Money-Happiness

The Money-Happiness Relationship
In life, dealing with money is probably one of the most essential concepts that a human being struggles with and without this, it can be much more difficult to achieve happiness. Most people in the world don’t know the basic facts of happiness and this leads to them not knowing how to use their money for acquiring it. US researchers say that money may not buy you love but it might buy you happiness if you spend it the right way. If an individual is truly seeking for happiness then the person should be using their money to buy experiences rather than just materialist possessions. The relationship between money and happiness is weak due to the other factors that helps a person become happy.

Three major ways to gain the most happiness out of your money is to stay positive, continually give, and to not compare yourselves with others. Happiness arrives easier when you start being thankful about those things you already have rather than always envying others. Whenever it was christmas season, I’d usually hear older people say it’s better to give than to receive and this had always seemed very annoying. Now I completely understand why it’s better to give than to receive. It’s because giving can in most cases, cause you to become much more satisfied with what you did with the money. Considering this, Princeton college had done a survey with a bunch of students, one half of the class had to spend money on themselves and the other half on someone else. From the survey they have found that there was a bigger percentage of satisfaction in the part of class that spent their money on someone else. A well known professor named Michael Norton stated, “spending on other people has a bigger return for you than spending on yourself.” He explains how you can do small beneficial things instead of feeling obliged to do amazing things with your money when in search for happiness. An example of beneficially spending your money on a casual day is to treat your friends or coworkers out to dinner. The specific way money is spent on others isn’t important but the fact that you spend it on them is what counts.

Many of us go through our lives with constantly having money in our minds such as when you are trying to figure out how to pay the bills. If you must spend your money on yourself then you should spend it on things that will last a long time like experiences rather than products. Experiences such as vacations and going out with friends can be ways to expand your range of happiness. When you have a conversation about experiences, it tends to be a more enjoyable conversation than when you talk about materialistic things . Happiness is often derived from making memories which are experiences. If you were to actually think about this then you’d understand how materialistic things don’t last as long as experiences. Experiences that are social interactions like spending money on Disneyland with friends is an excellent way to make memories for the gain of happiness.

Money linking to happiness is just a way for us to compare our level of happiness with others. The United States use to have the highest personal happiness rating in 1960 due to it being the wealthiest country but as time progressed that has eventually changed and now the happiest nations are the ones at the bottom of the money chart. This is proof of how having money isn’t a reliable source to base your happiness off of. Have you ever wondered why some poor nations are just usually so happy especially when you compare their situation to America? The answer is because those poorer nations simply have a much more positive outlook in life. They weren’t born into a spoiled type of lifestyle like us Americans are. A good example of how American wealth portrays our lack of happiness, is how a child in the Philippines tends to be much more thankful when receiving an iphone 4 compared to an average American child who would be sad because he or she didn’t get an iphone 6. According to the New York Times article, $75,000 per year is when the repeated phrase ‘money doesn’t buy happiness becomes true’. Money can buy happiness but only up to a certain point.

In conclusion, the possession of more money makes you more comfortable but it doesn’t necessarily make you more happy. Happiness is derived from other factors such as genetics and choices in life rather than money alone. You must spend your money wisely and think about the way the you spent it in order to maximize your happiness. Money can help us assure our happiness but it isn’t a necessity in life to gain happiness.