Can Money Make You Happy?

DOLLAR$ and $EN$E, May 2007, by Brian Bogaert


Can MONEY
Make You Happy?


Today’s topic is about whether or not money can truly make you happy. Let’s start by discussing what money is.

Dictionary.com: mon - ey [muhn-ee] -noun  
a medium of exchange including coins, paper money and demand deposits; a measure of value; means of payment; measure of wealth.

Boooooring!

What this basically means for you is that money is a tool. A tool is something we use to get what we want, but we don’t want to confuse the tool for what we actually want. Here’s an example... your refrigerator is a tool. It keeps your food cool, which allows you to have access to it in a very convenient way, pretty much anytime you want it. You get hungry, you go to the fridge, you grab a snack, and your hunger is soon gone. It would be silly however, to then say “well the fridge just satisfied my hunger”. It, of course, did not. The fridge was the tool that allowed you access to food, which is what satisfied your hunger.

Money is a tool as well (and much easier to put in your purse than a fridge!). Money allows us to buy things that we want or need, and it gives us access to lots of things we would not have without it. Just like a fridge does not satisfy hunger, money does not change how we feel, or the way others feel about us. If you can remember that, you will have a LOT fewer problems with money than many people (young and old) do.

There are MANY truly happy people that we would consider poor, and MANY extremely unhappy people that are very wealthy. This would seem to prove that how we feel is up to us, and has little to do with money.

Here’s a test you can try:
Go look in your closet right now. I bet you that somewhere in there or in your room, is something you bought in the last few months that at the time, you believed made you very happy (or popular or smart or whatever). I bet that before you bought it, it seemed like the GREATEST thing in the world and now you hardly even think about it. And what about the cash that was used to buy that thing… would you trade it back for the money if you could?

So we can be fooled into thinking that money is something that creates our happiness, or that the thing that we bought with our money is what made us happy… but even that doesn’t last very long. In reality, it’s the perception we have of the buying experience that makes us happy.

Shopping with your friends, feeling excited about something new, and having a fun experience is what makes you happy…not money or even the thing you bought.

As much as we may think that ‘stuff’ is what it is will make us happy, it just isn’t true. Let’s talk about that for a minute. Do you think money is something that can change the way other people feel about us?

Try this one…
Tape money to your clothes before you go to school (not really!). But if you did, I believe that you would be VERY popular for the first 15 minutes or so. Everyone would want to be your friend! However…see how long that popularity lasts once the money is gone. Only then will you find out who your real friends are.

Money may make you temporarily popular but it is not true popularity.
Just like new clothes will not make you happy for long, the most expensive shampoo will not make boys like you, getting a raise in your allowance or at your job will only make you happy for a short time. In the end, it is your experiences and how you choose to feel about them that makes you happy or sad, just like what kind of a friend you are determines how popular you are. Remember, money is just a tool.

So what CAN money do for you?
Money can give you opportunities once you realize how to use it as a tool. The opportunity to travel the world and see and do many wonderful and amazing things; the opportunity to live in a beautiful house where it is safe to raise a family; the opportunity to get an education that will open MANY doors for you in the future with career, friends, and experiences. And perhaps most of all… money can buy you time. With money, you can
pay other people to do the things you don’t enjoy doing so that you have time to pursue other things that are fun and make you happy.

Just try to remember that money, like many other things, is a tool. And if you use that tool to your advantage, you can move towards the things you want that really do make you happy.

MONEY TIP #1
Money can't make you happy or sad. It's just a thing we use to buy stuff. YOU are what makes you happy or sad.

~ Brian

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