In the article “How to Buy Happiness”, by Sonja Lyubomirsky, they surveyed over two hundred thousand college students about what makes them happy and the majority of the answers were ‘being very well off financially’. The author didn’t understand how money and happiness went hand in hand so she decided to speak with an ivy league graduate about it. At the end of that discussion, the graduate realized that he had it all, everything he can ask for but he still wasn’t happy. Studies say that it is not about how much we spend or what we possess but more of how we spend it. When looking at an updated study, the author realized that the more income an individual possessed the more happier they claimed to be, mostly because of the wealth they contained. Where other places, such as Cornell University and University of Colorado, believe that experiences is what makes us happy. When we get new things it is only a matter of time until it becomes old to us and needs to be replaced, but experiences we tend to remember them. Another reason why experiences are richer is because they cant be compared to by others, which is different from a possession where people can compare them to. They tend to say people who compare themselves to others or belongings to one another are those that tend to be unhappy within themselves. There was another study that said a way to gain happiness is by spending money on others. The act of buying something for someone whether they need it or not gives us a sense of gratitude and compassion. It gives us a sense of well-being and helps build social interactions and relationships with others, we are so distracted by our own problems that we forget the world.
In the world we live in today, many people believe that money buys happiness. In my opinion it is all an illusion. When you go out and spend money on luxurious things it feels good, however it is only a temporary happiness. But, when you go out with friends, family, or loved ones you create memories that will stay with you forever.
Say for example you are a parent with a full-time job, you have a stable income but you don’t get to spend as much time with your child as you wish. As far as home necessities and all the materialistic things in life, you have them because your able to afford it. So you spend all this time living and believing that you are happy, or at least content. Then the day comes where you are laying in your deathbed, you wont be thinking to yourself ‘i should have worked another hour’ but more like ‘i wish i could have spent more time with my child’.
Just because you make money, you don’t have to let it make you. Life is what you make of it and money is temporary, whereas memories are forever.
