I was going through town with my dog on the way to the vet when I heard two people arguing about "Money does not buy you happiness" Simple fact it does if you are a working Man/Woman you will completely understand what I mean. If not you can still relate to it a little.

This is just a story none the less: You get a letter it’s from work. Inside there’s your paycheck and on it says Fifty Thousand. (Excluding taxes Ext) From what you heard, your work has mistakenly sent out some overplayed checks. You where lucky that you got one. Let's say you can get away with this payment or you can return it and receive your average wage maybe (Example) 800$. Now are you going to return this check and have to suffer with bills and more? Or will would you keep it and live happy for a while?

Ask yourself Eight Hundred Or a Whopper Fifty Thousand. I'm sure all the Middle Class people will choose the higher number. Why, because you will be happy as hell! Some people wom have whom won the Fifty Million Dollar lottery! Wont be sad or angry.

That’s an unimaginable amount of money. Are they going to say a stupid comment "Money Does not buy you Happiness?" There’s no hell they would because its Fifty Million! The rest of your life you don’t have to work "Unless you Invest" all you get to do is live out the rest of you days a happy guy. There children education will be paid for mortgages and taxes will never be a problem. Your entire Family-relatives will be free. It simply does buy happiness.

Thought?

Immediate happiness, yes. Long term, no.

There have been scientific tests to prove that after a period of time, everyone who has encountered a sudden change in fortune (the people in the tests had either won a large sum of money or had a limb amputated) returns to a base level of happiness.

So yes, money will buy you short term happiness. Easier on the bills, new tv, what not. But after a while, you'll be back to being just as happy as you were before the incident.

EDIT: Here's the test http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/690806

Money corrupts, just as power does. Corruption has no happy ending.

I think you're ignoring the central tenet behind that saying. What brings people happiness? Is it just "things"? Is it the objects purchased through retail outlets in exchange for our cash reserves, however meager or vast? Not really. They can help, but they are almost never the root cause for the happiness. Most people measure happiness by the social connections and actions that they have made through their lives. People bring people happiness more often than not - and when you take money out of the picture and those people are still there, then there is good cause to be happy.

The same can be said for love. Money... Can't buy it.

I say money will bring you happiness over a long term if you are smart with said money.

Most people aren't smart with their money though.

money is the what I use to procure the things that amuse me... so yes I agree.

however, about the thing where you can afford to pay your relatives all you want is a misconception. a lot of lottery winners go broke quickly because 1) you can either get the lump sum (which gets pretty much half taken in taxes) or the monthly payments which gets substantial less taxed out of it. from 1) scenario, every one and I mean EVERYONE in your family and that you know will want you to give them at least 100,000 dollars. you will either do so (and quickly looser all your money) or tell them no. if you tell them no they will say "well your a millionaire now, you can afford it, its just 100,000 dollars". on top of the very likely chance that who ever wins the lottery is not good at making good decisions with their money, they will probably blow it all on expensive stuff like a mansion of which will eat up their lottery money in property tax.

decipher that if you care too.

That's what I thought.

Maybe I was too personal with what I said. If for example I won I would never by some mansion. I would go for a nice size home in the country where I grew up. Getting a house in the country is so,so,so,so,so,so,so,so much cheap rather then buying in the city. Believe me I know.

I've found that the type of women I am attracted to only like guys who have bottomless pockets, so yes, money would in fact buy my happiness.

People always seem to miss the point of what "money can't buy happiness" actually means. You give examples of paying for your children's education and taking care of your family and relatives, but what if you don't have any family or relatives, no children, no love? What if you're all alone and everyone hates you and you have nothing you want to do with your life? Money can't make those things better.

Having financial comfort can certainly make you happy, especially if you're accustomed to not having it, but it is not the end-all be-all of happiness. At the end of the day, financial comfort means very little. It's the things that are important to us as human beings that make us happy or not, not the things that are important to us as consumers.

There have actually been some http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2019628,00.html done on how money affects happiness, with the general finding that having a higher income does increase how happy people feel with their lives, up to the point that they don't have any serious day-to-day financial concerns bothering them, after which point increases in income aren't accompanied by any statistically significant increases in happiness. The findings of the study I linked to but the cut-off point for where increased income stops affecting happiness at $75,000 a year (at least for US residents), and a few other similar studies have come up with similar numbers.

It's a big topic.

Anyway, many studies have shown (I can find some for you if you want; I don't know any authors at the top of my head) that subjective well-being and money do, indeed, have a positive relationship. It may not be a straight line, nor is it strong one, but the relationship is there. This leads many people to think on either extremes: either it cannot buy happiness, or it can. The effects of money on subjective well-being isn't really black and white.

I mean can you say that the money grants them permanent long term happiness? Probably not. As with most things, people habituate to their new level of comfort, and the requirements for gaining the same amount (if you can quantify happiness) usually increases.

While it doesn't necessarily grant happiness, it does help: more money equates to being able to afford necessities and pleasures; your quality of life is maintained.

What it usually comes down to is habit: how much people let their lives revolve around money. A lot of money usually comes with a lot of stress, especially if you're in a high-level job/career.

e.g.,

Person A -- high financial aspiration; highly materialistic; prone to spending money loosely

Person B -- low financial aspiration; not materialistic; prone to spending money loosely.

Person C -- high financial aspiration; not materialistic; is tight with money.




/Psychology mode

tl;dr: OP's half wrong.

People take anything for granted after a certain amount of time. once it's lost it's "novelty" for lack of a better word, they feel no better for it. They forget how hard they had to work to pay the bills, and now they don't have to worry about it. day after day passes without them thinking about it. So it's really all the same. I would agree that you go back to the same base level of happiness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QphglQu3oL0 said it best

As one T-shirt said, "money does not buy me happiness, but I'd rather cry in a BMW than in a bus"

That said, money doesn't make you happy but it sure is better than not having money.

lol. "money doesn't buy happiness, but it buys marshmallows, and that's pretty much the same thing"

fix'd