Can Money Buy Happiness? Yes
Money and Happiness.
Money and happiness are a great combination, yet many wonder about their relationship.
Is money a reason for happiness? Can money increase a person’s happiness? What is there in the money that can increase the happiness?
These are the questions that have bogged me and made me think about this relationship twice. It has made me question my own belief that there is no such connection.
I have been a believer in the fact that money can not buy happiness. One of the phrases that one often hears when one is not at that point where he earns enough is “I know this because I think in this manner.” This argument is for those who earn less and justify their earning using this phrase.
One of the famous Bollywood Celebrities, SRK, once famously answered this quote by saying, “First become rich and then become the propounder of this philosophy.” What he meant was that first, earn so much, then you will be in that position where you can decide whether money can buy happiness or not. He argued, It does.
Research done by Daniel Kahneman and his Princeton Colleague, Angus Deaton , has indicated that while increased income can improve life satisfaction and happiness to some point, this effect diminishes beyond a certain income level, and there is a happiness plateau.
They believed that the plateau occurs because satisfying basic needs is challenging and thus negatively impacts happiness. When there is a lack of money, there is stress, poor health, less leisure time, and much greater emotional imbalance.
But once people make enough money and move beyond this threshold of meeting their basic needs and can afford things like a house, health, car, and more leisure time, a further increase in income does not lead to happiness. But to this point, it has a direct correlation.
On the other hand, another study by Killingsworth at the University of Pennsylvania said there is no such thing as a plateau.
Both these studies were done by famous people, yet there are discrepancies in their results. To overcome this diversion, they performed a combined study, which found that there is a plateau after which there is no significant increase in happiness as one’s income rises, but not for all people.
However, it also depends on various other factors, like a person’s emotional well-being. For the group with lower levels of emotional well-being, there is a plateau after some earnings. In the other group, which is in the middle range of emotional well-being, happiness increases linearly with income.
In conclusion, we can say that there is indeed an increase in happiness once income increases.
How Can Money Be Used to Maximize Happiness
With the role of money in happiness being clear, we can now jump to how this can increase happiness.
Money can be used to increase this emotion more effectively when we spend money on experiences rather than on material goods.
Material goods are food for the body, and experiences are food for the soul, mind, and body. It has a trifold effect and can contribute to the increase in happiness.
Experiences tend to provide lasting memories and satisfaction. Spending money on the well-being of others can also enhance the happiness equation.
Why Money Makes Us Happy
Not having money is usually associated with challenges and difficulties, which increase stress and negatively affect happiness. Thus, financial resources can act as a buffer to this negative effect. If one has more money, it means avoiding the stress and worries that being without money brings.
One with more money has more choices, freedom, and control over life and circumstances. This feeling of power and autonomy is crucial to how we feel about our lives.
Conclusion
While the connection between money and happiness is real, it is conditional. Happiness is a complex topic involving various factors; one is money. So don’t rely only on money for happiness. But, Yes Money Does Give Happiness.
