Is money a defining factor in happiness? Does greed outweigh happiness?

This can go both ways....

Growing up, I had it all. My parents were lower upper class, if not middle upper class. We had a giant six bedroom home, in-ground pool, heated floors, the works. I had everything I wanted, food, clothes, video games, EVERYTHING.

Yet I was not happy...

We never did anything. As a family, we never went out to do things as families should. No trip to the Grand Canyon, no Disney Land, no amusement parks. Hell, we barely ate dinner together.

I remember going home on the school bus and the other kids would see my house and say things along the lines of "dude you're so rich!", "I wish our house was that big!", and "You have a in-ground pool?",


Now, few blocks down the street, there was a family (whom I've become extremely close with in the 10 or so years I've known them) that lived in a tiny 3 bedroom house. Mom, dad, two sons, and a pregnant daughter. They were on food stamps, bankrupt, and struggled to survive.

And even so, to this day, I've never seen a family more happy. They were ALWAYS smiling. Nothing brought them down. They even found the time and money to go do things as a family every few weeks.

I was so damn jealous of them. Thinking I would trade all I had for a life like theirs.

In short, no, money is not important.
But I won't lie, 1 million dollars would certainly raise my level of happiness. Hahaha

 

I think the trick is to actually use your money to buy hapiness. A lot of people mess that up. Some people can be so self destructive it's scary

money buys freedom. a lot of people like keeping busy and waking up in the morning. while others rather play vidya all day.

the people that have comfortable jobs earning good money still thrive for success while the slackers kinda of never get out of their grunt. things have a weird way of working out

 

In my opinion it all comes down to this.Do you control money, or does it control you?If you can be in control of it, it allows you to live freely life without any restrictions.I think we are past the point, where someone could do good without money.Nowadays everything comes down to it.

So bottom line, if youuseit right, it can really be a piece of happiness.We just should not forget that the other pieces of it is family, relationship and your spiritual life.

 

I don't think there's a definitive yes or no answer. Simply because everybody has emotions of happiness triggered by varied factors. I have a strange view on it. I roll my eyes at "money doesn't buy happiness" or "money isn't everything", as I believe many people say that to feel better about their poor financial situation. I've been very poor before, with hardly anything to live off. I have at times had negative balance in my bank account and made the decision that I'm never going to go through that again. I've taken money as a subject much more seriously and implemented financial management systems into my habitual behavior in life. In short I believe money can buy happiness, but it cannot buy everything. And knowing the difference is the key.

 

Money is needed now days for people to feel happy. Maybe not having loads of money but alittle more then it takes to survive for sure other wise you will be stressed all the time even more so if you have a family. So to some extent yes money is a big factor in happiness. Is it the defining factor tho im not sure.

 

I do not think money is considered happiness.
There are people who are making millions a year who drowns themselves in work, unable to see their loved ones, constantly under stress just working their lives away to obtain more money. Of course the amount of money is relative, but for myself, I would much rather be working a less stressful job making 80k-100k a year, doing something I enjoy. I am pursuing a career in game development, it does not yield as much money as some people but for myself I am happy that I get to have fun with my friends and family and have enough money to not struggle.

 

Money can definitely buy happiness. The world revolves around money. If you were given 5 million dollars, you would be a lot happier than if you didn't recieve it. You could quit your job, and live life with more than enough money to spare. You could go on vacations, buy fancy cars, live in a nice house, ect. Constantly stressing about money causes you to be depressed. That's why most people go to college.. You think it's just for education? Yeah right. It's to make a lot of money. Can you be happy without money? Yeah. But money can buy happiness.

 

I dont think that money can buy happines, people spend their 90% (i made that number, but i think it should be around that) time of life to be richer. Of course majority of people are not happy because they only work work work and work and die not even close to rich person description. So as we can see trying get money more often brings not happines but depression/ sadness.

Thats why i love kids, they aren`t ruined by money. They say what they feel and feel what they say. Thats true happiness.

 

Money can bring some happiness, but not always, it's always great to have money though. When you're living on your own, and you need money, but don't have it that will lead to lots of stress and will end up turning into depression and other things.

