I can agree that money does not necessarily equal happiness, but can attest to "not enough money" can equal increased stress and even unhappiness. Ahhhh.... to reach the magic threshhold would be nice!!Originally Posted by catherine
I can agree that money does not necessarily equal happiness, but can attest to "not enough money" can equal increased stress and even unhappiness. Ahhhh.... to reach the magic threshhold would be nice!!
To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer." Mahatma Gandhi
Be nice whenever possible. It's always possible. HH Dalai Lama
In a world where you can be anything - be kind. Unknown
It's rather like what Freud claimed, that he couldn't make people happy, just remove their neurotic suffering, so they were left with just ordinary human suffering (well noone ever said Freud was an optimist).
Rather like money, it can't make you happy (although if I win the lottery I might seriously rethink this ...), but it can remove the suffering caused by purely economic worries.
Trees don't grow on money
That was a VERY young Penny Marshall!!! LOL.
To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer." Mahatma Gandhi
Be nice whenever possible. It's always possible. HH Dalai Lama
In a world where you can be anything - be kind. Unknown
That’s a good way to look at it, the relationship between money and happiness.
I can't speak for anyone but myself but I have never found more money to make me more happy. Like plenty of people my income has increased over time. Mostly gradually, occasionally in some sizable jumps. But I've always lived within my means and at some point around 4 or 5 years out of college I was no longer living paycheck to paycheck. After that point I stopped feeling like a raise made me happier. I did, however, continue to increase my spending as my income rose, just not as fast as my income went up.
Once I got to $75k/year income though I noticed that pay increases didn't equate to spending increases anymore. Apparently at that point I was literally buying everything I wanted, when I wanted it. Now, as I can see retirement on the horizon within the next decade, the happiness I get from increased income is not because of what I can spend it on today, but in seeing how much more quickly I can reach the financial point where I can retire from paid employment while being able to continue to spend as I do now. So yeah, if my boss gives me a million dollar raise tomorrow my happiness will go through the roof. Not because I'd go out and spend it on some extravagant bazingous pin, but because my perceived retirement age will go through the floor!
I can only speak for myself:
We were barely making it for 20 years. We lived 4 of those years with 3 little kids and no health insurance. Day to day survival. Then our income increased at the same time the kids entered high school. So expenses increased with income.
Ten more years went by, kids became independent, and a few more promotions happened. and finally we had more income than we needed to get by. The lack of stress over money has made us much happier.
There is a breaking point. More money at this point probably wouldn’t increase our happiness any further. But it sure is nice to be able to save and plan ahead and have a few thousand for emergencies these last several years. A world of difference in our quality of life.
I was thinking that was going to be, two minutes and twenty three seconds long, and by Jimmy Soul. And now I have that going through my head.
Yes. I have never made anywhere close to $75K. The threshhold would be life-changing for me, among other things enabling me to put in a second bathroom. My son's severe OCD leads to conflicts in use of the one bathroom.
I hope something comes along that you are able to get that 2nd bathroom. Often it is the little things that make such a huge difference.
To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer." Mahatma Gandhi
Be nice whenever possible. It's always possible. HH Dalai Lama
In a world where you can be anything - be kind. Unknown
Ditto. Once we hit that threshold, every wage increase thereafter, went into retirement accounts, investments, and debt reduction.
When I got my RN license, I started putting every "take home" increase into my 403b. So because of that tax reduction we did have a small increase in take-home. This action preceeded the above.
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