Can Money Buy You Happiness?

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Is this a trick question? Of course money can buy happiness. I fell like we are being trolled by the WSJ. :D

In short, this latest research suggests, wealth alone doesn’t provide any guarantee of a good life. What matters a lot more than a big income is how people spend it. For instance, giving money away makes people a lot happier than lavishing it on themselves. And when they do spend money on themselves, people are a lot happier when they use it for experiences like travel than for material goods.
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Blake and Mouton theory (i hope i still remember right) in management is that salary is only a source of disastisfation.

You wont be happier if you get more money , but you will be unhappy if youre not paid what you think youre worth.

I think this theory apply to other sphere of life.
 
Money can't buy happiness, but money makes life for fullfilling which in turn can make you happy.

Getting beat down by companies/people cause your short on money will crush happiness reaaaallllly quick. So will living outside your means when it all catches up to you.
 
Money totally can buy you happiness (or at least happy moments). But it's more the CHANGE in money that brings happiness, so if you already have money and you're not happy it's because you haven't really changed your level of money so your lifestyle was the same. Exceptions to this rule of course are if you go from a 40hr/wk job to 100hr/wk job to make more money then you won't have any time to be happy.
 
I don't think money can buy happiness. You might be happy for a small period of time but that's just about it. Money can alleviate some stress related to bills and such though.
 
Having had a job where I had a nice paycheck, I'd state that it can't buy happiness. I hated that job, and all that money is sadly gone, just trying to keep my sanity.

But money can remove obstacles that make you unhappy and provide opportunities for happiness.
 
So what you're telling me is that having a big paycheck is like having a big wang.
 
One study from a few years ago found that until you reached $75,000 / year, increases in income produce increases in happiness. Above $75,000 / year, other factors begin to impact one's happiness more than income.

I can sort of "buy" that argument, with some variation in the number. If you have 5 kids, for example, that $75K may need to be $150K. (Or if you live in Manhattan.)

But, for most people, $75K / year would give you enough money to live in a nice place, drive a decent car, enjoy a few modest luxuries (a GTX 980 in your i5-3770 P and, a few recent-release games, for example), and be able to start focusing on things other than money (health, relationships, giving back to the community, etc).
 
Happiness is a way of travel, not a destination. The cruel part is that many people don't discover this until they're on their deathbeds.
 
- People stress about not having enough money (for whatever, it doesn't matter)
- Stress is a major cause of unhappiness.

So if you had more money then you wouldn't be stressing about those things and you would be less unhappy.

All that might be true but it doesn't mean that having more money will necessarily make you happy. It will just make you less unhappy about some things. Problem is that you might have a brand new crop of things to be unhappy about and stress about. I'm willing to give it a try though. Ya know, win the lottery and take one for the team in order to further science.
 
Money can buy happiness because being perpetually broke certainly doesn't. This is a garbage myth that is perpetuated by people with money to keep those without from rioting. You will never hear someone who has nothing and is struggling just to survive say "Money doesn't buy happiness" because it is such a stupid statement it is unimaginable. Honestly it just pisses me off whenever I here someone utter this inane statement. I've made in excess of 100k a year and have also nearly been on the street. I can promise you I was a hell of a lot happier when I had money vs when I did not.

I'll use the example given by the guy above concerning the job he hated. Money has nothing to do with the fact that you hated your job. I also guarantee that the money you made enabled you to do a ton of things outside of that job that you were very happy doing. Money in fact made you happy, you just decided your job was miserable and that is entirely different.
 
money can buy a jet ski... have you ever seen anyone frown on a jet ski? didn't think so

therefore money = happiness
 
If a bump of cocaine with simultaneous BJ from the most beautiful woman on the planet doesn't make you at least temporarily happy, nothing will.

So, hell yeah, you can buy happiness! ;)
 
Having money certainly makes things easier, but I believe it's up to the person to decide whether money is a factor of happiness for them or not. I think it's up to the person to create happiness if they can't find it. In my opinion, too many people over stress about things they shouldn't and they depend too much on others for happiness.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Money can buy happiness because being perpetually broke certainly doesn't. This is a garbage myth that is perpetuated by people with money to keep those without from rioting. You will never hear someone who has nothing and is struggling just to survive say "Money doesn't buy happiness" because it is such a stupid statement it is unimaginable. Honestly it just pisses me off whenever I here someone utter this inane statement. I've made in excess of 100k a year and have also nearly been on the street. I can promise you I was a hell of a lot happier when I had money vs when I did not.
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The "middle way" is best imo, financially. I've been very rich and very poor and was absolutely miserable in both situations.
 
Once people have the basics covered (utilities, food, etc) - I suppose there is a diminishing return on money. Personally, I'm willing to experiment by getting lots more money than I have now and will report back on my happiness (or lack thereof)
 
Money managed correctly can buy happiness for people who have had to live with a budget that was barely enough or slightly more than enough.

In short, people who have lived poor and get a bunch of money and blow it on BS, will get no enjoyment from money, only disappointment.

People who win the lottery and carefully manage that money to make it last their whole lives without living the high life and still working a little bit on the things they love to do will gain much more happiness from that money. So, if I win the lottery and get to build computers constantly without having to work a corporate job, and not giving that money to deadbeat cousins, I would be very happy.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Money can buy happiness because being perpetually broke certainly doesn't. This is a garbage myth that is perpetuated by people with money to keep those without from rioting. You will never hear someone who has nothing and is struggling just to survive say "Money doesn't buy happiness" because it is such a stupid statement it is unimaginable. Honestly it just pisses me off whenever I here someone utter this inane statement. I've made in excess of 100k a year and have also nearly been on the street. I can promise you I was a hell of a lot happier when I had money vs when I did not.

