I believe that money can buy a person happiness due to several reasons related to the costs of comfortable and healthy living. These costs include housing, medicine, and meaningful experience, which improve the quality of life. Despite the fact that luxury is often seen as an attractive point in favor of happiness via increased budget or spending, it is not necessary for well-being. Some researchers propose that happiness is dependent on the living standards and the perception of living circumstances, this is a theory of comparison (Muresan et al.). On the other hand, it is also possible to perceive happiness as the satisfaction of personal needs (Muresan et al.). Nevertheless, multiple factors are crucial to form a happy life which need to be reviewed in detail.
Living standards vary from country to country due to the differences in economic conditions. Consequently, higher living standards refer to higher costs for basic needs. The theory of comparison suggests that an increase in a personal income would not lead to a significant increase in happiness, given that the income of others would similarly increase. Nevertheless, studies identified that a certain threshold exists after which the effect of income on happiness is significantly reduced. For example, in the US, it is equal to 75 000$ (Mogilner et al.), while in Europe, it is close to 35 000$ (Muresan et al.). This demonstrates that an excessive increase in income is not necessary for well-being. Simultaneously, it points to the fact that below this threshold, people are not as satisfied with life and happy as they could have been.
you can buy happiness with money essay
In conclusion, money can buy happiness but only if spent correctly. The correct spending of money involves improvement and maintenance of life via memorable experiences, meaningful things, and satisfaction of basic needs. Moreover, it is not necessary to have an excessive amount of money certain threshold exists, which demonstrates that money cannot amount to complete happiness but attributes to its significant portion.
That new TV we have wanted for so long after a few months is just a TV to us as we have gotten used to the higher clarity, better audio, and the 4K resolution. That new game out in the market, which we will spend a lot of money on, will soon get boring and we will eventually stop playing it. People often equate money with happiness, but that may or may not be the case depending on the context and situation.
With this being said, there are ways in which you can utilize your money more happily and healthily; Instead of wasting money on material goods, spend your accumulated wealth on road trips and vacations, picnics, family outings, etc. Getting out of the house and getting the experience of the outside world will have a positive impact on your mental health. Visiting new locations, be it solo, with friends, or family will boost your morale as you visit new places and meet new people, giving you new experiences and will teach you how to use your money carefully. If you have enough money to spare, you should donate some money to charity to help those less unfortunate. Not only will you be doing a good deed, but acts of charity will also teach you to be empathetic towards others.
Answer: Whether or not money buys you, happiness depends on how you chose to spend it. Always hoarding money will cause more anxiety and mental stress. Spending money in healthy ways like, for a vacation, or charity, will help you establish a positive and healthy mind.
Answer: Refrain from too much materialism. Instead, spend some of that money on trips with friends/family, charities, etc., as they help you refresh your mind, and help to maintain good mental health.
Results from a survey of research on this topic suggest that spending money on experiences rather than tangible goods and giving to others with no thought of reward results in the greatest feelings of happiness.
The answer is yes, money can definitely buy happiness, but certainly not unconditionally. We should all try to spend money mostly on things that will have a positive result on our happiness. After tracking and analyzing my data, I have found that certain expense categories are more directly correlated to my happiness than others. It's clear that I tend to be happier when I spend more money on these expense categories.
A lot of research has been done on the effects of money on happiness. Some claim that money could never buy happiness. Other studies state that money does buy happiness, but only up to a certain level. What none of these studies have done, however, is to use quantitative analysis to answer this critical question.
I want to shed light on this question, by combining my personal financing data with my happiness tracking data. I will try to find the exact answer to this challenging question by looking purely at my data.
A lot of people who become financially independent quit their jobs and enjoy a lifestyle free of stress. This financial mindset is not strictly about retiring early or spending the smallest amount of money though. No, for me it's about discovering and achieving life goals: What would I do with my life if I didn't have to work for money?"
