Can Money Buy Happiness?

It's such an old cliche, "money can't buy happiness". I get it; I get what people are trying to convey with it. It doesn't mean they are right, because they aren't. They're wrong both philosophically and logically. Fundamentally, the message should be "money doesn't guarantee happiness". I would absolutely argue money can buy happiness, it does not mean it will buy happiness, though. At its core, there are two main issues: how you get the money does a lot in determining if it can buy happiness, and money cannot buy happiness without self-awareness.

Of course, one of the proverbs of "money can't buy happiness" is that if you dedicate your life to acquiring money, you will have wasted your life. That's absolutely true unless you have a job that you positively love, which most of us don't. Even in that scenario, it's not the money that is buying you happiness. The pursuit of wealth is one that is ingrained in our heads in the United States; money gets us the things we want after all, right? Well, yes, but the time costs and the quality of life costs are very real, and our bodies and minds are paying up in order to get another digit on that paycheck. A big issue here is that many people don't realize it until it is too late. It's not until later in life do individuals regret spending more time in the office and less with their loved ones or doing personally enriching things. Having money enables a person to do a lot of things, no doubt. But expenditure of money in this scenario really result in a temporary feeling of happiness, not a greater overarching sense of contentment in life.

So what causes the issue above? I'd argue it's a lack of self-awareness, which in itself precludes happiness. Working your life away to attain money demonstrates the inability to recognize the futility of having money and not being able to enjoy the luxuries or experience afforded by having it. But take that away for a moment and just assume that a person inherited a small fortune and didn't trade off working for money. That money still won't buy happiness without self-awareness. Sure, there's a comfort level with not having to worry about financial security, but it doesn't make life any more worthwhile or fulfilling. Maybe you use the money to try and "buy" friends, maybe you buy possessions that give you a momentary sense of satisfaction, but it leaves you sitting in a spot where you still don't know what you want. Deploying the money requires knowing what makes you tick, how you can put the money to use in a way that provides a deeper fulfillment that doesn't quickly fade.

I think at the end of the day, most people dream about having some sort of windfall and imagining some awesome life subsequent to that. I can imagine it, too. You can really only take so many long days at the office doing something that really doesn't make you feel like you've made a difference in the world before you begin to think about it. That's actually what triggered this; once again having the realization that my mood fluctuates so greatly with environment at work alongside the notion that no matter what job I have, I am not going to have the job of my dreams, made me feel that my mood is almost always going to be down, in a constant struggle to try and be happy in my personal life whilst ignoring how meaningless my career is to me. For me, having money wouldn't be about living some lavish lifestyle, it would just allow me to relax, to not worry about failure. Stress often comes from being forced to do things at a pace you aren't comfortable with. When you take the anxiety of failure, take away most of your spare time due to work, you're left with a great deal of stress because you don't feel you have the time to do what you'd like because you're afraid of failing in the period of time you have. That's where the self-awareness and knowing what changes and how to make them become important, and that is where money can buy happiness.