Money does NOT equal happiness

[Bryan James]

Okay, I'm not here to say that the rich are evil, capitalism sucks, money is the root of all evil, or to bash entrepreneurs or money in any way whatsoever. I personally know a plethora of multimillionaires who suffer from chronic depression, bitter divorces, people who are serious alcoholics, etc. They are great at making and growing money and understand the game, but it constantly reinforces my belief that money in and of itself is not a guarantee of happiness. Again, not to bash capitalism or anything even remotely of the sort, I understand that these sad millionaires are still happier and healthier for having the money than not having it. I just feel happiness seems to be more a result of particular inner positionalities and ways of dealing with (and looking at) life. What do you folks think? My apologies if the title was a bit too "click-bait"y.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Limitless4Life]

Happiness is a skill, just like making money.

 

[MTEE1985]

If you don’t want to wait for answers here’s 8-9 of the same thread:

Search Results for Query: Money happiness | The Fastlane Entrepreneur Forum

 

[DVU]

Money does not equal happiness but lack of it does equal unhappiness.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Ninjakid]

chronic depression

They can get the best therapists

bitter divorces

Can get good lawyers. Being a multi-millionaire attracts many more worthy suitors.

people who are serious alcoholics

Can afford the best treatment, and nice rehab centres.

I've seen people with all that and they're poor. It's not like any of these problems would be better if they didn't have money.

 

[GoGetter24]

 

[Mr.Brandtastic]

Money doesn't always equal happiness. But if a rich man and a poor man have the same mindset, who's doing better? Who would you rather be? A man can change his mind, attitude, and lifestyle in the blink of an eye. But what he can't do, it simply imagine 10 million dollars in his bank account and have it appear tomorrow. The main difference is that the rich man has vastly more options and time, no one every promised happiness and fulfillment. Sure advertisers do if you buy this car, watch, house, vacation, etc. (that just happens to take a lot of money) but nowhere did we ever promise it or could promise it.

Forget about happiness anyway. Why is everyone so obsessed with it? Become content but don't be so obsessed with it, it's a dangerous road that leads nowhere. Focus on achieving what you need and then what you want, that's the real recipe for happiness.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[TreyAllDay]

Money doesn't make you happy, wealth does.

Don't forget the 3 F's from TMF .

Money undeniably is a large part of the "freedom", however if you don't have your health and family friends, I don't see how you can be fulfilled. Many people say they have rich friends who are miserable - however if you dig down you often find they are not truly "free" - working 80 hour weeks, have poor health, or poor relationships with their family and friends. On the reverse I've seen people with great health and relationships but are miserably tied to their jobs and debts.

 

[ChrisV]

wellllllll statistically wealthy people are happier... like 50% of the variation

correlation, causation and all that jazz but who knows

I personally know a plethora of multimillionaires who suffer from chronic depression, bitter divorces, people who are serious alcoholics, etc.

I personally know a lot more broke people who are even more miserable

anecdotes aren’t helpful

 

[Davejemmolly]

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[hydemx]

Money doesn't make you happy, wealth does.

Don't forget the 3 F's from TMF .

Money undeniably is a large part of the "freedom", however if you don't have your health and family friends, I don't see how you can be fulfilled. Many people say they have rich friends who are miserable - however if you dig down you often find they are not truly "free" - working 80 hour weeks, have poor health, or poor relationships with their family and friends. On the reverse I've seen people with great health and relationships but are miserably tied to their jobs and debts.

This.
For me, money is a mean, not the destination. Freedom is really what I'm after, and I think a lot of people share that vision. After reading UNSCRIPTED I changed the way I think about the money; now it's about generating value to the user, and get a voucher as a reward; that has helped me tremendously to avoid the money chasing vice that got me stuck all these years.

 

[ChrisV]

Listen... have you ever been broke? Like... you don’t know if you can pay your rent? Or you’re hungry and don’t have a few bucks in your pocket for a cheeseburger? Ever have to worry about how you’re gonna pay for your kid’s school supplies? Or not have enough gas in your tank to make it to work tomorrow? Man, money and happiness do have a strong relationship. I’m sorry, it’s absolute fact.

The quick science? Physical pain and pleasure, evolutionarily were meant to steer us away from danger and guide us to survival. Fire hurt (don’t touch that) while being in a temperature ideal to keep our body temperature constant felt good.

Anything that feels good helped up propagate our genes or survive, and anything that felt bad harmed those chances. Whether physical or emotional.

Yummy Berries -> Help us survive by providing valuable nutrition -> good feeling on tongue
Stepping on a jagged rock -> pierces our skin making us susceptible to infection -> BAD feeling
Being safe in your home -> safety from the elements -> cozy/ good feeling
being homeless -> no protection from the elements -> very bad feeling
Being rejected by a potential mate -> 'my genes might not get passed on’ -> BAD feeling
Sex -> Helped propagate genes -> feels grrrRRRreaat! (/tony the tiger voice)

See? Anything that helps us survive or replicate feels good... anything that hurts those chances of that feels bad. Our entire happiness system is literally built upon “You’re doin good kid.. here’s some happiness chemicals as a reward for you surviving.”

Now when you’re wealthy? Your survival is basically guaranteed. The survival of your children is basically guaranteed. The morbidity rate (chances of death) is much higher in impoverished societies. MUCH higher. And guess what? Impoverished societies have significantly lower levels of happiness.

Happiness, biologically, if your body saying “hey man... you’re really doing a good job at this whole ’survival and reproduction’ thing,’ so you feel good most of the time

Spoiler: Side Note

As a digression, I think that’s part of the reason drugs are so harmful. They tell your body “everything is okay.. here are good feelings” without you earning them. So Jimbo's neurochemistry says ‘you’re doing great kiddo!’ while in reality Jimbo is a F*cking crackhead with one tooth. Those drugs say ‘you’re doing great! no need to change anything!’ so the user just sits in a state of unearned bliss and does nothing to improve their shitty lives.

That’s at first. Soon other issues set in, like needing the drug to feel even halfway normal, and everything spiraling out of control becasue you’re in such pain without the drug that you don’t care who you rob or backstab in order to get your next fix and end the pain

Drug addiction is F*cking ugly.

Anyway.. just a little tangent