Our First Priority

In our world today most people are reliant on materialistic virtues. Although it may come in handy, money is our main focus. With it, you can use to purchase any item to your hearts desire, or so you think. Many believe that money is all you need to ensure that your life is fulfilling. Unfortunately, money can purchase all except the heart and soul. Like other things in life, there is only so much that can be bought from cash.

Humans are constantly experiencing happiness and unhappiness, but we are still ignorant to what happiness actually is. The meaning of happiness is different for everyone, to some people it is the accumulation of material wealth, such as cars, yachts, and houses. To others, it could simply be the feeling of companionship, love, and family relationships. Since most expectations are not physically possible for some people, no amount of "feeling good" will be satisfying. Since people are so diverse in their life experiences, the meaning of happiness has such a wide range of interpretations. There is no true definition of happiness, but psychologists describe it as a “combination of life satisfaction and having more positive emotions than negative emotions”. General happiness is more naturally determined than we think, you have the ability to control how you feel with persistent practice.

“Shifting from buying stuff to buying experiences, and from spending on yourself to spending on others, can have a dramatic impact on happiness,” Dunn and Norton write in “Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending”. Although money can purchase almost everything that your heart desires, it also has limits to which it cannot exceed. For instance, when a guy uses cash to buy gifts for a special occasion for his significant other, what do we usually picture? Right away our brains should come up with things such as flower bouquets, jewelry, make up, perfumes, etc. When we think thoroughly about this it’s obvious these are everyday things that can easily be bought. What we don’t realize though, are things that can’t be bought with money. Things such as happiness for example can be covered with money, but only for a limited time. When one runs out of money, there will no longer be happiness for the other, this goes to prove that the other person was only happy with the fact that the person they were with was filled with money and could buy whatever they asked for. In the end the money made them happy but with it gone there’s no longer any use for the other person.

Many believe that money is all you need to ensure that your life is fulfilling, but this is not true. They believe money can buy anything, including happiness. Money doesn't buy happiness, it facilitates it. Research shows “that high income buys life satisfaction, but not happiness”. Your money buys things that make you happy, but happiness does not have a price tag. True happiness goes beyond the possessions. Yes, money can buy you a bounty of extravagant wealth, but it also brings options that some people can get lost in. These days, money often gets in the way of the important meanings of life. People are worried that their children will fall in love with the wealth of another instead of the actual feeling of love and happiness. Money does not allow people to create a meaningful life. Instead of making a life, they focus on “making a living”. For example, Gatsby was able to afford a luxurious house, car, and more, yet he was unhappy and lonely. Money cannot buy happiness, but it can buy things that you perceive is making you happy.

In conclusion, money cannot buy happiness. It can only provide a sufficient lifestyle, wealth can merely buy the things that, indirectly, you think will make you happy. There is no price on happiness, true happiness goes beyond your possessions. Unfortunately, there is no true meaning to the word “happiness”. The wide range of interpretations is caused by the diversity in human experiences. Instead of money bringing happiness, it often gets in the way of the important meanings of life. Money can inspire greed and corruption. If we did not make money our first priority, we truly could be happy just enjoying the beauty of life.