Does money bring happiness?

[BrianNole777]

I was watching a repeat of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and wondered if being a billionaire would bring happiness.

In a way, I think it would. You could literally do whatever you wanted whenever you wanted. Fly to Hawaii today or rent a fishing yacht this weekend.

What do you think? Does serious wealth bring happiness?

 

[noletaire]

I was watching a repeat of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and wondered if being a billionaire would bring happiness.

In a way, I think it would. You could literally do whatever you wanted whenever you wanted. Fly to Hawaii today or rent a fishing yacht this weekenWhat do you think? Does serious wealth bring happiness? Depends on your own personal view of happiness is? And what do you mean by serious wealth?

One thing is for certain: poverty will bring about unhappiness.
Wealth makes life a lot easier and you can make your dreams become reality and that could bring happiness. At the same time it won’t bring you love or true friendships and how much can you enjoy money if you don’t have either of those? I guess it depends on what your definition of happiness is?

 

[BrianNole777]

In my experience, wealth correlates with happiness fairly directly for most people until it reaches the threshold of being slightly, but statistically significantly, more than most of the people in a person's community, then it plateaus.

I've read that happiness from money plateaus after 100K per year, depending on needs.

 

[littleitch1]

Wouldn’t know!

When I find a wealthy hootchie mama I will let you know!

 

[fsufool]

In my experience, wealth correlates with happiness fairly directly for most people until it reaches the threshold of being slightly, but statistically significantly, more than most of the people in a person's community, then it plateaus.

Define wealth? How much net worth is considered wealthy? My observations are that the super wealthy (ie billionaires) become paranoid. They lose the ability to trust others, always wondering if they are only close to them for the money. But that is a general characteristic. Those that have a close community, say Mormons, tend to be happier because they have mechanisms to share their wealth. So while having money is a stabilizing force for an individual (lower divorce rates for example), the extreme right hand of the tail of wealth has characteristics that are different. Use to be, like the Rockefellers, they would build libraries and fund colleges that they didn't attend for the good of society. Now, you see a different type of giving, more narcissist. More grandiose.......

 

[BrianNole777]

This matches my experience, as well. As the wealth continues to accumulate beyond the norms of the community, the plateau tends to waver and decline. I know of no happy billionaires. My definition of wealth would be an abundance of resources valued within a person's community, and my definition of wealthy would be something like possessing 2+ standard deviations more of those resources than the mean for the community.

How many billionaires do you know and how did they get their billions?

I met a billionaire real estate developer once. He was pretty philanthropic and seemed happy.

 

[GeddyLee09]

Define wealth? How much net worth is considered wealthy? My observations are that the super wealthy (ie billionaires) become paranoid. They lose the ability to trust others, always wondering if they are only close to them for the money. But that is a general characteristic. Those that have a close community, say Mormons, tend to be happier because they have mechanisms to share their wealth. So while having money is a stabilizing force for an individual (lower divorce rates for example), the extreme right hand of the tail of wealth has characteristics that are different. Use to be, like the Rockefellers, they would build libraries and fund colleges that they didn't attend for the good of society. Now, you see a different type of giving, more narcissist. More grandiose.......

Look at the Hollywood people. Many of them are very well off and really don't seem that happy. Constant turmoil and drama, media attention, divorce, drug problems, messed up kids and idiot fans at restaurants trying to see a famous person. Doesn't sound like the ingredients of happiness to me.

I would want just enough to have what I want. How much is enough though?

 

[QuaZ2002]

One thing is for certain: poverty will bring about unhappiness.
Wealth makes life a lot easier and you can make your dreams become reality and that could bring happiness. At the same time it won’t bring you love or true friendships and how much can you enjoy money if you don’t have either of those? I guess it depends on what your definition of happiness is?

Agree completely. Another thing that’s interesting about money is how impossible it is to fathom going back down. I’ve done pretty well in my career but am not happy with a number of things. But the thought of taking a significant paycut to restart in another field is just so hard to imagine. You take for granted a certain lifestyle and I’m sure even billionaires do this. I’d imagine once you flew on a PJ hundreds of times you no longer even think of it as being amazing, it’s just what you do. Same with any material thing like cars or jewelry, it’s like a drug, just a real short high and then it wears off quickly. There’s also the constant “next thing”. Maybe it’s a vacation home or a boat or a bigger house and you think once I acquire that thing I’ll be satisfied. But then you do get it and you think, well if I could just get a bigger boat or nicer vacation home, etc etc. Interpersonal relationships and a satisfaction/purpose in your career are probably the two most important factors towards happiness, IMO.