Does Money Make Us Happy?
About the only subject that has been researched more by psychologists than the money/happiness question, might be the genes versus environment question.
There are two more research reports out, according to Laura Rowley, writing for Yahoo Finance. We can add those to the big pile of studies that already exist.
Let’s don’t blame the researchers-they have to publish or perish. We probably paid for the studies with part of the 700 billion in federal stimulus money. Does that make you Happy?
Now I wonder who did the first study, of money versus happiness?
Stone Age Happiness:
“Honey, are you happy?” “I will be when I finish cleaning this mastodon, shut up and hand me that sharp stone over there.” I wonder if “happy” was a consideration, when you were worried about eating, or being eaten?
Happiness in the Roman Empire:
Do you think the gladiator, facing the lion worried a lot about happiness, or was he just hoping the lion was happy, cause of yesterday’s two-legged meal.
Happiness in the Dark Ages:
The peasant, hauling peat for the fire, trying to smoke enough herring so his kids wouldn’t starve during the long winters off the North Sea-did he have a lot of time to contemplate happiness while his stomach growled?
Happiness in Modern Times:
Only when we have leisure time, do we spend a lot of our life contemplating happiness. We can have endless arguments. We can publish piles of studies, after talking with the Rich, the Super Rich, or the homeless. We fight over whether the study was biased, the questions were misleading, or the results met statistical significance.
But I think most research such as the article above confirms:
Higher income/wealth, can help you to be satisfied-re your life station, your successes, your reaching a certain status in your family, your neighborhood, your co-workers and your community.
Having Money doesn’t correlate so well with whether we “enjoyed” the day yesterday. Did we laugh with our family, enjoy the interaction of our co-workers, make someone else smile.
What I can guarantee you is, that working hard for your money, but then squandering it, will make you extremely unhappy.
Who can be Happy, when they wonder where they will find the money to pay their bills?
Who can be Happy, when they are not answering the phone, because they know it is a collector, trying to make their boss happy?
Who can be Happy, when all you do is fight with your spouse about money?
Who can be Happy, when you think of all the bad choices you made with your money decisions?
My advice, while you are reading all the research, to decide if you are happy:
At least take care of the dollars you work so hard for. The more money you have left over at the end of the month, is money that can make you happy, if you will let it..
That happiness might be from:
- giving food to the less fortunate, going on a mission trip, or funding a scholarship!
- being able to travel to a relatives funeral, help your child go to college, or buy a new home.
- eating caviar while sipping Dom Perignon, Veuve Cliquot, or Cristal!
That is what managing your money properly gives you, CHOICES. Having Choices can (not will) make you HAPPY!
Reader Questions:
What are your thoughts about money and happiness, (or genes vs environment if you want to start a fuss?)
Do you think having more money will make you happy?
Do want to do one more study, regarding nurses and happiness????
Tags: can money buy happiness, does money make you happy, happiness and money, mood and money
It’s a myth that your happiness plateaus at 60K or 75K or whatever the latest number is. I think the plateau starts more around 250K, which coincidentally is the level where the Democrats want to tax couples to high heaven! Hence, it all makes sense!
I think it takes more money to be “satisfied” these days. I haven”t thought about the correlation between tax rates and happiness, other than I am not happy when I am paying so much in taxes….
The most unhappy person that I know is a retired millionaire. The happiest person that I know is broke. Some of us are just not born with the happy gene.
There you go, using gene/environment, and money and happiness in the same thought. I rest my case….
But in all seriousness, that is why the studies are meaningless-in regards to your personal surroundings-because of all the exceptions.
It is like I tell my patients when we are discussing complications from a procedure. You can’t have a 3% bladder laceration-you either have one or you don’t.
Percentages/studies are just the start of a conversation.
Dr. Dean,
It seems that happiness is not “determined” by money but may be determined by our relationships. Money DOES influence the quality of our relationships. For example, if I can’t visit my best friend but once a year because of financial constraints, that does influence my happiness to some extent even if I never admit. This goes to the point you made in the article about money giving us choices. I think that one of the challenges with such research is that there may be associations that are evident between money and happiness given other variables (that the researchers may or may not have controlled for). I wouldn’t be surprise if money was more of a covariate than a definitive cause of our happiness. With regard to the second comment, some of the happiest people I know are people who live their lives with purpose regardless of their bank account. I love seeing such people have money because they just do some remarkable things. For example, Oprah strikes me as a particularly happy person and does some really cool stuff. Interestingly, not having enough money to make ends meet may inhibit one’s ability to live their life with purpose.
Regards,
Shawn
Shawn, thoughtful comments. I find many social science research reports to be very interesting, but not definitive-because of the point you made about variables. They are hard enough to control for in the “hard” sciences, but impossible IMHO, in the social area.
In this generation, I think it is undoubtedly one of the most important thing. The essential worth of money makes it sensible for providing happiness to mankind. It is considered the most powerful tool in the acquisition of everything as even joy and happiness.
To me, it depends on the day of the week. I am generally a happy person regardless of how much we have in the bank. Sure, I am more content when we have more in savings. I am sure I would be somewhat less happy if we were really struggling. Like one other commenter said, I know rich people who are unhappy and poor people that are quite chipper.
These days, I think health brings happiness to me. (I am not sick or anything, but I appreciate health more than anything.)
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