Is amount of happiness dependent on money?

1. 79

   navneetjhaposted 12 years ago

   Is amount of happiness dependent on money?
   
   Does more money mean more happiness? In my personal opinion, poor and rich enjoy same quantity of happiness. Just the definition of happiness is different for them. What do you think??

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2. 83

   M. T. Dremerposted 12 years ago

   I think there is a threshold that, once passed, can no longer provide any sort of happiness. Basically it comes down to a sense of security. For example, if my car breaks down and I need immediate repairs, knowing that I had enough money in the bank to pay for it while continuing to pay my other obligations, will make me happier than if I couldn't afford it. But, having so much money that one of your twenty cars has a problem that needs fixing, then there really isn't any more security you can buy. A better way to describe it is that a comfortable amount of money can buy the conditions where happiness can flourish. That doesn't mean that poor or low income people can't be happy, but it's undeniable that it's harder to be happy when the stress of unpaid bills is weighing down on you.

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3. 64

   MG Singhposted 12 years ago

   You can be happy only once your needs are filled and how do you fulfill your needs? this is only with money. So on a ten point scale  having money in direct relation to happiness is 7.

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4. 35

   edhanposted 12 years ago

   Being together with love ones is my definition of happiness.
   
   Money is just a source of income for survival. Money does not equal to happiness.

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5. 74

   stanwshuraposted 12 years ago

   Up to a certain point, at which you are relatively secure wrt food, housing, healthcare, retirement, and hopefully some financial plan or preparedness for your kids' post-high school education/training/service, money is a *worry*.
   
   If and when this bar is reached, which is a qualitatively defined status, a person's happiness is not measured by some *quantitative* ratio or formula.  My favorite people are young (pre jr high/wise-ass capable) children who, by legal definition have no independent material assets (mom and dad have the final say, which hopefully changes and/or diminshes as their children reach appropriate stages of development and maturity, where opportunity for choice and some control is *vital*) and yet know, almost as if instinctive, how to be happy and live curious, exploritory, and ever-learning lives.  Some grown-ups really mess with that, either by "teaching" their children that possessions and economic/class status are how THEY find happiness, and worse, by showering them with material possessions, very often as a warped way of showing love, or to try to assuage absentee guilt.  Similarly, children who do not know when/if their empty stomachs will be nourished, or who know (and they DO know) that their family could lose their home, security, comfort, safety and self-sufficiency or are always amidsts that fog - that blanket of desperate pressure and chronic stress and anxiety, have very little hope of setting that aside (is that even possible?!  *DOUBT* it.) so as to spend their childhoods being *children*.
   
   It isn't about the money.

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6. 83

   Mrs Jil Manningposted 12 years ago

   what a good question!  Some of my happiest times have been when I have been monetarily very poor, but so have some of my most stressful times.  Years of grinding poverty without a glimmer of hope for change, with no holiday or break to look forward to can erode the most optimistic spirit, but happiness comes in small packages as well as big glossy ones, so it is still possible.  Love, laughter and family will always be my number one sources of happiness.

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7. 38

   ChristinSposted 12 years ago

   If it were, those who had a lot of money would totally blissful people.  In my experience there are both "poor" people who are happy and "rich" people who are also happy and kind.  Happiness is a mindset - not an attainment.  You can choose it or choose to be miserable.

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8. 39

   faisalb87posted 12 years ago

   No there are many things for happiness which you can’t buy with money....

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9. 69

   Brinafr3shposted 12 years ago

   Sometimes it is, because some people especially women would rather move on with a new life, if they had the money to help them. Instead of being a relationship with a man that the primary money-maker, but he is not a kind friend. So in this instance money can help with happiness.

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10. 61

    Shelbyvanposted 12 years ago

    I think happiness shouldn't be based on what items you have or how much money you have. Happiness should be based on you. You can't truly be happy unless your secure within yourself and trust that you know yourself. And that self doesn't need anyone or anything to be happy. Your strong to be happy all by yourself. And that's what you'll leave this world with, YOURSELF.

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11. 0

    JThomp42posted 12 years ago

    No, Money cannot but happiness. Take clinical depression for instance. No amount of money can cure it. Therefore, You can be filthy rich and also miserable at the same time.

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    1. 39

       faisalb87posted 12 years agoin reply to this

       100% Agree with you....

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    2. 0

       JThomp42posted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Thank you faisalb87.

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12. 0

    Wesley Clarkposted 12 years ago

    Navneetjha,
    Having had my practice for over 19 years and working with clients who range from what society defines as rich to poor, the answer is....it depends.
    
    I have had very wealthy clients who had much money, but had cancer, or heart disease, and money could not help them.  I remember one client, who has since passed on who said to me in my office one day; "Wesley, see that railroad track down the street?  I would give up all my money, and live as a hobo, if I could have my health back."
    
    Isn't happiness dependent on what is important to a person their life?  I have known people who have worked to make as much money as they could, in order to service the "debt" they incurred on items they thought would bring them happiness.  In the end, it didn't, but rather made them regret buying those items.
    
    To me, happiness is living a calm and peaceful life.  Enjoying the company of loved ones, and of valued friends.  Living each day to the fullest extent that I can, and hopefully making a difference in the world.  Creating, not tearing down.
    
    Money is merely an object to use in the exchange for goods or services.  It is not evil.  I think the issue is more of how we manage our money, or does it manage us?  Do we go into needless debt, to keep up with the "jones", or are we wise and live within our "means", not someone elses.
    
    Maybe a better question to ask is, what amount of "my" happiness is dependent on money?  Adjust accordingly.

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    1. 79

       navneetjhaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       One of the best answers I have received on the topic ever. Thanks a ton. Voting up straight away

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13. 68

    sahbam16posted 12 years ago

    It depends in which way one looks at the question. Just having money does not make some less or more likely to have the capacity to show true happiness. Because one could be a millionaire and be, in his mind, detached from his money and be able to have strong bonds with his family and can be the happiest man alive. However a man can be a millionaire and solely care about his money and see the only measure of success as material returns and development and be wholly attached to the idea of developing further and further at any consequence. This identifies a distortion in the term happiness and the fact that it is completely unrelated to material wealth.

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