Does money buy happiness?

tdf7187

The untimely death of Margaret Loughrey would suggest not.

Yester

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/euromillions-winner-margaret-loughrey-found-dead-40812070.html

Sounds like she had a hard time of it.

“Money has brought me nothing but grief. It has destroyed my life,” she said.

Money can buy security and comfort but happiness?

I don't think so.

Jequ0n

I like money and it does make me happy

The J Stands for Jay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117839136#Comment_117839136

So, you're saying I should eat the money?

TheValeyard

Money can buy financial relief. Never have to worry about food on the table, the best of Healthcare and lifestyle. It can most definitely make your life easier and more enjoyable. Do things you obviously could not normally do at a whim. I'd say it be a great de-stresser in some ways.

But as for happiness. It probably helps, but not the defining or end all factor.

CIP4

I think in general money can’t buy happiness. However shortage of money can bring a lot of stress and worry so up to a point it does. Once you have enough money to pay all your bills and have a decent standard of living after that point I don’t think having more money will make you happier.

Riddle101

It really depends on the person. You'd have to assume that the idea of buying happiness comes from those who don't have anything else. No family, no friends, no real companionship, people who are lonely. Of course, there's always the case that the person might be depressed too.

That being said, those who are satisfied with life tend to be happy with themselves, tend to be in a good place, so if they won the lotto I think they would be happy with their winnings, and happy to buy luxuries and all kinds of things they dreamed to have.

I don't know if it can truly buy happiness but it can make life easier for people which might help in the pursuit of happiness.

iLikeWaffles

“No point having £27m and being lonely. That can’t make me happy, that can only make me happy that everybody else’s happy and so far everybody is absolutely delighted.”

Sounds like she was extremely unhappy to begin with. You can't live life wanting other people to be happy. Taking every little thing to heart is bound to be a big problem in your life.

iamstop

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117839155#Comment_117839155

Came in to the thread to say basically this. Poverty can bring misery, therefore lack of poverty due to some amount of money/stable income can relieve or eliminate that.

Beyond a certain point, no. But up to that point, yes, massively.

Being content is more important than happiness..

If a person is clinically depressed or has an anxiety disorder money isn't going to fix their issues. Could even make it worse.

FishOnABike

As someone said to me "Money can't buy you happiness but it can make being miserable a lot of fun"

I think any studies on it I have read - if memory serves - suggests that a certain amount of money fosters happiness and well being but anything over that has a diminishing effect. And then anything over a certain high level can in fact cause misery for all kinds of reasons.

There is probably a threshold where you feel secure and safe - but still not devoid of the meaning involved in earning and providing for yourself and your family.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117839126#Comment_117839126

She would not be alone in the list of people who suffered after winning large amounts of money. This you tube video here describes a few other cases where people won a lot of money and life went absolutely hellish after that - while people who won moderate amounts like 50 or 150k were significantly more likely to go bankrupt later - - >

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-G1uXNeFLs

BraveDonut

"I have been rich, and I have been poor. Believe me baby, rich is better! - Ella Fitzgerald

D3V!L

It can't buy you happiness but it can buy you a motorcycle and thats pretty damn close.

Sleepy

Money can eliminate many of the normal sources of misery in life. It can't buy happiness but it can help you avoid a lot of problems. I don't buy the "over a certain threshold will make you miserable" bit: if you have so much money that people are pestering you for it, give whatever you don't need away. Honestly I think that'd be my favourite part of a euromillions win: getting to clear mortgages for family and friends, anonymous philanthropy in my local community etc.

The Mighty Quinn

I remember reading something somewhere that the optimum income for happiness is something like 70,000 per annum, which seems quite low to me if we're talking about a sum to see you comfortable. If you're a single income earner on that in Dublin paying a mortage you're still under pressure etc etc.

BorneTobyWilde

Yes money can buy you happiness, if you're not a stupid clueless person. I see it all the time, even with family

'' what would you do if you won the euromillions''

''get the kitchen done up for one, go on a holiday'' WTF

If you win the Euromillions then you cannot not live in your home for starters , or like the woman who did win it, you'll have every tom dick and harry hounding you daily until you kill yourself.

mamax

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117872531#Comment_117872531

My version 😎 - It can't buy you happiness but it can buy you lots of motorcycles and that's pretty damn close.

If the experience of the people in the video above are to be believed - simply giving it away might not solve many of the problems of a large windfall or large quantities of money however. As one of the people mentioned described - people would literally start grabbing him and his wife in the street thinking touching them would bring luck - while others would comment about "here comes the lottery people" and other forms of overt resentment. As for people pestering - giving it away would not convince some people you do not have that money any more. They can likely still believe you have it short of sending everyone your bankruptcy papers :)

But it is a strange thought that the idea of a threshold for misery is not something to buy into because you can simply give the money away. Surely that verifies the concept rather than shows why not to buy into it? If we say that you can give money away to fall below that threshold causing misery - there surely that tacitly acknowledges that threshold even while denying it exists? Something doesn't add up in the thinking there for me :) It sounds a bit to me like saying "I do not believe germs make me ill because sure I can just get rid of the germs and then I feel fine again".

Anyway I have not read all that many studies on it and it has been a long time since I did so I am only guessing. I do remember reading something around 2010 that suggested that after a certain threshold money tended to stop increasing happiness and started to often do the reverse. But I just notice on google now that there is another study this year showing the exact opposite - that there is no threshold and that happiness keeps going up with money. But nothing in the video I linked to above makes me keen to win 100s of millions any time soon.