If I truly live according to this principle, then money should really buy me happiness. I try to spend money only on things that make me happy. So, therefore, my happiness should increase when I'm spending my money. Right?
But what if money can actually buy me happiness? Would lifestyle inflation really be a bad thing? After all, happiness is the prime goal in our lives. Well, if all this extra money that I'm spending is actually improving my happiness, then I shouldn't really care, right? Lifestyle inflation? Hell, yeah! Where can I sign up?
I'm happy to see a few weeks in which I didn't spend anything. Zero spending weeks! These weeks always coincided with periods of working abroad on projects. The projects were always quite demanding, and I would have neither the time nor energy at the end of the day to spend my money. Great, right? ?
Now, these projects always affected my happiness, and most of the time negatively. Working >80 hours a week usually broke me up after a while, especially when I was working as an expat in Kuwait. So with this example, these weeks would strengthen the theory of whether or not money can buy happiness. I wasn't spending a lot of money, and my happiness was also below average.
Now this example might not be the best one, as I cannot guarantee that my happiness would have been higher had I spent more of my money. There were so many other factors influencing my happiness, it's impossible to tell if higher, bigger or more expenses would have resulted in more happiness.
But this is just one week. I have tracked over 150 weeks of data, and they are all included in this analysis. It's impossible to answer the main question of this analysis - can money buy happiness? - by looking at just one week. However, I believe the big number of transactions and weeks will provide me with reliable results. It's the law of large numbers in action.
Anyway, as you are probably aware, I have just plotted two dimensions in a single chart: my happiness and my expenses. This is exactly what I need in order to answer that one question: can money buy happiness?
Even though the linear trend line is slightly increasing, I think this is truly insignificant. For the data analysts among us, the Pearson Correlation Coefficient is only 0.16. This graph obviously doesn't answer my question. It does not confirm whether or not money can buy me happiness. I am afraid the data is too distorted with noise. And with noise, I mean expenses that should not be taken into account in this analysis.
There are many other expenses like these, and I feel like they cloud my analysis. There are also some expenses that might have influenced my happiness indirectly, instead of directly. Let's take my monthly phone bill as an example. If I hadn't spent any money there, I would not have enjoyed the luxury and comfort of an online smartphone. Would this directly have influenced my happiness? I highly doubt it, but I think it would have influenced it indirectly in the long run.
I do have many other expenses that I believe directly contribute to my happiness. For one, I believe the money I spend on holidays makes me happy. I also believe that a nice dinner with my girlfriend makes me happy. If I buy a cool new game for my PlayStation then that game is probably going to have a positive effect on my happiness.
Well, luckily I have done just that! I have categorized all my expenses from the day I started tracking my finances. I have grouped these in many different categories, like housing, road taxes, clothing, charity, car maintenance, and fuel. However, there are two categories that I believe directly influence my happiness. These categories are Regular daily expenses and Holiday expenses. Regular daily expenses can range from having a beer with my friends to buying lunch at the office and from a ticket for a concert to a new PlayStation game. Holiday expenses are including anything that regards one of my holidays. Think about flight tickets, excursions, and rental cars, but also drinks and food.
I have tried to include some additional context in this graph again. You can see the period in Kuwait that we discussed earlier. I didn't spend a lot of money during this period, and my happiness was way below average. Coincidence, or not? You tell me, since I don't know yet. ?
It sounds quite logical, right? Most people are usually happier on holidays, as it's something we all look forward to. That raises the next question: is more happiness the result of spending money on holiday, or just the result of being on holiday? I tend to think it's a result of being on holiday.
But in the meantime, it's pretty hard to go on holiday without spending any money, right? Spending money on holidays allows us to actually go on holidays. Therefore, you need to spend money in order to experience more happiness while being on holidays. If you want to get textual, then these expenses - just like the others we discussed - do not have a direct effect on happiness. But I think these expenses have the most direct effect on my happiness. 2ff7e9595c
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