Money = Happiness ????

[becallamjr]

Well since all my clients are retirees, I'm not really worried about the market, the more the market goes down, the easier my job gets.

[MetalGuitar]

Does anyone have 5 grand so I can pay off my credit cards??....becallamjr??

[becallamjr]

well metal, that all depends, what are you gonna do for me? lol.

[shyanne]

nope it can not.... i believe it would be a great feeling to have endless money but happiness comes from within... those rich and poor can both feel happiness.. depends on the person... i'm sure there is just as many unhappy rich people as poor and also just as many poor people happy as rich people.. if your happy with yourself, then your "rich" whether or not your bank account shows that.

[MetalGuitar]

LOL, sheesh, I'd do anything to get this freakin credit card paid off.

[becallamjr]

ok shayne, here is a thought for you. What of those really poor people that become wealthy and are generally happier because of it?

[RayKay]

LOL, sheesh, I'd do anything to get this freakin credit card paid off.

 

First, find out if you can get a personal loan or Line of Credit at a lower interest rate. Then develop a payment plan that will have you putting a decent amount into it regularly.

 

Right now assuming your interest rate is 16-18% on your credit card, you are not biting into the principal as much....personal loans or LOC's can bring your interest rate down to 5-7%.

 

And then, don't use your credit card anymore!!!!

 

I know how frustrating it is, I am trying to pay off $5,000 worth of loans from last time around school still, before I start taking on more again for the next go around. Bleh...

 

Don't buy anything you can't pay for with cash - excluding education & houses...possibly a car but be cautious with how much you extend yourself.

[keenan]

When I was in my 20s and 30s I loved raking in the bucks, and would spend $100 for dinners out, opera tickets, and stuff like that.

 

 

And that was what, like 1000 dollars way back then, right?

 

Edit: Ok, maybe 500.

[keenan]

Financial Advising is genuinely a self fulfilling job because you are helping people to invest their money and one of the benefits is a great income.

 

 

LOL. I'm super happy for you, becallamjr, but now I'm even happier that I fired my FA last year and invested the money myself. I'm sure you're great, but that dude didn't deserve to spend my 1000 bucks in Vegas.

[NJRon]

Bill, Your money isn't buying you happiness. you are getting fulfillment out of your job. You feel as if you are helping people and you get a sense of pride and esteem from it. The money is just a bonus. If you made that money doing something you really hated, I can guarantee you, your happiness would plummet.

 

After a certain point, having money cannot increase happiness, it can only compensate for greater uinhappiness in another area of your life and, even then, after a while, it just doesn't seem to work anymore.

[becallamjr]

LOL. I'm super happy for you, becallamjr, but now I'm even happier that I fired my FA last year and invested the money myself. I'm sure you're great, but that dude didn't deserve to spend my 1000 bucks in Vegas.

 

I don't charge my clients any fees and they don't pay me a cent, the company I work for pays me. I never see a dime of any of my clients money.

[Kyoshiro Ogari]

Money definitely relieves a lot of other stresses in my life.

That's it right there. It may or may not bring you happiness, but it sure as hell takes a load off. For some people, money is irrelevant. Those with serious problems where money is not as important as peace of mind and soul. Sure you can have anything within reach, but sometimes the solution of your problems is out of your reach and even boyond the reach of cash.

 

If I had more money, I would be happy that year. I'd pay for my parent's morgage, get me a 2 story bachelor pad, take care of my friends, make sure my grandmother is put into an apartment near my parents so that she will never be alone (thank you for your company, Bob Barker & Victor Newman) take care of my family and close friends, start my own business without worry about any financial risks, and save the rest. However, if am alone, that happiness is kaput.

 

Money may not buy you happiness, but it can pay your way out of depression.

[Dako]

LOL

My FA advised my ex and I to buy a company car for her business to avoid a tax hit. As we sat in a red showroom Maserati Biturbo, I realized how I hated being told what to do. We got a Mazda and took a bit of a hit.

The car turned out to be a lemon, but it was our lemon.

[nikkers04]

I wouldn't say HAPPY i would say LESS STRESSED

[mystik]

You know what's great? When you leave $1.84 in your bank account, check back in a few days, and see that you have NEGATIVE $26.16.

 

That's what happens when the bank takes $3.00 from you for monthly service charges, then proceeds to charge you another $25.00 for having a negative amount of money.

 

I love it when that happens.

 

I also love how you only get free service charges if you have at least $1000 (for some banks). Shouldn't it be free if you DON'T have $1000?!!

[kellbell]

This is a very good topic.

 

I believe money can buy a lot of things of course. It can lead to a feeling of safety, security, peace of mind, and stability. All of which that can lead to happiness.

 

But I know of people whom have a lot of money that are extremely lonely. Also, people with a lot of money that can get taken advantage of and really do not know who their true friends are.

 

But I also know people, like me, whom do not have a whole of money but are happy. True, I would love about 10Gs and all my debts will be gone but I can easily go to the bank and get a loan for a low interest rate (I plan to do this very soon) and poof...my debt is gone. Will I be happier? Of course, but it was not the MONEY that made me happy, it is the burden that was lifted off my shoulders.

 

I believe having a lot of money goes into two realms. Being rich...meaning your money works for you...can make a person lonely. Not being rich is when a person works hard for his/her money which can give a person a lot of fulfillment...thus leading to happiness or being a work-aholic can make a person lonely and unhappy because he/she is not really experiencing life to the fullest.

