You don’t need much to enjoy a high quality of life. The only things you need are solid relationships, your health, and enough money to take care of your basic needs without stress.
People often say that “money can’t buy happiness”, and they aren’t incorrect. Money can’t buy happiness any more than it can buy quality relationships or optimal health, but it does a remarkable job of removing the barriers to these things. The following list isn’t exhaustive but consider a few examples. Money allows you to:
- Not work as much so you can spend more time with people you love.
- Live in a safe neighbourhood so you aren’t stressed about getting robbed or assaulted.
- Allow you to afford medicine or take time off from work if you or someone you love is sick.
- Take care of your monthly expenses without choosing which ones to stressfully neglect.
These are all situations that will make you quite unhappy.
These are situations that can be resolved or avoided entirely if you have money.
Therefore, it’s probably more accurate to say that while money can’t buy happiness, it can buy things that make it easier for you to be happy. At very least, it can remove many things that *definitely* make you unhappy.
“Having money’s not everything. Not having it is.”
-Kanye West
I think the main reason that people like to say that money can’t buy happiness is because they subconsciously insert the modifier “a lot of” right before the word “money”.
Very few people would argue against the statement “A lot of money can’t buy happiness” because we intuitively know that a surplus of material things does not bring peace of mind, but that version of the old saying isn’t as catchy.
Once you have enough money to take care of your basic needs without stress, money can still add to your happiness, but now in a different way and to a different degree.
When you were broke, an extra $500 was the difference between going to work sick or stressing about how you were gonna make the rent because you could barely get out of bed. Now it’s the ability to take your mom out on her birthday.
$1000 dollars was the difference between getting your 20-year-old car to pass inspection one last time and stressfully riding around with no registration and insurance because your car was deemed unfit for the road. I used to drive a car just like this and I was terrified of getting pulled over because I was going STRAIGHT to jail.
Now an extra $1000 is a gym membership, some equipment, and decent food and supplements to stay healthy.
Money buys happiness when your unhappiness is the result of struggling to survive. After that, everything else is just a cherry on top.
To Your Success!
Steve.
Master Online Entrepreneur
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