My stepmother once said to me in that wonderfully wry way of hers: ”money won’t make you happy; but it sure helps to solve a lot of problems.” I wonder. If money can help solve your problems, can’t it make you happier?
Some time ago, I stumbled on research finding that once people have enough money to pay for the essentials of life – sufficient food, shelter, clothing, appropriate education and entertainment (like television, books, computer access), additional money on top of that can make us happier.
But what surprised me is that, unless there is some unusual medical or other similar need, relatively small amounts of money make us happier, while after that, mega amounts of money may change our lives, but will not necessarily result in greater contentment, fulfillment, or happiness. The additional amounts of money where it stops increasing reported happiness seem to top out at about $50,000 in today’s money.
I’ve often puzzled about the differences in the amount of money individuals seem to need to feel happy. Among my friends and acquaintances, and even among my own sibs, there are very substantial differences in the amount of money we seem to need to spend in order to feel happy.
In my experience, children who worried about there being enough money to pay for food and other basic needs worry about money more as adults. But the differences do not seem to boil down to child-hood based anxieties and experiences of poverty, though that often has a role. Nor do the differences seem to be reflected in the enjoyment involved in spending money when it is available, or in religious beliefs, or in generosity. Rich and poor seem to have equal distributions of the those who share and those who rarely donate anything to anybody.
Why are some people big spenders? number 10’s on a scale of 1-10? why do they find it impossible to go on vacation and return without “things”? why do they find trips to the shops regular psychological necessities? why do they find even looking at price tags too limiting?
And what is it about other people who are quite happy with used furniture, clothes from second-hand shops, who do not feel deprived if they can’t afford the newest or best or the most?
I don’t have a theory about this myself. But I’m awfully glad my husband and I share a similar acquisitive level. On that scale of 1-10, I think I’m probably about 4.
Maybe I lack courage to be a 10. Even if I had another couple of zeroes on my monthly income.
At this point, I think I’m unlikely ever to find out.
