At first thought, it seems logical that having more money would make you happier. You could buy more luxuries, a better house, a better car and more vacations. But on deeper analysis, it becomes clear that things are not that simple. So, what makes you happier? Read on to find out...
Suppose that a person wins a lottery worth millions of dollars. He suddenly realizes that he is richer than most people around him and thus he feels proud and happy. After a while he decides to buy himself a bigger house. As he moves to the bigger house, he sees that all the people living around him have houses similar to his. So his feeling of elate slowly fades away. He does have more money but his state of happiness might well be the same as before.
Finding Love
Many people do not judge happiness on the basis of their wealth. To them, other things are more important. For example, a settled and happy family and good friends to spend time with might be more important to many than having a big bank balance. Of course everyone needs money to survive but after a certain level required for a good standard of living, having more money is no longer a priority. Then you would look for other things that are also important for a happy life.
Wealth or Health?
Every one of us would rather be middle class and healthy than be very rich but carry some form of impairment. This means that money might be important, but health means much more to us than having never ending dollar bills.
A study of degrees of happiness shows that countries with more per capita income generally tend to be happier than poorer countries. This might be attributed to the fact that in poor countries, many people are living below the poverty line. To those people, having money is essential and perhaps more important than anything else simply because they are short of it. But once they start earning enough to live with respect and have a reasonable lifestyle then one expects them to look for things beyond money.
Tag: Does money make you happy?