Does money buy happiness?

tdf7187 · 02-09-2021 6:12pm #1

The untimely death of Margaret Loughrey would suggest not.

Yester · 02-09-2021 6:26pm

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.

02-09-2021 6:29pm

Money can buy security and comfort but happiness?

I don't think so.

Jequ0n · 02-09-2021 6:30pm

I like money and it does make me happy

The J Stands for Jay · 02-09-2021 6:31pm

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

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

TheValeyard · 02-09-2021 6:31pm

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 · 02-09-2021 6:33pm

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 · 02-09-2021 6:38pm

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 · 02-09-2021 6:40pm

“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 · 02-09-2021 6:41pm

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.

02-09-2021 6:48pm

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

02-09-2021 6:52pm

Being content is more important than happiness..

02-09-2021 7:02pm

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 · 10-09-2021 12:15pm

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

10-09-2021 2:03pm

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 · 10-09-2021 2:14pm

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

D3V!L · 10-09-2021 2:17pm

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

Sleepy · 10-09-2021 2:34pm

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 · 10-09-2021 2:40pm

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 · 10-09-2021 2:45pm

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 · 10-09-2021 2:47pm

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.

10-09-2021 2:51pm

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 · 10-09-2021 2:59pm

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 · 10-09-2021 3:02pm

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

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

10-09-2021 3:11pm

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 · 10-09-2021 3:23pm

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.

10-09-2021 3:25pm

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 · 10-09-2021 3:27pm

I think id be lots happier with lots more money.

Id definitely be more unhappy with less money.

Montage of Feck · 10-09-2021 3:33pm

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

Patsy167 · 10-09-2021 3:33pm

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 · 10-09-2021 4:02pm

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.

nj27 · 10-09-2021 4:28pm

I have experience at zero cash and essentially looking for ways to waste money for entertainment. The way it has worked out for me is that accelerating is happiness much more than absolute speed. Heading up to a new level of wealth is not happiness, it is euphoric. You find yourself in a financial position where the maths you did before don’t even apply anymore. Then it goes up again and the equation becomes absurd again.

That’s happiness, no question about it. Hanging around with the levels that rocked your world a while ago absolutely becomes the base level. You need to jump up again to experience the same thing again, and I assume people get caught up in that. I didn’t because I challenge myself with other things. And I have failed so far in other areas, but I’m still looking for that buzz in various investments I guess.

Am I happy now? Yes. Would I be happier if I doubled my net worth tomorrow. 100%. if I showed up broke tomorrow I would be very unhappy, but if I had been living in that space and never knew anything more the I’d be cool for sure. Looking for status beyond your financial position is the real shell game. That is what eats you alive regardless of net worth. I am still chasing the dragon in a sense because I am looking at stonks half the time, but I’m think a straight forward simple life is probably the key to being happy longer term. Just drop the dice.

mailforkev · 10-09-2021 4:37pm

Money buys you freedom. This frees you up to be happy.

If you have loads of cash then you can have an easier life. No worries about paying bills etc. There's also a rich person line for most things, no queuing or waiting like the average Joe if you know how to operate.

Of course, if you were miserable to begin with, money won't change this.

Claw Hammer · 10-09-2021 4:37pm

Money can alleviate misery. It can also bring misery. The problem with some lotto winners is the they are suddenly switched from a position of relatively little wealth into having to manage sums they never had to handle before. One of the early lotto winners in Ireland was a surgeon who said it was not enough to retire on. He threw a party, put the rest into his pension fund and forgot about it. The difference between him and the other winners is that he would not come from a social circle where his relations, friends and neighbours would approach him for money. Some winners have had distant relatives approach them to pay ESB bills. How do they go to the pub and nudge someone to buy their round when everyone knows they are a lotto winner. people who earn the money through business are generally careful to conceal it and not be conscious of it.

I don't do the lotto so it is not a problem I will ever face.

ShatterAlan · 10-09-2021 4:50pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117872747#Comment_117872747

Absolutely. If I won a huge amount I'd have no problem hiding the fact. Nobody really knows what I do or where I am from one day to the next. I live between Dublin and mainland Europe so could easily purchase a big swanky penthouse in Fitzrovia in London complete with Bentley underground and ponce around the city drinking in fancy places and flirting with rich divorcees. Coming back to Dublin to visit the mother would be no different to any other time. I wouldn't be driving up in a Ferrari. Sure I might fly in in a private jet but then I'd just take a taxi to the house or maybe a fancy chauffer driven BMW but no curtain twitchers would suspect anything. My dublin flat is in the city centre so I'd pull out of there and buy a nice pied-a-terre around Stephen's Green or somewhere. I'd be completely anonymous...just loaded. I don't do drugs even though I can afford to in my current capacity so an 8 or 9 figure bank balance isn't going to change that. I'm fond of beer so would probably just go on benders in fancier places. I'm probably a bit long in the tooth to being an international playboy so I'd have to settle for pastimes like travelling, photography and try to stay fit because without the routine of work I can easily fall into a sedentary lifestyle. Keep fit and active and eating well and getting plenty of sunshine will ward off the demons of depression and loneliness that can come with suddenly being completely different to your peers.

This Loughrey woman seems to have been a bit nasty what with that whole cricket club business and bullying an employee. When you go from the breadline to being minted like she did you need a lot of advice and counselling to make the adjustment. How the hell can you expect to still live in the same sh1thole one horse town in a council house surrounded by scratchers when you've suddenly 27 mil in the bank. It's not possible.

