Can Money Buy Happiness?

It’s probability with being content

Can money buy happiness? This topic has been in debate for as long as I can remember. We are familiar with the concept that money cannot buy happiness yet the reality is that a majority of us spend money on the things or those people who make us happy.

We also know that money is a limited resource for many people out there so how can we spend it in ways that can elate us?

Well, I have read a few research articles and psychologists have provided us with some useful insights on the connection between spending money and happiness. Let’s have a look at them, one by one:

1. Having a lot of money does not equal happiness.

Money is important for happiness, yes, ask someone who doesn’t have it. For example, having easy access to money gives you the benefit to afford a safe, secure, and luxurious living standard. In addition, it also provides you the means to have better nutrition and overall health. But everything has a certain limit and after all of our basic needs — food, shelter, clothes, safety, and health care — are met, the positive effects of having money can often be overshadowed by negative effects. For instance, to earn that amount of money that can sustain your luxury lifestyle, you would have to work for extra hours and at more stressful, senior positions.

2. Doing gives us more pleasure than buying.

It is a common misconception that materialistic things will make us happier than memorable experiences. Physical objects such as cars, clothes, shoes, etc. May last longer than going on a road trip or hanging out with your friends but they can only make you happy for a certain time period. After that, it will not bring you the same level of joy as it did before but memories, will forever stay with you to cherish whenever you want.

Here’s an example from my life, I bought a new mobile phone three weeks ago. I’ve been meaning to buy this latest model for quite some time now and I believe that now that I have it, I don’t value it as much as I did before buying it. However, I still remember and cherish the road trip with my family, from last year.

3. Spending money on other people makes us happier than spending money on ourselves.

I know that most of you think that shopping for yourself is always better than shopping for someone else but researchers have found out that people feel more content when they buy a present for somebody else or use their money to donate or do charity. Probably because being the source of happiness for somebody else makes us feel good about ourselves.

And this final point also answers our question on how we can spend money to elate ourselves.

Another noteworthy thing is that all those things that bring you happiness have an intrinsic value, meaning that they can be valuable to you but don’t necessarily bring happiness to other people, as well.

For instance, I am a shoe hoarder. Buying new shoes quite literally equals happiness for me but it may not be the same for everybody else. So this is what I meant when I said that we assign different intrinsic values to everything.

What Things Influence Your Happiness?

There are quite a number of things that can influence your happiness.

Culture:

Culture tends to influence our happiness. There is a huge diversity of cultures, all around the globe, and in each culture, different things become the source of happiness for people of that particular culture.

For instance, Christmas is the happiest time of the year for the people who belong to the western culture but it may not necessarily bring the same amount of joy to people belonging to different cultures such as those of Hinduism and Buddhism, etc.

Social Status:

I believe social status can have quite an impact on the things that bring us pleasure. For rich people, buying only luxurious items can bring happiness. I am not calling rich people materialistic, in fact, it’s a matter of fact that they like things that match their social status. (Which are often expensive) But for people with low incomes, the smallest of things, even substandard, can bring immeasurable joy.

The Way, You Spend It:

Another contributing factor is the way you spend money. If you have just enough to fulfill your basic life needs and still have money (and of course, time) for your family and friends to make memories and experience new things in life, you can achieve just enough satisfaction.

In contrast to this, if you have a lot of money yet no time, because obviously, you’re earning extra hard now to maintain the lifestyle you’ve chosen for yourself, you will have the money but no time to spend with your friends and family. Then you may not ever be satisfied no matter how much you spend and wherever you spend it because you will always be wanting more. So, more money doesn’t necessarily mean more happiness.

Conclusion:

When I say that you can buy happiness, I don’t necessarily mean that you can go to a store and pay for it because happiness doesn’t have a price. But to sum up, everything that is stated above, there are certain things that you like and can buy to bring you temporary happiness. And that’s pretty much how it is. Ultimately, money can definitely increase the probability of being content and happy.