You’ve heard the old saying, “I’ve been rich, and I’ve been poor, and rich is better”. While few people will ever become truly rich, if given the choice, nobody ever chooses to be poor. That said, there is plenty of evidence to show that money does not necessarily equate to happiness. So, if we really want to be happy, what should we be shooting for?
What’s your Happiness?
A lot depends on how you define ‘happiness’, and the role that money plays in your life. For many people, their level of happiness is based on a comparison of their lifestyle to another’s. If they can keep up with the Jones, then they think they are happy. To them status achievement is the measure of happiness. At the extreme end you will find people who spend money that they don’t have, to buy things they don’t really need, just to impress people they might not even like.
For others, happiness is defined more from the positive feelings they have about themselves which may have little to do with money. It’s more about the level of trust, love, support and respect they receive from friends, family and colleagues. In fact, for these people, money can actually get in the way of the positive feelings they yearn for. At the extreme end of this group are the rare people who might even be willing to endure poverty it would generate more positive feelings.
The Color of Money
The difference between these two groups of people may lie in the way they perceive the role of money in their life. Certainly, for most people, money is a means to an end. That end for status seekers may be more status, which could mean that can never have enough money. Ben Franklin observed that, “The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one.” Ben may have been insinuating that these people may never be completely happy.
Other people use money to help them serve a purpose in life, and, while they like the fact that they have money to enjoy a particular lifestyle, they don’t lose sight of the things in life that money can’t buy. For them, money brings satisfaction, but their happiness comes from what they achieve in life.
Is there a Happy Medium?
We’ve been talking about money and happiness from two different ends of the spectrum. Most people are likely to fall somewhere in between. Why not enjoy some of the finer things in life as long as it doesn’t cloud one’s priorities or result in running up a mountain of credit card debt? And, does it make sense to completely abandon money as a measure of happiness, especially if allows one to pursue their purpose or help others?
Money in and of itself is not the root of evil; rather, it is the love of money that can skew a person’s sense of happiness. When placed in the proper perspective, money can be an enabler of happiness when it allows a people to be themselves and keep their focus on the things that are most important in life.
Richard Thomas is a contributing writer at CreditDonkey, where you can read their latest American Express Gold Card review to find out if it’s right for you. Richard says, the key is to treat money the way it was intended, as a tool to achieve your goals and build a life that you envision. When money becomes the goal, or your life turns into a debt spiral, true happiness may become elusive.