Does money lead to happiness, or happiness to money?

Money may not buy happiness, but it buys jet skis, and I’ve never seen a sad person on a jet ski.

I don’t really think money makes us happier over all. It may be able to buy something that will make you happy temporarily, but that usually doesn’t last.

Money leads to happiness. Hippies are happy but are not rich lol.

The extra money would make me happier because freedom makes me ultimately happy, and money lets us have this. If I had a lot of car troubles, money would fix this, it would ease my mind so I wouldn’t have to worry about my tires popping because they are bald, or having to worry about finding money for repairs so I can get to work on time etc. With money you can have the security of knowing you can do something if it comes along. Without money you constantly have to worry, and stress kills you.

Money doesn’t make you happy.

But it sure helps.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard great Daniel Tosh qoute

A study published in the journal Nature just last week concluded:

“We may have been wrong to believe that economic prosperity would bring happiness, but the evidence suggests that happiness and social well-being are likely to bring economic prosperity. Moreover, where prosperity arises from post-materialist values, it has the potential to enhance well-being without costing the earth.”

Full text of the article.

@Blackberry

I’m a hippie and I have a goodly amount of cash. lol

It’s all about being creative and yes, when I underwent some major shifts in consciousness some amazing synchronicities occurred that led to a huge increase in my material gain.

I’m a total believer in claiming ones demonstration to parody a biblical quoate..( I am not fundementally religious, but very metaphysical, and universal law is real and it works! )

When I was truly transcendant and open miracles happened!

Money can’t buy happiness. But sometimes you can get a sweet deal on a rental.

Actually, I think there is no correlation between the amount of money one has and the happiness one experiences. If there is, it’s only coincidental.

@Coloma That’s pretty awesome. I understand what you mean because being a happy and good person has paid off for me too, but I just need more patience because I got setback by an unhappy person and now I have to recover again lol.

@bob_…I tend to agree with you!

I think the two are completely separate. That is to say, that you can have a lot of money and be completely miserable, and you can be poor and be very happy.

@nikipedia Gee if only I had some extra money to pay for the article on your link I might be happier! ;)

Why yes! Of course! Who would think anything different?

someone give me the money, and will be happy to make a full report!

@wundayatta Of course your answer would be the obvious answer but what I was curious about is the how and why of whether you would be happier being richer or richer being happy??

Money may make life easier but lasting happiness comes from within.

As to happiness making us financially wealthy… probably not, but if you’re happy, it won’t matter.

Again, @Cruiser I say yes! Yes and yes and yes! Why? It really doesn’t matter, does it? It’s all the same. Yes!

The only real thing money does is to allow you to be more of what you already are! lol

My prosperity over the past 5 years has given me the space to do what I love the most, write, and just trip around my property with my animals and star gaze.

Money can make you happy but it sure spoils you and you may forget your friends and family just because of money. It can make you become more selfish or giving, you spoil your kids (which isn’t the best thing for them).

My opinion is that money doesn’t make you happy(only sometimes!)

Neither.
It is an illusion that more money will automatically equate in an easier life and greater happiness. If you are not able to handle well what you have when you have little, you will not be able to handle much. The desire for money can be insatiable. Sometimes the more one gets the more one wants/ needs. How much is really enough? how much would really make one/you happy? would it really solve all ones/your problems? I think true happiness must have another source. Then again – how do you define happiness? I would rather pursue joy than happiness – however that is a whole new thread.

Money leads to happiness. It always does. But we always find a way to fuck it up.

Happiness doesn’t lead to money. I do agree with @ChazMaz a little that money leads to happiness because:

Money buys you better food, health care and shelter which would make most people happy enough to concentrate on finding more happiness in going to work, school, spending time with their friends, family and partners. I only took me a few years of struggling as a teen on my own to figure this shite out.

Neither. Happiness and money do not share a direct relationship.

I agree. Money does not make you happy.
SPENDING it does!!!!!

hey big spender!

I think money can help remove some obstacles to happiness, in much the same way that diet and exercise can help remove some obstacles to health.

For one thing, money spares you the misery of worrying all the time about how to get by, and that is a misery, all right. But it can’t bring you happiness. Removing obstacles in the road still doesn’t take you down the road. You have to do that yourself.

Likewise, eating well and working out may help keep you on a healthy course, but all that right living is still no guarantee of anything. You can get cancer or have a heart attack, crack up in a car wreck, or get mugged on the street. Removing obstacles is good, but removing a negative does not equal adding a positive.