 

Life is what you make of it...if a person is poor but really focuses on what is important in life and money is not...then well, he/she can be very happy. If a person whom is very wealthy and feels money buys happiness and is very important, he/she can live a very lonely and unfulfilled life. I guess it is all about perception and what a person expects out of life.

[Twilight777]

It may not necessarilyy, penny by penny, buy happiness. But you have to admit that if you were given 10 million dollars tomorrow, you'd be freed up to do whatever you wanted...Quit your stupid job with your annoying co-workers and go travel, spend money on friends and family that you love, buy a dream home...etc.

 

With freedom, comes happiness.

[easyguy]

Does money = happiness?

 

I think it depends on what you consider "happiness" to be. Some people love living in mansions with all the perks, and some find all of that a waste of money and would rather do less materialistic things. A friend of my uncle's hit it big and became a millionare, and before he knew it, he lost his house, car, and he is in dept to his knees... because he wasn't responsible with his money.

 

Have you ever seen the movie Blank Check? It's about this kid who secretly cashes in a blank check without his parents' discretion to buy all the things a kid could dream of, and in the end, he realizes that what really made him happy was his family, whom he tried (but failed) to keep the spree of his hidden from. Sure, he was happy for a good amount of the movie because he was doing things that a kid could only dream of, but when it came down to it, real happiness doesn't come from a 2 gallon bucket of ice cream or a four-wheeler. The unconditional love that came from his family was all he ever really needed.

 

Anyway, movie aside...

 

There are quite a few wealthy people out there who do good things with their money, like donate some of it to charity on a monthly or annual basis. I think there are too many people who lose control of themselves when they get a lot of money, and feel that they are invincible. That's how some people become homeless. They're happy one day and before they knew it, they didn't have a home, because they didn't watch what they were doing with their money.

 

Just look at the victims of Hurricane Katrina. They lost everything, but while most of them were angry with it, some were optimistic about getting their life back so they could be happy again. Friends, family, that's where true happiness comes from. Toys and gadgets do make people happy, but not many people feel truly happy in the inside having been spoiled with everything. Sometimes it's an insecurity issue.

 

Personally, I would like to have enough money so that I wouldn't have to worry about rent, mortages, or anything a middle-class or poor person would have to worry about on a day to day basis, but I wouldn't want so much money that I lose sight on everything. Just enough to be comfortable with it without it being a substitute for something bigger, like unconditional love from family and friends, which lasts until the day I die.

[mystik]

I read in the paper today that the founder of IKEA, also the fourth richest person in the world, is also the thriftiest. He says he is happy, but it is not because of his money and the things he could buy. Just because he can buy a BMW (okay he could probably buy the whole BMW COMPANY) doesn't mean he needs one to be happy. In fact, he drives a 17 year old Volvo!

[shes2smart]

I read in the paper today that the founder of IKEA, also the fourth richest person in the world, is also the thriftiest. He says he is happy, but it is not because of his money and the things he could buy. Just because he can buy a BMW (okay he could probably buy the whole BMW COMPANY) doesn't mean he needs one to be happy. In fact, he drives a 17 year old Volvo!

 

The fact that he can drive the 17 year old car by choice is a source of happiness. I'm also cheap....er, thrifty....no, I'm cheap....I understand the joy that comes from frugality by choice. I bring my lunch to work in a brown paper sack every day because I can't see spending $5-10 on lunch out every day. (Although I'm not so cheap as to re-use the lunch bag...more than twice....) I could afford to have lunch out every day, but I choose not to.

 

Driving a 17 year old car because you have no choice because that's all you can afford can be a source of unhappiness. I've been really broke before...there is no joy in forced frugality. There's usually just a lot of stress and worry in forced frugality.

 

It's not money in and of itself--it's the options it gives you, and what you choose to do with those options that give you the opportunity to create happiness.

 

I've been poor and while not rich, I've been (and currently am) very solidly middle class. It's a lot easier to be happy when you're not scraping to pay your rent and electricity bills.

[Shadows Light]

I've been poor and while not rich, I've been (and currently am) very solidly middle class. It's a lot easier to be happy when you're not scraping to pay your rent and electricity bills.

 

AMEN To That !!!

[Dako]

A book I liked. The Millionaire Next Door, is full of insight about the difference between wealth and consumption. Most millionaires drive old cars, shop frugally and don't show off. They also avoid spoiling their kids and make them work.

Anyway it's a good book.

[Mun]

The bad thing about having money is that it won't give you good health when you don't have it... but it will prolong the misery if you can pay for healthcare/private nursing.

[AntiLove_SuperStar]

I come from a family much better off than average yet I'm a M-E-S-S.

 

The main source of this income is my father and he's not exactly the happiest dude I know.

[RayKay]

The bad thing about having money is that it won't give you good health when you don't have it... but it will prolong the misery if you can pay for healthcare/private nursing.

 

Ah up here we are equal opportunists - everyone can be equally miserable waiting for free health care

 

I shouldn't say that, they have really been quite wonderful with my mother's treatment and care - 1st class. I also saw some great work when my late bf was in the health care system. But you do have to be your own advocate otherwise you can kinda get put to the end of the list.