their freedom over to debt in order to maintain a standard of living well above their means are in a critical bind. They are selling their freedom to rent a lifestyle they simply can’t afford, and it’s a heavy price to pay.
Is accumulating all this ’stuff’ worth enslaving yourself to debt? Does your debt justify giving up personal freedom for? Ultimately, will you be happy?
~†~ Baby Steps Are Key ~†~ Eradicate unnecessary clutter and stop further debt to help bring peace of mind – as well as your own slice of freedom and contentment
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Here are some intriguing articles I’ve been reading:
Ramit Sethi at I Will Teach You To Be Rich encourages his readers to sound off their own stories – and many of their experiences on debt are shocking.
Greg Rodgers re-evaluates his own happiness as he plots an escape from cubicle hell, in The Journey Begins With A Single Step (an account that resonated so strongly within, it actually moved me to tears)
=^..^=
I think money can bring you temporary happiness. I mean when I have money I am more happier or content than when I am scratching at the bottom of the wallet or not eating for a few days trying to save a dime here and there.
This past month has been a bit rough because I moved into a new place, and just before I moved I went for a weekend trip that cost me a bit more than I originally worked out. Though if I give it few more weeks I should be back to where I should be comfortable and my mood will definitely be better
Excellent post, Jennifer! I couldn’t agree with you more.
One’s financial journey should NOT be all about sacrificing today’s happiness for tomorrow’s potential. It’s a balancing act.
Personally, I’ve always chosen to spend my money, energy and time not on things (”stuff”), but rather on experiences, freedom, and spending time with those that I love most. Consuming “stuff” costs way more than just money– think repairs; maintenance; storage; cleaning; our environment.
My money spending choices contribute to my overall happiness because I’m conscious about my values. (I’m working on a post about this!)
Thanks for your thoughtful response to my question.
~Millionaire Mommy Next Door
I am walking proof that you can have happiness without tons of money. I mean, I am not completely bust. I don’t have extra though. I am consistently happy.
Oh….I think smiles bring happiness. LOL….
As usual you’ve chosen to highlight a very important topic–obviously money can’t “buy” happiness. If you’re a miserable person when you’re poor no amount of money can change that. Conversely, if you’re an intrinsically happy person your financial situation can ebb and flow and you’ll most likely still be a happy person. Beyond that simplistic concept, however, there’s a few things to consider:
money as a tangible measure of success: In many professions and for many people money at least to some extent can be seen as a measure of their satisfaction with and performance in their chosen profession. It’s not the *only* measure but it can be an important metric. If I’m a hedge fund manager, for example, the bottom line of my job is making more money for my clients. I may enjoy the challenge of doing it and derive professional satisfaction in other ways but there’s no escaping that in this profession money = success.
A couple of other examples–say I own a retail store. I love cigars so, for the sake of this example, we’ll say its a cigar store. Part of running a good cigar store is having a product mix that your customers like and creating an environment that people want to hang out and smoke cigars in. If I do a good job at my product mix and running my store, I’ll make more money.
There’s plenty of other examples, but money in this context is simply a way of “keeping score”. But it can still translate into a net gain or loss in happiness–if I own a cigar store I’ll derive a lot of satisfaction from doing it well as opposed to doing it poorly. My sales volume is how I measure how well I’m serving my customers and if I do it well, I’ll make more money and I’ll experience more satisfaction from my job–ergo, a greater level of happiness.
I’ve got some more thoughts to add later….but I’ll leave you with a quote from former NBA hoop player Charles Barkley, who’s a quote machine:
“I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor. Rich is better”
–Charles Barkley
[…] The correlation between money and happiness @ Broke-Ass Student […]
Interesting comment.
Studies have shown that, as a socio-economic group, the Amish consistently rank high on surveys designed to measure “happiness”. Conclusions can be drawn from other studies which would indicate that once certain basic needs are met, additional money does not correlate to greater contentment.
So let me leave you with a quote from St. Francis of Assisi, “I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor. Poor is better.”
Hi Jennifer,
I’ve tagged you on my personal finance web site for a blogger meme project that’s weaving its way throughout the blogosphere. This project calls for sharing 8 personal facts about yourself, then tagging 8 other bloggers to do the same. Please look here for instructions: Fun & Frugal Friday http://millionairemommynextdoor.blogspot.com/2007/07/fun-frugal-friday.html
Thanks,
~Millionaire Mommy Next Door
Jennifer, as I was telling Millionaire Mommy, one of the secrets of Happiness I learnt from Andrew Matthews is to be happy where we are now.
Happiness should not be a goal, otherwise one is only setting him/herself up for misery. We should be happy first and by the law of attraction, we will attract more happiness into our lives =D
P.S. Keep up the great work with your blog. I can most certainly relate to what you are going through now.
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