But something as subjective as happiness is going to be difficult to study meaningfully anyway. So it probably comes down to nothing more than the individual and there is no actual answer to the thread title to be had.

ec18

money gives you more choices, if you make bad ones without money you'll make bad ones with money. If all you have is being rich then you won't be happy as your life will be based on consumption and getting that dopamine hit from newer flashier things. Maslow was on the right track you need to have more than just money and things to be a happy person.

D3V!L

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117872761#Comment_117872761

Exactly, have you ever seen a sad person riding a motorcycle ?

Is it every time though? Or is it for some people a bit like sex with contraception when they say "But we did not want to get pregnant!". As in the activity of entering into the lotto itself was the desire - with little or no expectation of the unlikely outcome ever actually occurring.

For some people it might be the activity of checking the numbers - talking to others about it - imagining "what if" scenarios - and just participating. But I wonder how many of them actually sit down and think about the implications of winning the full jackpots and if it is what the genuinely want? My own mother used to play a single quick picks sometimes and then never actually bother to check the numbers. She could never explain why she did this or what she got out of it. There are some unclaimed jackpots. For all I know she was one of them.

So I dunno - people are seriously weird sometimes. I would not assume to know what anyone's desired outcomes are from anything they do sometimes :) But I can kind of understand what the guy may have been trying to say with that sentence even if the sentence sounds ridiculous. It sounds like making a distinction between "having a lot of money" and all the other implications of being "rich". Having a lot of money is just a bank balance. Being "rich" is a state of being - socially, mentally, and so forth. I suspect many people playing a lottery would very much love a lot of money - but have not even considered the state of being "rich".

Jafin

Personally I do not want to ever be rich, but I suppose whether or not it gives you happiness comes down to what type of person you are and what you do with it. I'm quite a lazy person, so if I have more than one or two weeks off work I tend to get very bored and stay at home wasting away the days. I worry that if I ever got rich out of nowhere (as in became a millionaire) I'd end up just staying at home doing nothing for the rest of my life. Other people might use that kind of money to set up businesses or get involved with charity work or do something else with the money that fulfils them.

This is probably a stupid metaphor but the way I think about it is by comparing it to cheating in a video game - if I use a cheat to give me infinite money or infinite health or something then it sucks the fun out of the game for me. I only desire to ever have enough money so that I'm comfortable and don't have to worry about it. If I want something expensive I have no problem saving up for it.

Money buys you the time and headspace to focus on the things that do make you happy. Whether you choose to focus on those things is up to the individual. But money gives you the opportunity to be happy - puts happiness in front of you to be taken.

A lack of money can most definitely take that opportunity away

JimmyVik

I think id be lots happier with lots more money.

Id definitely be more unhappy with less money.

Montage of Feck

Enough to but an average house and a car would do me fine, anything above this would probably lead to grief.

Patsy167

More money doesn’t equal more happiness. Money is only a symbolic goal that represents happiness. However, money will give you more freedom to find purpose, meaning and satisfaction.

Where most people go wrong is that they will make money their god and will not find direct fulfillment in the pursuit of money. When they realise this, it leaves them miserable.

Many celebrities have as much money as anyone could ever dream of, yet it seems like they commit suicide at a higher rate than the general population  

JDD

I think the first mistake people make when they win the lottery is telling the newspapers and the public that they won the lottery. It puts such a massive amount of pressure on you. You don't have to go public.

The second mistake is touching a penny of the money for six months. Everyone has heard about the lottery winners going bankrupt, or divorcing their spouses etc etc. It's natural to want to go on a spending spree or jack in your job, but you have to let the win and the money sink in. Have a real think about what you want to do with it. "I have worked out exactly what I would do with a euromillions win, that I hope would avoid any of the pitfalls like the poor lady in the north fell into, while maximising the "happiness" out of the win.

The first thing I would do is talk to an expensive financial advisor. Not the lad on the high street who does the local builders tax returns and administers pension schemes. I mean a Goldman Sachs wealth manager. The ones that the actual old money rich people use. Decide what income you would like to have every year for the rest of your life, and what kind of house you'd like to live in, that doesn't put a huge gap or wedge between you and your mates lifestyles. No point in living in an eight bed mansion in Killiney if your mates are bursting out of their three bed semi in Inchicore. Even if you have paid their mortgage off. You'll have nothing in common anymore, and the the nice house won't make up for the missed nights out.

Work out how much it will cost to pay off family & friends mortgages. I'm a solicitor myself, so I would be telling them that anonymity is the price they have to pay to get this windfall. I would buy the debt from the bank, and then write it off five years later. If I find that I have to move house and hire security for my children, because they couldn't resist a €10k payment from a tabloid to reveal our identity, I'll foreclose. It sounds heartless, but they don't have to take the money, and if they are good friends/family they won't want to jeopardise our safety. And if our safety has a price to them, then I have no qualms whatsoever about foreclosing.

Keep a reasonable nest egg for emergencies in the bank. Set up your fund to pay you a nice stipend every year. Buy your new house. Pay out everything you want to pay for family/friends over the same few days. Then give the rest anonymously to charity. Even if its millions. Tell your close friends and family what you are doing, so that they don't think you are some bottomless pit for money and they won't automatically think they can come to you to pay for Disneyland or their new kitchen.

Everyone else might wonder where you got the money for the new car, and new house and a few new clothes etc. Tell them a distant relative died and left you with a reasonable inheritance. And say nothing else.

Job done. Financial security, the knowledge that you never again have to work in a job you hate because of finances, enough money to go on nice holidays, and your close friends and family will be a bit more flush with cash too so they can join in on the fun. And you sleep well at night knowing an orphanage in Ethiopia or cancer research or the local hospice can go on for a few more years because of you.

So yes, a lottery win can make you happy, if you are not an idiot about it.