How much money do you need to be happy?

wymondham

lostinrates wrote: »

But do they opt to give it all away and be poor?;)

oddly not! :rolleyes:

JayScottGreenspan

wymondham wrote: »

People who have lots of money usually say you don't need money to be happy!

True. A lack of it can guarantee misery, though.

I reckon the OP's roughly in the right ballpark. Above a certain level money will enable you to have more stuff, but it won't really make you happier. It'll just mean you have richer neighbours to try and keep up with.

Much better to appreciate what you've got and reject the 'greed is good' orthodoxy.

moggylover

mitchaa wrote: »

The same could be said about the houses that we buy, the clothes that we wear, the food that we eat and how big our living room TV's are.

It's exactly the same thing.

Why can't you have nice cars without people like yourself being jealous? What holes in any successful businessmans lifes need filling? What about the thousands of overpaid footballers, musicians and pop stars, in fact, anyone famous in the public eye having flashy motors.

Generally when i see a nice porsche or a ferrari drive past me, a touch of jealousy comes along, but then i think, they've done well, who am i too judge.

I would never look down on them, as that to me just shouts out jealousy.

Can't stand posh spice though, she is just truly pointless.

But you see mitchaa - I really am NOT jealous and I don't believe that anyone that feels "the need" for those sort of "things" in life will ever actually be able to understand that and that is why they need to shout "jealousy".

I pity those that "need" rubbish in their lives to feel happy or "successful" but I honestly do not envy them because I simply consider most of what they have of absolutely no value.

I don't choose my friends by the car they drive, or the house they live in, or the labels on their clothes: I choose them because they make me laugh, because I enjoy talking to them and because they are kind or because we share interests! Their car and their house and their possessions tell me none of that - but a ready smile and a kind word speaks much more than your thousands or anyone elses millions.;)

Grade_A_Reject

aldo wrote: »

Same goes to Footballers!
David Beckham, what's the point in it all??

There comes a point where wealth becomes just an academic figure. An individual can only eat so much food or sleep in so many houses or drive so many cars. After that the numbers are meaningless.

If all you're chasing is numbers then you'll never be happy. Happiness can never be found in a number.

Grade_A_Reject

Definitive answer is no money at all . Just a place to live with a comfortable bed to sleep in, friends and family and enough food to live on and never having to go to work or be answerable to anyone.

suebfg

Money doesn't make you happy and if you're driven by money you can never have enough. I've learnt over time that happiness comes with the simple things in life such as a cuddle from your child or a nice sunny day.

donaldtramp

I think the key in all this is learning to be happy with what you have and not chasing consumerist nonsense.

We are all to easily taken in by the "because you're worth it" adverts.
This is advertising agencies turning our wants into needs.
We all fall for it for some reason.

If you think about it,
we don't need that flat screen TV, throwing out a perfectly good set with all the associated environmental damage, waste and money burned.
we don't need that new car when our old one is perfectly fine and functioning.
we don't need this entire consumer culture that we try to keep up with.
Things are just things, pieces of metal, plastic and whatever else.

We are all trying to outdo each other and for what real reason?

One of my old bosses was a multimillionaire and I have never worked for (or in fact met) a more greedy, twisted, unhappy and grasping man in my life.
Yet this is what a lot of people strive for! It amazes me!

There are a lot of simple things we should be enjoying in our lifes, our families etc.
We are all going to end up in the same wooden box (my old boss might end up in a fancier box, but a box all the same;)) we might as well enjoy it while we're here!!

Grade_A_Reject

donaldtramp wrote: »

I think the key in all this is learning to be happy with what you have and not chasing consumerist nonsense.

We are all to easily taken in by the "because you're worth it" adverts.
This is advertising agencies turning our wants into needs.
We all fall for it for some reason.

If you think about it,
we don't need that flat screen TV, throwing out a perfectly good set with all the associated environmental damage, waste and money burned.
we don't need that new car when our old one is perfectly fine and functioning.
we don't need this entire consumer culture that we try to keep up with.
Things are just things, pieces of metal, plastic and whatever else.

