Money Can’t Buy Happiness

In the article “How To Buy Happiness” by Sonja Lyubomirsky , talks about the different ways people try to buy happiness and how they use it, some wisely and some not very wise. It is stated in the article that a research was done and there was a man who was very wealthy and had everything that he wanted but he still wasn’t happy with himself. Something that was said in the article really stood out to me and i’m sure it did to all the readers was ” It’s how we spend our money-not how much we possess-that has the greater influence on our happiness”. Spending money on expensive things for yourself doesn’t make you happy but if you spend money on helping others you will most likely be guaranteed happiness because you know you used your money for a good cause not just thinking about yourself.

The research that Sonja Lyubomirsky did showed that people are not using their money wisely and this supports the point that was made earlier about spending money on others by helping them and sharing the same happy feeling. Experience on the other hand can make a person happy. Why ? Well if you are helping a person that needs things more than you do you are going to feel good about yourself and share the same mutual feeling with the other person. But if you’re just working all the time and spending long hours of the day to be wealthy and have everything you want won’t make you happy, you’re just going to be a miserable person trying to get things you don’t even need thinking that you are going to be happy. Personally, I agree with this article not only because there is research to prove it but because it’s very true that money can’t buy you happiness, having everything in the world won’t make you happy, being rich won’t do anything for you but gain you respect from others around you not bring you happiness. But if you know how to manage your money if you are a wealthy person and you give back to the community or help out in a charity you will definitely find happiness and be happy for yourself.

Can you buy happiness?

Many people ask the question can money give you happiness? Well, according to the article “How to Buy Happiness” written by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton studies show that money does not make u any happier. They actually realized that having a great amount of money actually makes you think a little bit more about yourself. They saw that what makes you happy are what you experience in life. For example people gain happiness from what they do more than from what they have. They also proved that spending money on others makes people happy. Elizabeth and Michael experimented this conclusion by handing out Starbucks gift cards. The people who treated someone else and shared it came out to be the happiest. By combining giving and experiences It creates “the perfect happiness intervention”.

I absolutely agree with this article. Both authors studies people who moved from a smaller space to a large space and only found one thing. They found that the only thing that changed was the difference in size. It did not make them any more happier. Personally I believe that happiness comes from you. Having valuables and a lot of money or even fame does nothing but give you more attention. Sometimes all it does is keep you stagnant and keeps u feeling the same as before. Things that you do, places that you go and the people that surrounds you is what creates your own happiness.