I'll use the example given by the guy above concerning the job he hated. Money has nothing to do with the fact that you hated your job. I also guarantee that the money you made enabled you to do a ton of things outside of that job that you were very happy doing. Money in fact made you happy, you just decided your job was miserable and that is entirely different.
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It may be an exercise in arguing semantics, but I think the general idea is that money (up to a certain point as determined in prior studies) will alleviate a certain amount of unhappiness, thereby removing the anchor around your neck that was keeping you from being able to do those things which make you happy. From this perspective, I believe it is true (and not just a myth perpetuated to keep us blissfully ignorant) that money does not buy you happiness. The ability to engage in activities which do make you happy can certainly be correlated to money in many cases (travel, volunteering - trust me, it is a lot easier to find the time to volunteer when you're not working 80 hours a week to make ends meet, social engagement - dinner with friends is a luxury some people simply cannot afford, etc).
 
Money definitely buys happiness if you are not a slave to the means of acquisition.
 
You gotta work your ass off to appreciate money if the shit is just given to you like say you win the lottery it won't have much effect but it will buy you a early retirement thus more free time and more time to enjoy your short life.
 
SilverSliver said:
Money definitely buys happiness if you are not a slave to the means of acquisition.
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This really. If you can make good wages working to live and not living to work, then you can have a very happy balance with your free time and excess money to enjoy during that free time. Whether its with yourself/family/other.
 
I didn't read through the whole thing but I saw the 2 graphs which roughly stated that 100% of the people and happy and satisfied when income > $500k.
 
XViper said:
I don't think money can buy happiness. You might be happy for a small period of time but that's just about it. Money can alleviate some stress related to bills and such though.
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Yes but would you not be happy knowing all your bills are paid, you have no debt?

Yes, money does buy happiness in many ways, the problem with many is they can not manage their money and thus they over spend their money and end up broke and miserable.

We had one girl who worked with us who went from making $1000 a month to over $3000 as she moved up over the years..

Guess what, she was always broke and miserable, she could of been paid $1million a day and she would still be broken and miserable.

Me, give me money and watch me be happy!
 
The "the more money you have, the less you have to stress about bills" logic is kind of a fallacy. I've found that, in general, the more money you have, the more ways you'll find to spend it, which only leads to needing more money to cover your now further inflated bills, and the whole cycle starts over again.

I always tell myself that I'm perfectly content with $120k/yr between my wife and I, two new cars, a bike, a snowmobile, a good computer, a nice house, and a few thousand dollars left over after monthly bills, yet we continue to have nothing in savings. I like to pretend it's my wife's fault, but I'm equally as culpable in reality. There are always new toys, new parts, new electronics, new furniture, new everything you can imagine, no matter your income level.
 
looks like the article says that money can buy someone else happiness...and I'm ready to do my part in increasing your happiness by providing my paypal address to any wealthy contributors :)
 
There's a documentary about how to find happiness. They basically said that giving time and energy (not money) was the key to being happy. So, doing charity work was their solution. I haven't found that, but I'm terminally grumpy. ;)

Have a happy day, no matter how much money you have.
 
Humans can be dirt floor poor and be super happy and they can be lavishly rich and be absolutely fucking douche-bag miserable. I vaguely remember seeing a study stating that some of the poorest people in some countries (definitely not the US population as we're bombarded with ads) registered as the happiest people in the world. They don''t want/stress/worry about having what the US consumer market is always selling us here. If you watch regular TV all you ever see is what you might want/need to buy next.

That said, to me, time is the most valuable thing a human can have and money buys you that precious time (the financial freedom while not going without anything). People waste too much of their life working just to stay afloat and that's a shitty life. My oldest brother died at 25 and after seeing that happen to him money is not something I'll waste my life trying to acquire through too much working. I know is sounds backwards to some people but you're never going to get where you really want to be anyway, just deal with it, and enjoy what you have now.

If I won a couple million right now I wouldn't spend a penny of the principle and use the accruing interest to never work again for the rest of my life. I'd spend part of my free time volunteering and the rest of my free time with my family, exercising, drinking wine, and fishing.

So, yes, in this country, for the majority of people money can buy you happiness by buying you more free time. It's up to you what you do with that free time and that will determine your overall happiness.
 
SRTie4k said:
The "the more money you have, the less you have to stress about bills" logic is kind of a fallacy. I've found that, in general, the more money you have, the more ways you'll find to spend it, which only leads to needing more money to cover your now further inflated bills, and the whole cycle starts over again.

I always tell myself that I'm perfectly content with $120k/yr between my wife and I, two new cars, a bike, a snowmobile, a good computer, a nice house, and a few thousand dollars left over after monthly bills, yet we continue to have nothing in savings. I like to pretend it's my wife's fault, but I'm equally as culpable in reality. There are always new toys, new parts, new electronics, new furniture, new everything you can imagine, no matter your income level.
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Again that comes down to money management, there are rich people who do not spend stupidly and then there are those that get some money and blow it all on expensive things.

I have money in saving, thanks to the wife, we do save but we also said we will not just horde money and not enjoy things.

But i do want more money, i do want to do some things and not worry about if spending $2k is iffy or not.
 
Experience and knowledge is what ultimately gives you happiness.
 
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