Money Buys Happiness
And I Could Have Told You That
By Daniel Muniz
 

There is overwhelming evidence that money buys happiness. Andrew Oswald - University of Warwick in England It's sometimes said that scientists have found no relationship between money and happiness, but that's a myth… The connection is complex. But in fact, very rich people rate substantially higher in satisfaction with life than very poor people do, even within wealthy nations. Ed Diener - Psychologist from the University of Illinois Source: The Associated Press

I could have told you that myself.

And if you live paycheck to paycheck like me, you definitely don’t need the testimony from experts like these to draw the same conclusion. In fact, all of the scientific research and academic studies don’t reveal anything that I don’t already know. And I definitely don’t need a Ph.D. in economics or one in psychology to tell you that there really is a direct relationship between money and happiness.

And from my personal experience I can say that money really does buy happiness.

Of course, there has always been a generation of skeptics who flatly deny the premise that money will make you happy.
 

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For instance, Princeton economist and Nobel-Prize recipient Daniel Kahneman adamantly insists that the supposedly good mood that accompanies having a lot of money is “mostly illusory” in that it really doesn’t exist.

I don’t know which planet Kahneman is from but if I was sitting on a big honking pile of cash, I know for a fact that I would be in a good mood that and that feeling would be absolutely real with nothing “illusory” about it.

However, perhaps there has always been a problem with measuring happiness when it comes to money, especially when it involves a large sum of cash.

There are some people who feel awkward and even guilty about not only having a lot of money but also enjoying it. That is often the result of political correctness that postulates the notion of “make love, not war or money.” Of course, there are plenty of rich liberals who live an extravagant lifestyle but purge their guilt by profusely donating to political and charitable causes.

Naturally, I don’t see any guilt about having money especially if I were to get it through legal ethical means either by hard work or by chance. In fact, Oprah Winfrey, one of the richest women in America, stunned Hollywood by claiming:

"I'm not one of those people like, 'Well, we must renounce ourselves...”

"I was coming back from Africa on one of my trips… I had taken one of my wealthy friends with me. She said, ‘Don't you just feel guilty? Don't you just feel terrible?' I said, 'No, I don't. I do not know how me being destitute is going to help them.’”

In fact, it is easy to see how some people would probably downplay how the role of being wealthy impacts their lives because they don’t want to be seen as being politically incorrect or greedy. However, I am glad that Oprah Winfrey told the truth because it is not money that is bad, it is what you are doing with it that creates the problems.

Even though I know I would enjoy being rich, I don’t consider myself to be greedy. In fact, I consider myself to be the opposite although I am not necessarily anti-materialistic.

I was born in the barrio and I grew up poor so poverty wasn’t fun or idealistic.

In fact, it was a harsh way of growing up. As a teenager, my parents moved to the suburbs and I then enjoyed a middle class existence. And it was certainly a lot better than being poor. But it was living a comfortable life that made me happier and that is exactly how I feel about money. I don’t want more money for the sake of having it or for prestige but I want more of it so I can be comfortable.

Perhaps the aspect of living a comfortable life is what researchers and scientists missed.

Money can certainly make life a lot easier. Ordinary people who struggle with bills and with making ends meet would very much enjoy having those problems disappear.

However, I do agree that having more money can make people miserable but that is more of a personality trait that involves character issues. New problems can also appear from acquiring wealth but that too is solely the result of life decisions and personal responsibility.

Overall, money can help people become more comfortable and live a happier live. However, that too is a personal choice that people have to make for themselves.

Let me know if you think having a lot of money would make you happier.

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