Can Money Buy Happiness?

Income may boost emotional well-being more than we thought.

Money. Money. Money. As much as we may deny it, we often think about it. After all, it moves the world around, doesn’t it? How many times have we asked ourselves this question: Can money buy happiness?

Money doesn’t bring happiness; it brings freedom from deprivation. And only then does the real search for happiness begin. This is not always the case, but it occurs statistically frequently.

Money doesn’t buy happiness for the kinds of hollow, ever-hungry ghouls who excel at making money in this culture; and once you’ve hoarded more than any sane being could use in a lifetime, or even comprehend, of course hoarding more isn’t going to make an incremental difference even to someone who does have a soul somewhere inside them.

But money absolutely will buy your way out of a whole lot of unhappiness, and even just raising your mental state from a negative number to zero is an improvement. And money permits you to have experiences that can bring happiness — which many people don’t seem to understand isn’t a static mental state anyway.

Personally, a one-time infusion of a few million dollars would permit me to banish every single source of unhappiness in my own life and free me to do some things that I enjoy that would likely improve the lives of many other people around me. I wouldn’t have the vaguest idea what to do with a billion dollars besides donating most of it to various causes.

If you ask me, “Does money buy happiness?” I’d tell you literally: No. But it sure buys a shitload of unhappiness repellent.

My husband and I have taken the trip from paycheck to paycheck to two solid incomes, a healthy savings account, and no worries about money together. You could argue that the money doesn’t make us happy, but here’s some stuff it does do:

We can travel when we want to, internationally and domestically. If we miss a friend or family member, we can just GO and see them.

We don’t have financial difficulties to fight over, and it turns out that was most of what we fought about. Now it’s just chores, and I’m considering getting a housekeeping service. :)

We don’t have to worry about what would happen if one of us lost our job. Weirdly, it’s easier to love your job when you’re not scared of losing it. You don’t resent your boss as much, take less shit, and aren’t afraid to speak your mind.

When our friends and family are in financial trouble, we can help. That might be the biggest one right there. That feeling of helplessness and impotence when someone you love is in trouble and you can’t afford to do anything about it is CRUSHING. Being in a position to step in and help pay the bills when necessary is one of the best parts of financial security.

I’d be glad to hear what you think about the topic. Does money buy happiness?