Does money really buy happiness?

[LooneyTunes]

Pit Pony said:

In my midweek house, I have the cheapest washing machine there is possible to buy and a white knight tumble dryer that's probably 27 years old. Both just do the job. No fuss.
In our family home, we have just had a new kitchen, after 32 years. with the latest WiFi controlled washer dryer. It's st.
It doesn't have a short 30 minute cycle, it doesn't get the clothes dry enough. You know toasty warm. It vibrates so much at 1600 rpm that you think its going to take off. The manufacturer has replaced parts, and we just run it at 1200 rpm, where it's fine.

I’ve seen these advertised so I have to ask, so apologies about going o/t, but what exactly is the point of a WiFi controlled domestic appliance when someone needs to physically visit the machine to load it in the first place?

[bitchstewie]

Mr Whippy said:

I don’t get how some people justify all the stuff they buy.

In most cases you could spend half as much, get something almost as good, and over 10 years probably save enough to pay off your mortgage early.


Some people are just fully signed up materialism addicts.

I used to be a little bit like that. I've shifted to being much less materialistic but I do believe in buy cheap buy twice.

I'll borrow this from the cost of living thread.

[anonymous-user]

Terry pratchet... The white elephant?

[AC43]

dmahon said:

I made a lot of money through 2 business sales then an inheritance.

I have to say on balance it’s made me more unhappy, though trending back to my long term happiness/grumpiness level.

A few reasons:

It’s cratered my motivation with my career / business interests as it doesn’t seem worth it when you don’t need the money.

All of the material goals such as houses, cars, pensions, setting up the kids have already been achieved then seem boring. To not have those goals leaves a gap.

Instead of worrying about not having enough money, you worry about losing it. Stock market swings, inflation, property market declines etc, you don’t know what to do for the best.

It does drive a wedge between you and other people. I am really careful with this, but people do treat you differently when they work out your lifestyle. Even good friends can get jealous when they see you dossing around “writing a book” then taking your fifth holiday that year.

Despite having the money, life isn’t that different when you have a family. I still do school runs, taking out the rubbish, shopping in Tescos. There’s a feeling that you should be doing more and real life is mundane.

The more stuff you buy, the more problems you have. I bought extra cars and a holiday home but it’s all more trouble than it’s worth. I prefer to live minimalist and simple now which I could have done from the start!

I’m glad I have the money and it does give you choices, but if you come into money, you need to be either motivated enough to go out and continue doing something with your life, or happy to relax and do fun things all day. Sitting in between those two is fatal.

It’s taken 4 or 5 years for me to get to a comfortable place with all of the above. It has been quite tough mentally (worlds smallest violin) but think I’m in a good place now with life setup in the right way.

I think it's sad to hear that people get jealous. I know a few people who were either born into loads of money or who have grafted and have made life changing amounts.

I enjoy their company, always have. The fact they don't have to get up on Monday morning never crosses my mind.

Good on them!

[deebs]

Mr Spoon said:

Terry pratchet... The white elephant?

It is the late Terry pratchett yes. It's an oft repeated story but a good one, however in practice a little more difficult to implement. part of the perceived quality of something becomes price even if there's no real relationship between the two. Marketing knows this and adjusts for this expectation accordingly.

A large part of this thread is split between money being an enabler (buying options) , a pacifier (better class of misary) and happiness not being connected to it. It's been mentioned a few times that increases in earning often creates a correlated increase in spending, and net wealth goes no where. I think for a lot of people who 'have money' this is potentially one of the big issues.

If we look at the white collar, middle income sort of families then it 'can' create the circumstances Tyler durden rebelled against in Fight Club - 'the things you own, end up owning you'. How many threads do we see from people who earn many times the national average salary, want a career change but must earn at least £xx? Usually because they have a lifestyle: a mortgage, car payments, a family expectation of holidays etc. They are trapped by their income despite it being 2-3-4 times higher than the average household. Their income over their career has grown, they've worked hard been successful but now feel they're trapped and sometimes in a worse position. For example, if they wanted to give it up and become a postie, there's significant adjustments to be made for family. Someone who works in a supermarket for similar money to the postie, less so.

That's not to say that having less money is the answer or makes people happier. It's that the ideal of striving for money and then following the well layed out path of spending it in a way that traps you without noticing is what can then lead to unhappiness.

[bitchstewie]

deebs said:

It is the late Terry pratchett yes. It's an oft repeated story but a good one, however in practice a little more difficult to implement. part of the perceived quality of something becomes price even if there's no real relationship between the two. Marketing knows this and adjusts for this expectation accordingly.

And I agree with this part entirely.

I was mentioning on that thread I used to go to the Cheaney outlet and buy "cheap" Cheaney shoes for £100/pair knowing they'll outlast me if I look after them.

You couldn't pay me to buy Balenciaga because to me it's just a brand.

[rdjohn]

Does money really buy happiness?

You only need to look at Depp Vs Herd to see that it cannot.

However lacking disposable income can be the root to absolute misery. It cannot get tougher than choosing between Eat and Heat.

I feel incredibly lucky that we have never been anywhere close to having to make a decision like that, and that makes me feel incredibly happy.

[Thankyou4calling]

[DanL]

As has been mentioned by a few posters, while money doesn’t necessarily make you happy, poverty certainly contributes to unhappiness.

So, while money doesn’t equal happiness, on balance those with money will have happier lives than those without.

[Chainsaw Rebuild]

For my experience of being flat broke to now having a reasonably good job (nothing remarkable but it does feel a long way from single digit pounds to my name) money does make you happier.

