Finally Answered: Can Money Buy Happiness?

I’ll buy you a diamond ring my friend, if it makes you feel alright.

So go the opening lines from the classic Beatles song, but will buying a diamond ring truly bring you happiness?

The thought going through most people’s minds as they’re trying to pay their bills and put food on the table is, “If only I had more money, I’d never worry and I’d be so happy!”. But does having more money really make you a happier person?

Let’s evaluate this by looking at what having more money can and can’t do.

It relieves stress

Having enough financial security to cover all your bills can relieve the worry associated with not having enough. Financial pressure is one of the leading causes of stress, and can lead to anxiety and depression. However, although the correlation is higher in lower-income earners, people at all income levels experience money-related worries and stress.

Interestingly (and contrary to what you might think), studies have shown that often having more money brings more financial worries, or in the words of The Notorious B.I.G.

“The more money we come across, the more problems we see.”

So, is simply having more money going to solve your problems? Personal development guru Tony Robbins doesn’t believe it will:

“Problems and happiness have no relationship. You can be poor and be happy. You can be rich and be miserable. Your happiness isn’t related to money. It’s related to finding your purpose.”

Countless lottery winners continue to prove this to be true. Statistically, 70% of jackpot lottery winners have none of their winnings left after a short period of time, and one third file for bankruptcy within three to five years, or worse.

Take the story of Billie Bob Harrell Jr. who won $31 million in the Lotto Texas jackpot. After quitting his job at Home Depot, Harrell went on to spend his winnings on holidays, donations and gave a lot away to family and friends. However, within 20 months of winning he had nothing left, his wife had left him and he sadly took his own life. Towards the end he’s reported as saying to his financial adviser: “Winning the lottery is the worst thing that ever happened to me.”

Does having more money relieve stress?
Verdict: FALSE. Simply having more money won’t solve all your problems.

Buying things can make you happy

From a physiological viewpoint, yes, purchasing material things can make us happy. Buying something you’ve been after for a while and at a good price does cause your brain to release dopamine which gives you a pleasurable feeling, or “shopper’s high”. But unless what you buy fulfils a real, purposeful need and is something that you’ll be using for a long time, then it’s often a short-lived happiness. American spiritual teacher, Adyashanti postulates that this is

…not because we got what we wanted, but because for a brief period of time, we stopped wanting, and thus we experience peace and happiness.

If you’re buying something “nice to have”, then there’s always something newer coming around the corner, or someone else you know will buy something better, or you realise that you’re just getting more into debt, and eventually experience “buyer’s remorse”, or regret.

Even French fashion designer, Christian Dior, who has produced hundreds of lines of clothing, once said

Don’t buy much, but make sure that what you buy is good.

So, can buying material things make us happy?
Verdict: PARTLY TRUE, but the resulting happiness is usually only temporary.

Money buys time and frees you from working

In 2017, British Columbia University researchers undertook a survey of over 6,000 adults in America, Canada and Europe, which found that spending money on things that made more time for themselves did in fact, make the participants happier. This was usually through paying someone else to do time-consuming tasks such as house cleaning, grocery shopping and garden work.

Similarly, having enough money or passive income streams to quit working does free your time up immensely. But it’s what you choose to do with that time that will determine whether you’ll be happier or not. A good friend once said to me “Money doesn’t equal happiness, but it does give you more options”. The option of what to do with your time is perhaps the most valuable as, no matter how rich you are, you can’t buy time back later (unless you have the DeLorean from Back to the Future).

Pioneering research conducted in 2010 by the psychologists Leaf Van Boven and Thomas Gilovich showed that it’s experiences, such as travelling, playing sport, nature walks, or activities with family and friends — that bring greater, lasting happiness than material items.

“Money can’t buy happiness, but it lets you look for it in a lot more places.” — Earl Wilson

If quitting working is not financially an option for you right now or if, like some people, you feel you need to keep yourself busy doing something productive — then find something you love doing and then work out how to start generating an income from it. It may be a side project, a hobby, or you might find that helping other people gives you more satisfaction than working at a computer in an office job.

If you’re not sure what makes you happy, a good tip is to start a keeping a note on your phone, or on a piece of paper, and RECORD every time you do something that makes you feel truly happy.

The Verdict: True, money can buy you time, but to be happy you have to spend that time doing things you love

Money can’t buy me love

Were the Beatles right? The answer probably depends on how you define love 😊.

Seriously though, if you’re out splashing cash around like there’s no tomorrow you will attract attention and friends, but are they around just because of your money? And if this does manage to land you a partner, what are the chances the relationship is genuine?

Psychologists have found that people who don’t have a lot of money or don’t put their wealth on display tend to have more genuine relationships, because the other person does not have an overriding monetary interest in you, so they’re more likely to have connected to you as a person.

Just having more money is not going to change who you are, it just enhances who you always were, and what you already have.

Verdict: No, money won’t buy you real relationships.

Tell me that you want the kind of things that money just can’t buy — The Beatles

(Do you agree or disagree with any of these verdicts? Let us know in the comments)

So, what can we learn from this?

1. Money is just a tool. If you’re fortunate enough to have plenty of it, it’s not the money that makes you happy, it’s how you use it. Studies show buying yourself time and experiences are the most rewarding ways to utilise wealth, but also spending money on others and helping causes which resonate with your values are also known to increase personal happiness.

2. Having wealth can be a double-edged sword if you’re not prepared or don’t know how to manage it properly, and it can actually make your situation worse, for example, lottery winners and just simply because often having more money creates more problems and financial stress than it solves.

3. Don’t spend too much of your life trying to make more money. This is a classic story, ‘’I will be happier when I have X amount of money’’. Most people live and dream that once they have a certain amount of wealth then happiness will magically appear. Unfortunately, very few people find what they’re looking for, and just end up chasing an illusion, or get into the trap of never having enough because they may have made X dollars and aren’t happier, so maybe I need to make Y dollars.

Perhaps Karl Pillemer’s often-quoted book, 30 Lessons for Living offers a better perspective. He asked a thousand elderly Americans what were the most important life lessons they’d learned. He noted:

No one — not a single person out of a thousand — said that, to be happy you should try to work as hard as you can to make money to buy the things you want.

No one — not a single person- said it’s important to be at least as wealthy as the people around you, and if you have more than they do it’s real success.

What mattered to them was cultivating quality relationships, being active community members, and spending quality time with their family.

4. Find out what makes you happy. If you don’t know what makes you fulfilled and what gives you purpose then it doesn’t matter whether you have millions or have nothing. Start by noting down every time you do something that makes you really happy. If you struggle to do this, start looking for new experiences in life.

If you’re able to find something you love doing and you can turn that into an income source then you’ll never work a day in your life, and also don’t forget that happiness can come from things that don’t cost or involve money e.g., walking in nature, being more active in your community, or volunteering.

Thanks for reading and hope you found this post interesting. Let us know in the comments if anything stood out as most interesting to you.

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