MSVforever · 10-09-2021 5:16pm

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

100%. Once on the bike I can leave all the issues behind me. Riding a motorbike is one of the best therapies for your mind :)

10-09-2021 5:20pm

Can money buy happiness? No.

But it can buy jet-skis and I've never seen an unhappy person on a jet-ski.

MSVforever · 10-09-2021 5:22pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117872747#Comment_117872747

That's why you shouldn't reveal your win.

jrosen · 10-09-2021 5:29pm

Money affords you choice. So while I dont think money itself can make you happy having it gives you the choice to live your life in a way that does make you happy.

10-09-2021 5:34pm

If someone's unhappiness is caused by being broke/in debt, yes. And all they need is to be no longer struggling, not rich.

Stress and long hours is causing me to look for a job with fewer hours, which would obviously mean less money, but I've done the sums and I'd still be comfortable.

Can wealth buy happiness? Depends on the person I suppose/how long they've been wealthy.

BorneTobyWilde · 10-09-2021 6:01pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117873446#Comment_117873446

It's probably possible to hide a lotto win, as it's really not that large amount usually. But hard to hide a euro millions win.

Itssoeasy · 10-09-2021 6:36pm

No IMO it doesn’t. Yes, money can bring you peace of mind and relief from the many stresses of everyday life, but money doesn’t help you with two very important things, which are health and happiness. As is often said “ your health is your wealth” because being ill trumps any wealth.

Capt'n Midnight · 10-09-2021 6:51pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117839211#Comment_117839211

Turns out that more money does bring more happiness. They use to think it plateaued at $75,000 a year.

But it's diminishing returns once your have enough to remove the worries for you, your family and friends. At that stage money brings freedom.

A lot of us are going to be very unhappy at the increased taxes to pay for the pandemic.

The world’s billionaires have a collective net worth of $13.5 trillion ―up from $8 trillion at the beginning of the pandemic, a gain of nearly 69 percent. That's enough to give the poorest 5.4 billion people on the planet $1,000 each, life changing money as even the richest of those are on $10 a day. Half of humanity is living on less than $5.50 a day

If we left Jeff Bezos with billions of dollars more than Branson we could take take everyone worldwide out of extreme poverty for a year. Or if we took all their money and gave it to Jeff he still wouldn't have enough. Money doesn't bring happiness to those who won't ever have enough.

B.A._Baracus · 10-09-2021 7:20pm

To quote Only Fools and Horses...

Grandad: Money isn't everything Del Boy..

Del: well, yeah, but it takes the Sting out of being poor....

0ph0rce0 · 10-09-2021 7:43pm

The god honest truth, I have a mate that has 40 - 50 + million after selling a successful company. Maybe 2-3 years ago. Married has kids has everything they could ask for. Anytime we're out, the first thing always said is "I'm miserable" we try not to go on about it but the chap hates everything about his life. It's mad really.

It's also mad thinking even if some people had 0.1 % of it could bring some happiness and get them out of a hole.

Mad_maxx · 11-09-2021 11:47am

No ,because it can't change the past

Of course if someone is happy already, more money will probably increase their happiness

xhomelezz · 11-09-2021 12:11pm

Money probably can't buy happiness, but nice sum would make my live a lot easier.

bnt · 11-09-2021 3:55pm

Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy out many causes of unhappiness. What's left after that are the things that money can't fix.

B.A._Baracus · 11-09-2021 4:16pm

I say being minted would make you fairly happy.

No need to worry about money. No need to save for anything. Anything you want you get. Like what are most of us going to do tonight? Maybe have a few beers, maybe a takeaway? If you're rich you can just fire up the private plane and go anywhere. No Chinese chicken balls for you. You can sip an overly priced wine off the Spanish coast.

Motivator · 11-09-2021 4:23pm

I know a couple who sold a company for around £40m in 2004. They had worked their arses off for years to get the company established and never enjoyed themselves. They sold out when they were mid 40s and kicked back and enjoyed life. Had the absolute best of everything - built a 10,000sqf house, apartment in Marbella, the best of cars, husband bought racehorses etc.

Long story short he blew the whole lot by 2016. Bad investments were doubled down on and everything unravelled. He had some money stashed but not enough and they have the house left but they’re currently trying to offload it.

In the pub recently the wife was asked if the pandemic has made them appreciate their health and to be fair she was fairly quick to come back with the line that when they had the money the pandemic wouldn’t have bothered them. They had as she called it “fück you money” and didn’t have a car in the world and got to do and see things that you can’t do without money. They’re unhappy people now because that lifestyle is gone and they were the architects of their own downfall. Long story short, absolutely money can make you happy. Money makes the world go round.

Strumms · 11-09-2021 5:10pm

Money doesn’t bring misery or happiness.... what you do with can bring either....your choices with money can enable both.

a cousin of mine in the US is minted, like seriously so from his work.. he’s a lawyer, he’s 61 and semi retired, he keeps as part of his retirement deal, one mid size corporate client, owned by a friend and is for something to do...he owns a nice mansion in New York and has an apartment in Florida...

hes generous but responsible, he thought about building a home gym but decided to just join one instead, didn’t want to just be stuck at home, goes to an Irish bar to watch the premier league, coaches an underage soccer team...

he spends money on savage holidays, a new car, a Mercedes most years,

money buys security....health, wellbeing and peace of mind... happiness

Does money buy happiness?

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