 

I think this thread is pretty much summed up by saying that in the early stages of your life money can open doors for you and make you happy but in later part of your life money becomes less important. That's when you start caring about the people around you and money usually attracts the wrong sort of people.

 

I think were also forgetting it can depend on each individual. I consider myself a sociopath and am very selfish so I feel like money would bring happiness and greed definitely wouldn't bother me. The offside is I would always want more. For example im 23 and own my own business and 3 bedroom house have a wife and a kid and still will never be satisfied. Even though im quite successful at my age. I think human nature has to have some kind of unhappiness to thrive to always do better.

 

only thing money buys is freedom in my opinion. and everyone wants freedom. Kinda hard to enjoy your life if you can't pay the rent



if the psyciological needs aren't met it can effect esteem and mental health surely.

 

Imo it's about what you define "happiness" with. Is happinnes if a homeless guy gets money for a house, new clothes etc, most likely yea but that will be only for the moment no telling if he will still be happy afterwards. Saw an interview of a homeless guy who found out his real father was a millionaire who past away and he said he would trade in all the money to be able to talk to his father.

 

Money is an energy.

Everything is an energy, and gives off frequencies. but it really depends on how you want to manifest it, for anything can be good or bad to any person. I believe money is a positive energy.

If someone hands you ten dollars, you're what? Usually happy, for the most part. It brings a smile to your face. It allows you to do something that will give you more happiness, thus spreading the joy from you to another.

However, money is not everything. Real wealth is internal. Your mental health, your physical health, spiritual health, and emotional health... Those are what make you rich. You are priceless, if you take care of those then you will be forever rich and money will be nothing more than a positive energy in your life when it comes your way and if you take care of yourself then all good things will come your way

 

Money doesn't guarantee happiness, but it sure as hell makes it a lot easier to be happy. Sucks seeing people struggling to make ends meet, living pay check to pay check. I'm sure everybody would be "happier" if they were financially stable and didn't feel like they had the world on their shoulder paying bills.

 

There was a proven threshold where a certain amount of money makes you the most happy - anything more after that and there are increases in happiness, but they are minimal. So yes, money is a defining factor, but only before a certain point. Obviously you have to have enough money to satisfy your basic needs.

 

theres an equilibrium point between happiness and money, anything after that equilibrium point is just excess and greed which wont make you happy just selfish.

 

Something I heard long ago comes to mind, though I'm not fully sure if it's appropriate for this conversation....

"People are scared that their family won't have enough long after they are deceased, but how much money do they need? Love turns into fear and fear turns into greed"

A person who is very family oriented and cares to a specific point about that family, including members who haven't even been born yet, would not be 'truly' happy until they have enough money that they can rest easy knowing their family will always have enough.

But that's only one type of person....

There are people who LOVE to live off the land. They despise money as 'the root of all evil'. These people do not require money to be happy.

I personally, however, am the first of the two types I've mentioned. If everything in my life goes as planned and I make all of the right moves, my family will have a comfortable life for at least another generation or 2 after me. And when I get to that point where I know that will be true, I will be 'truly' happy. Not because I'm greedy, or because I have a lot of money, but because I'll know that after I'm dead, my family won't have to do the things I'm doing to be able to live comfortably without worry of money.

However, to obtain that 'true' happiness of resting assured my family will make it, I'll also appear greedy to many, because I'll be putting money over mostly everything else.

 

For your updated question...

Greed is only a bad thing if you get your money from poor people who cannot defend themselves.

As human beings, we always want more. Look at billionaires, not stopping at making more money. Its in our system to be greedy. Now, its only bad if we use it in a bad way. If we're not hurting anyone, it should be fine.

 

Money does not translate into happiness by any means. Trivial happiness that only scratches the surface? Maybe. Deep down life-fulfilling happiness? No. Money may allow you to have a better time in certain scenarios, but you may be lacking certain elements in your life due to your wealth. Partners might not be with you for you, but rather your money. While at first that might not be all bad, you'll quickly develop a sense of loneliness, which is awful, to say the least.