Does money = happiness?

OverRated

Money doesn't buy you happiness but will fly you there!

From my POV it doesn't directly equal happiness but can enable it. Equally if you use it poorly it can cause the opposite.

John1993_2

There are enough counter-examples that it's clear that money does not guarantee happiness, and that lack of it does not guarantees unhappiness.

I know that people struggling to eat are rarely going to be very happy, but once you are above that level, I've not noticed any systematic difference in happiness / contentment based on income or wealth.

I seem to remember that the research suggests that it's relative, not absolute wealth that has an effect. If you are bettr off than your neigbours then you tend to be more contented than if your income was doubled but you live in a street of millionaires.

sharp82

Pretty sure i'd be happy to win the lottery

Pennysmakepounds

sharp82 wrote: »

Pretty sure i'd be happy to win the lottery

Will you share it with me...Then we can BOTH be happy....:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Granariesgirl

Good thread, Deset!

Here's my opinion FWIW -

No!
Look at all those "poor little rich kids" shut up in their golden prisons,
Look at all those people so obsessed with making money that they neglect family & friends & die all alone.

But...
Money used wisely can help you & your loved ones obtain security, things or experiences that help find happiness.
Money used wisely can bring security, which relieves worry, which can help you find happiness.

What is sure is that lack of money in our money-centred world = unhappiness + insecurity!
:cool:

ilovelondontown

I'm nearing the end of paying off joint debt with my husband which was at the highest over £20k. We are now down to the last .... £5k and I already feel like life seems brighter.

I'm by no means feeling richer, but things that I used to worry about are no longer there. When bills come in I can pay them because we're not paying a debt.

In this journey I can truly say that I don't want money to lavish on "things" things do not make you happy.

Happiness is being able to keep a roof over your head and food on your table without worrying about being able to afford the unexpected.

You can't take it with you, so as long as I have enough to get from Monday to Sunday, you can keep the rest.

Pennysmakepounds

ilovelondontown wrote: »

You can't take it with you, so as long as I have enough to get from Monday to Sunday, you can keep the rest.

This is true…Money is a means to an end…

As the saying goes……’We came into this world Screaming and Crying with NOTHING….and we will leave this world Screaming and Crying with NOTHING…except the GOOD/BAD deeds we do here’…

This life is a journey….it has a beginning, a Middle and an End.

You can’t change the beginning and the end…they are FIXED…

It’s the bit in the middle, that is the interesting bit…..it’s filled with Choices and Decisions….some we have control over and some we don’t.

No-one chooses to be poor or be homeless…its forced on them…and they have to make the best of it.

Most humans in this world are always striving to achieve a better standard of life for them and their loved ones……Your parents did it for you and you do it for your children….and that's where the acquisition of wealth comes into it….because money makes this possible.....

Money is the end result of this constant battle to achieve a higher standard of life.

The problem that most human beings have is that no matter what we have we always want more…..This is the ROOT OF ALL EVIL……

John1993_2

Pennysmakepounds wrote: »

No-one chooses to be poor or be homeless…its forced on them…

Well, they don't choose it intentionally, but personal choices play a massive factor in deciding how well you'll do in life.

Mess around at school, bunk off, don't ppay attention in class, and you are starting off down the wrong road. At that ppoint you've already chosen to handicap yourself hugely compared to those who put the effort in.

Take a rubbish job because you want beer money now, and you are setting yourself back again relative to those who put the time and effort into working out how to get into a career, not a sequence of dead-end lowly paid roles.

Commit petty crime and get caught, wait for life to hand you success, fail to put in effort early and go without in order to try to gain success later, and you are steering yourself more and m ore down the road to poverty. Borrow money for a TV that you can't afford, because you "deserve" it, and yo are, again, making a choice with consequences.

To imply that homelsness or ppoverty are independent of personal choices is simply wrong. Yes, there are cases of people doing everything right and still ending up poor, or on the streets, but to pretend that the probabilities aren't altered by a person's choices makes no sense.

Fraknly, the day someone went out for a cigarette instead of going to that maths lesson they made the decision that they were happy to end up poor. Decisions later can mitigate it, but that was their choice, whether they knew it or not.

Pennysmakepounds

John1993 wrote: »

Well, they don't choose it intentionally, but personal choices play a massive factor in deciding how well you'll do in life.

Completely agree with that statement.

Some people are just stupid…no doubt….(KIDS are stupid – FACT… J)

I was young once….(Back when the Dino’s walked the earthJ)….and I did do some really stupid things…..That being said….I had a good family life (for the most Part) and I was guided to do the RIGHT thing…(Biggest thing being TOLD to stay in education)….


The problem these days is that KIDS are out of control….and parents (NOT ALL) either don’t seem to care, can’t see that the kids are going off the rails, Can’t be asked to do anything about it or have just left it too little too late to make a difference.

As kids and young adults we make stupid decisions…..if we don’t have someone telling us they are wrong then, how are to know….

Once we get past our teens without any educational achievements it’s really difficult to change the direction our lives take….

EDIT - Your upbringing makes HUGE differance to how you will be as a adult/young adult.

suburbanwifey

In a word yes! money does bring happiness. There is nothing more soul destroying or damaging to your physical health and mental health than poverty. I have been poor and I am now not. I would never go back to being poor. It was a miserable existence and I was far from happy. Being able to afford to buy what I want, not having to worry about paying bills, feeling 'secure' has made me very happy. In a capitalist society in my opinion it is impossible to be happy if you have no money. Money is the root of all evil, it drives crime, causes people to be bad in their seeking of it, why? because money does indeed bring happiness.