@Nullo Thanks for your answer but I respectfully would disagree with your comment. I think there is a monster connection between money and happiness and even further money and sadness of sort. Every two weeks when I get a paycheck I am ever grateful and ecstatic that I will have the money I need to provide for my family! Last weekend I had the biggest shit eating grin every time I yelled “pull” and fired off my new shotgun. I and everyone with me smiles ear to ear every time we take out the boat. I mean of course some of the best things in life are free but many (again not all) of my most memorable and joyful moments cost me at least a few dollars or more to make happen.

When was the last time anyone stood on a dessert island? Naked with a belly full of coconut milk saying, “wow, life is good.”

@ChazMaz Fabulous idea!! Just what I was looking for in my next vaca! Would you be my travel agent?

@ChazMaz though I can appreciate the image, you’ve got the wrong dessert (put me down for the strawberry cheesecake). I can only hope that your island is deserted.

Ooops, that is what I get for getting on this half a sleep. lol

Make mine strawberry cheesecake too. ;-)

at first glance neither lead to the other but they actually do.

Money gives you OPTIONS. then you have to take the next logical step (find your happiness).

Doing the kind of work that makes you happy can lead you to money especially if its the kind of task where proficiency gradually increases with time spent. A typical example would be graphic design. Passion would shine through and draw more clients to you and hence more money.
So they can both be used as pathways to the other but its not guaranteed.

Money has nothing at all to do with true happiness. Money can give you comfort or provide you with distraction but not true happiness. Happiness costs nothing.

Would like an example of that.

@Cruiser I suppose that we could wedge in a difference between joy over receiving loads of money and being more generally well-disposed.
To further elaborate on my post, I would say that having more money leads to having more security (to a point), leading to less worrying overall. But if you derive all of your security from your money, you’re going to start fussing about having enough, which you fix by trying to get more money…

@ChazMaz Would you argue that Mother Theresa was not happy? She had no money, few possessions, lived in one of the most deplorable places on earth yet she said that she was happy. St. Francis of Assisi is another great example. Born into wealth, he gave up every material possession and impacted to world. Look at Linsay Lohan and Briney Spears. They’re famous and wealthy but are they happy? Hardly, in fact, they’re wealth is facilitating their self destruction.

Few possessions. Key word is possessions. The question was money not wealth. And what Mother Teresa and St. Francis had. They still had, including clothing and a roof over their head. They did things that might not have directly come from their pocket but came from some form or another of others findings.

“Look at Linsay Lohan and Briney Spears. They’re famous and wealthy but are they happy?”
I don’t know. I have not asked them. And WE ALL have issues, and life experiences that will bring our mood down..

@ChazMaz:Mother Theresa had no money of her own and neither did St. Francis. Had either been given a large sum of money, they would have given it away. The only additional happiness it would have brought them would have been that they were able to give it away.

I have not asked Lindsay or Britney if they are happy either but I don’t think many people would agree that they are truly happy or that their money is cheering them up.

If a person is predisposed to be see the glass half empty and the world as generally bad and is more often depressed and engages in self destructive behavior would you conclude that giving them 10 million dollars would make them happy?

Do a search on lottery winners. A large percentage of them have said that money actually ruined their lives and the money actually amplified their problems.

To sum it up, I still do not believe that money will make you happy; any amount of money. Happiness comes from within.

Money is a recourse. On its own it serves no purpose. Unless you need to blow your nose. :-)

Money (resources) is relevant as to what your needs or wants are. What they had or had not, based on your own needs might have not seem like anything at all. But it provided what they needed to be happy.
Food. clothing and access to transportation. These resources (money), as small as it might seem to you, helped provide them happiness.

Fact from fiction, truth from diction. Money can’t buy happiness but it make misery way more bearable. Money (lots of it) can help the average person find happiness or get to it better, when you don’t have to worry about paying the cell phone bill, the utility bill, cable, Internet, mortgage, car note etc you have less stress; and less stress can open the way to better happiness.

The amount of money that would make me happy is an amount where I can have the toys I want, have all the expenses paid with as much thought given to them as buying a McDouble and have the confidence that it is self-propelling, something with tons lf leverage. That would add up to peace of mind and that creates happiness.

’ the how and why of whether you would be happier being richer or richer being happy?
I dont understand, “richer being happy.” But happier being richer?
Happy isn’t the right word. Richer can create financial security when you never had it. It can make life easier being able to buy a car that doesn’t break down, a generator for your home, new air conditioning/heater, the best medical care, etc.
So I will say it buys comfort. Not happiness, exactly. But can you be happy with bill collectors calling all day?