Why Money Doesn’t Buy Happiness

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I agree and disagree at the same time. When I was a stay-at-home mom living on my enlisted husband's salary, I was extremely satisfied with my life even though we struggled financially. Now that I am providing a second income because we live in an are with a much greater cost of living, I feel unsatisfied even though we have more money. Why? Because I we are still struggling, though not to the same extent, but yet I don't get to care for my children or household to the degree that I used to. I feel like I am a slave to the middle class system. We would like to have another child, but I won't do it if I can't stay home, and that looks like a prospect that is highly unlikely anytime soon.

I work one full-time job and 2 part-time jobs. I do not waste money. I have a budget and stick to it. My utitlies seem to keep increasing, grocery prices keep increasing cost of everything keep rising but not my pay. I recieved a 3% pay increase with my last evaluation. I was told that was good. How I feel is 3% of nothing is still nothing.

Thanks
Chelli Burgess Wichita Falls, Texas

The problem that continues to plague many who attempt to create a model for demand destruction on the price of petroleum due to increased cost;
"These (increasing) costs will gradually reduce profits and, therefore, reduce the willingness of operators to invest in further extraction. That will slow down the growth and, eventually, cause the peak and the successive decline."
??? is that there is economic incentive to invest while the prices continue to climb because there are not ???reduce(d) profits???, but rather there is an increase. Revenue continues to climb because customers at the pump are willing to purchase fuel (and food) on credit and will sacrifice other non-essentials (and a few essentials) to maintain their privilege to drive inefficient vehicles, forgo the added cost of more efficient lighting, fail to turn down the thermostat and put on a sweater. When many begin to feel the squeeze, they do what has pushed part of the economic crisis in the middle and lower socioeconomic strata - they take a small loan against their homes, with a hopeful eye on future changes in employment or children moving out and on to their own independence. They gamble tomorrow with a pay day advance today and pray for overtime next week.
The result has grown behind the numbers from Wall Street for several years now - credit card debt and credit card delinquency is now the highest it has ever been ... catastrophic. What this means is that demand destruction will not happen until quite literally no one can afford to even live on paper money. There are many who would point to the endless diversion the middle and lower classes have found for themselves in this society as some kind of evidence that people everywhere are living good. But too many ???egg-spurts??? look only at numbers like Consumer Confidence or end of the day sales figures ??? without actually stopping to ask themselves, ???Okay ??? the consumers spent the money. Where did they get it???? As the price for a barrel of oil continues to climb, the trickle down effect is an increase in the price of absolutely everything thereafter, with as much as a 6 ??? 9 month delay before it is felt on the grocery store shelf. The economy will continue to grow so long as middle and lower income Americans spend ??? it???s where 2/3 of our economic might derive from. As more and more middle income Americans find the cost of living a real challenge, the country???s economy finds greater strength because more money is kept in circulation, though that also means more people living hand to mouth.
And that, in the final analysis, is the crux of the matter. So long as more and more people find themselves ever increasing their debt, finding it harder and harder to save rainy days, and devoting themselves to overtime hours - this economy will remain a growth economy. As long as big employers like Wal-Mart, The Home Depot, K-Mart and others continue to change hiring policies (part-time or no time) to save on benefits paymen

The keyword in the relation between money and happiness is EXPECTATION.

Simple, isn't it?
LOL.

Great Article! Money enhances our ability to make choices. People make good choices and people make bad choices. Money increases our opportunity to excel, or to "screw up".

"Money can't buy you happiness, but it can buy you a Jet-Ski. Try frowning on a Jet-Ski."

"Young people who describe themselves as happy typically earn higher incomes, years later, than those who said they were unhappy" Says who? This would seem to be a thoroughly difficult thing to study.

Money only enhances what's already there in a person. If you a giving person, you're going to give more. If you're a stingy person, you're going to hold on to more. If you have poor money management skills, you're going to go bankrupt faster. Money only enhances what's already there in a person.

non sense first of all any good teatise on the subject should carry definitions of boundaries. Wealth in America is not making half a million and living in New York City. Wealth is trying to decide whether to trade in your G 405 on a new 7X. Wealth is giving your new bride a paid up lifetime annuity and not missing the money. Wealth is assurance from your AMEX Black card concierge that altough Villa D'Este is completely booked this weekend they will ahve a large suite for you on your arrival.
An article on wealth and happiness should at the very least have an expert in the field on the staff.
Also the long areed to premise of wealth has not been offered " Money wont buy you happiness, but it will get you so close you wont know the difference"

Money only enhances what's already there. So if your a giving person, you'll give more. If your a stingy person, you'll hold on to more. If you have poor money management skills, you'll go bankrupt faster. Money only enhances what's already there.

IN the words of the immortal Leta Parks "Those that do not think money cannnot buy happiness are just not shopping in the rights stores."

I echo Spignardo -- had similar experience only single and without children.

I echo Spignardo wholeheartedly, only I have no children to think of and only my own needs to meet.

I can honestly say that I believe that I am as happy as it is possible to be. It has nothing to do with money and everything to do with surrounding myself with wonderful people and developing positive and enduring relationships with them. Of course it is necessary to have enough income to support your family with food, shelter etc, but I don't believe that being able to have whatever you want whenever you want it adds to happiness. I think that it all depends on the individual, if you are able to put material things aside and be grateful for what brings you joy, then you can find happiness. I also believe that these people would continue to be happy, even with more money, providing that they don't lose sight of what it was that made them happy before the money came. The wealthy individuals who do not consider themselves happy are probably missing out on the joys of life that cost nothing. If our society placed more emphasis on who we are and how we treat others rather than what we have, I believe that the people who are considered to be the wealthy ones would not be those with a big bank account.

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The Inuit are happy because they are ALIVE and not frozen. The people of Calcutta are happy because they are ALIVE. The slum dwellers are ALIVE...

If you ask a person with only one foot if he is happy, and he lives in a land of legless men, he is probably pretty damn happy, relatively....

Ask the same thing of an American inner-city child and he will tell you he is going to be a rich and famous gun toting rapper with all the "bling" and hos, or a rich, professional football player with all the pit bulls.

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