Does money = happiness?

Tirian

My sig may give this away a bit, but I think no.

That's not to say that money can't be very useful, nor is it to say that being poor isn't hard. But it doesn't mean that you can't be happy. To forestall questions, I am not poor now. But I have been poor - poor enough to have to scrape money together for basic food, and to have to sell possessions to pay for cheap physio equipment when I nearly wrecked my ankle.

That was hard, and there were definitely stresses about how I was going to pay for things, and what my future was going to hold.

But there can be different stresses and pressures no matter how much money you have. And there are many things that can affect your life and happiness immensely that are entirely unaffected by money.

So in the strict sense, no money does not equal happiness.

But would I rather be rich or poor if I had the choice? Well I would rather be rich - just not at any cost. There are things worth more than money.