It helps me solve problems. I felt I was always having to hoover my downstairs, so I got a robot hoover, something I couldn't have even considered in the past, and now I have more time to do things I enjoy. Or when my washing machine had a wobble the other day, I wasn't panicked about finding the money for another one/ someone to repair it.

So I feel that with more money comes the ability to do more stuff. I'm tempted getting a cleaner, so I will have more spare time - which I ought to spend in the gym. This in turn will make me slimmer and happier etc.

If I was knee deep in a huge euro millions win, I would set up a charity/trust and start solving some bigger problems by supporting charities etc.

[mattyprice4004]

I’m probably in the very small minority, but when I sold my successful business I changed absolutely nothing about my day to day spending habits - I still shop at Aldi, still have an older MG ZS and 525d and still use sites like TopCashback to earn a bit on the side.
I used the money to pay off the mortgage and buy a rental, with any ‘change’ being invested for the future.

For me the money gave me freedom, which is more important to me than ‘things’.
So yes, to me money is happiness - but in a rather odd way

[WelshRich]

LooneyTunes said:

Pit Pony said:

In my midweek house, I have the cheapest washing machine there is possible to buy and a white knight tumble dryer that's probably 27 years old. Both just do the job. No fuss.
In our family home, we have just had a new kitchen, after 32 years. with the latest WiFi controlled washer dryer. It's st.
It doesn't have a short 30 minute cycle, it doesn't get the clothes dry enough. You know toasty warm. It vibrates so much at 1600 rpm that you think its going to take off. The manufacturer has replaced parts, and we just run it at 1200 rpm, where it's fine.

I’ve seen these advertised so I have to ask, so apologies about going o/t, but what exactly is the point of a WiFi controlled domestic appliance when someone needs to physically visit the machine to load it in the first place?

We have one (it wasn’t the reason we chose it) and in theory, it does things like text you to let you know when the cycle has finished so you can go and hang the washing out and tell you when it’s run out of detergent/softener (it has an in-built reservoir). It also allows you to download a load of “special” cycles designed for washing sleeping bags or wetsuits or stuff…

In practice, it loses connection to the home WiFi network then beeps plaintively, at just the optimum level that is frequent enough to be annoying but not so often that I can be bothered to reconnect it…

[Seventyseven7]

A lot of people with not a lot of money will try and convince you money does not buy happiness in my experience. To justify their own position.

They all ‘have friends who are loaded but are the most unhappy’

[Louis Balfour]

Chainsaw Rebuild said:

I felt I was always having to hoover my downstairs

Some manscaping and a good skincare regime will help with this.

[Mr Whippy]

Ouroboros said:

Mr Whippy said:

I don’t get how some people justify all the stuff they buy.

In most cases you could spend half as much, get something almost as good, and over 10 years probably save enough to pay off your mortgage early.


Some people are just fully signed up materialism addicts.

We are all consumers though, like cattle grazing on the teets of brands and mass corporations.

I bet a lot on PH are branded up to the eyeballs, it makes them feel worthy.

I agree.

But that is why for those people, money won't buy happiness... because they don't know what the value of money is to enable improved happiness, because they don't truly know what happiness is.

Money won't really solve many of the biggest problems humans have in finding happiness. Those solutions come from inside.


That's not to say it's not enjoyable to buy some stuff... but once you've been on big emotional rollercoasters in life, the 'thrill' from getting something material drops off to such a level that it's just not really on your radar any more.

I'm not sure if someone is blessed to have avoided such rollercoasters, or manages to suppress those events so mere materialism is exciting again... or not.

[Muzzer79]

Seventyseven7 said:

A lot of people with not a lot of money will try and convince you money does not buy happiness in my experience. To justify their own position.

They all ‘have friends who are loaded but are the most unhappy’

The simple and unavoidable fact is that, if money bought happiness, all rich people would be happy.

They are not, so it doesn’t.

[Simpo Two]

Seventyseven7 said:

A lot of people with not a lot of money will try and convince you money does not buy happiness in my experience. To justify their own position

That reminds me of the people who said 'Work to live not live to work!'. They're still working.

[dieselgrunt]

Health before wealth for sure.
Health and wealth is even better but I would not take being fat and in pain over an increase in income.

[Jaguar steve]

Mr Whippy said:

I agree.

But that is why for those people, money won't buy happiness... because they don't know what the value of money is to enable improved happiness, because they don't truly know what happiness is.

Money won't really solve many of the biggest problems humans have in finding happiness. Those solutions come from inside.


That's not to say it's not enjoyable to buy some stuff... but once you've been on big emotional rollercoasters in life, the 'thrill' from getting something material drops off to such a level that it's just not really on your radar any more.

I'm not sure if someone is blessed to have avoided such rollercoasters, or manages to suppress those events so mere materialism is exciting again... or not.

Absolutely this.

We're all conditioned from a very early age to believe materialism and buying stuff makes you happy but once you've bought enough stuff to undo that conditioning by experiencing that it's not all its cracked up to be and it often creates more problems than it solves then sooner or later a seismic shift in your world view will happen and you'll realise nobody actually needs all this stuff and you can just walk away.


You'll feel very liberated when it does.

[NMNeil]

DanL said:

NMNeil said:

AC43 said:

From the Rich bds Frenzy in Bike magazine in the 80's;

"Money can't buy you happiness but it can buy you a better class of misery".

Close to what my gran used to say.
"Money can't buy you happiness, but at least you can be fking miserable in comfort"

The better class of misery line is a Spike Milligan line.

I had no idea, but as my gran was good friends with Harry Secombe's wife, so she may have heard it when she was visiting.
I'll hold a seance and ask her