We are all trying to outdo each other and for what real reason?

One of my old bosses was a multimillionaire and I have never worked for (or in fact met) a more greedy, twisted, unhappy and grasping man in my life.
Yet this is what a lot of people strive for! It amazes me!

There are a lot of simple things we should be enjoying in our lifes, our families etc.
We are all going to end up in the same wooden box (my old boss might end up in a fancier box, but a box all the same;)) we might as well enjoy it while we're here!!

Almost poetic. :rolleyes:

donaldtramp

I have had a couple of beers tonight!:rolleyes:

moggylover

lostinrates wrote: »

You have my sympthy, and indeed my empthy. For me, of course the pace of life has changed, but my beliefs haven't, my wants have altered little, but really, exopanded more than declined. In fact, perhaps they are more strongly held than ever. I always wanted to acheive, I always strive to be the best I can be, I always wanted to earn -sure, to have a nice life- but for me part of that nice life is living in a way I think is moral and 'right' for me, and those around me, and hopefully, a little further out still .

I pretty well never get of my hounding myself with ethics, but I have to say, and this is not directed personally at you, the thing I slightly resent is being told my ethics, my beliefs are less valid, less ethical than another persons*. I want to have lots to do lots with. Further more I want to be able to make CHOICE about my expenditure, not have a high wage that in 90% in tax and 10% about living costs. I want to be able to put the extra I have to causes I believe in, not only on ones funded through taxes: causes/spending that is state approved and signed off but that I disagree with. I'm happy for tax to go to these 'municiple causes', and would never seek to avoid them, but if I thought I could, earn and make a differenc ein a way that mattered and people who are well intentioned but looked one way only tried to stop me, well, that would pretty well destroy my happiness, which is what the question was about

* Edited to add: nor do I expect to impose, other than by way of choice at the ballot box, mine on others. Its my main issue with any high taxation political ethic. Its not that I think that what they might spend the money on isn't valid necessarily, but rather the choice is removed. Where as in a low taxation climate and lower funding, we can choose to, for example, commit 5% of our income to funding public health, or 5% gift to council for the purpose of road repair etc etc.

I am so sorry that you had such a rotten time, and really glad that you are coming through it and that your DH has been a rock! May you both grow together and never loose that something special.

I also have reason to be grateful for someone with money stepping in and sending me private for the diagnosis, not because it meant I could be cured but because I was being ignored by my own GP who was insistant that I was merely depressed and that everything else was just "in my head" - which it is, but not in the way that he meant:D . However, no amount of money would cure me - and all treatment since diagnosis has been free as the neurological problem from which I suffer is rare and I get my "treatment" in return for being both a guinea pig for possible treatments and also as a study of how the symptoms progress and what slows/improves them:o .

I think you and I think very much alike: but the theme of the OP was, I think, how much personal wealth one would need to be happy oneself, not how much one would like in order to make others happy.

I admit, that could I use it for others then I need an unlimited amount please:D . However, for me it would be a far better feeling if none of my charity were needed and everyone had a decent share of what is out there:o . That has gotten me accused of being holier than though in the past - but I am not trying to be and it really is how I feel and in fact pretty much always have done.

I don't think I have lost all my drive and motivation, but it has changed direction, quite possibly because at the time of diagnosis I had become a single mum to two small boys (they are only 13 and 11 now) and had to use what mobility I had and what "good" periods I had in order to look after them. TBH - enough money to pay for a housekeeper at that stage would have been nice, but had I had that I might have given up on finding ways to achieve simple tasks for myself again and thus my illness would have overtaken me more quickly.

It has certainly made me very aware that you really do need to stop and smell the roses along the way, as did the fact that my poor dad (who had worked all of his life from 14 to 65 including a stint in the RAF in WW2 and a stint in the Fire Service after) actually only got to enjoy 7 years of retirement before his death - which makes you think that there really does have to be more to life than work and the pursuit of money and possessions.