Why money can’t buy happiness?

Happiness is a feeling we usually seek outside of ourselves, such as with money. Any materialistic comfort purchased with money can make life a little more interesting for a moment, but real happiness stems from long-term alignment between reality and how we want our life and ourselves to be. If someone thinks he can purchase happiness with money, then he better have a lot, because it’s not going to last. People give great importance to wealth, and simple things that give us true happiness, and are easier to get, often go ignored. Well, it’s a broad topic for discussion, but I can think of five reasons why money can’t buy happiness.

For a better understanding, I would like to convey those reasons by combining them with the examples of things which money can’t buy:

1) Good health is generally required to be happy. With money, you can buy expensive medicines but not health. Life isn’t a video game, and neglecting your health only to try and rapidly fix it later never works out.

2) Fondest memories and acceptance of the past is critical to happiness. You can’t buy back the time and old memories with money, nor can you process negative memories so that they no longer threaten you.

3) The happiness that comes by winning someone’s trust is unique. No matter how much money you have, you’re not going to be able to buy faith in others, or get others to trust you. For most, it’s actually the opposite, and having too much money often leads to trust issues.

4) There is a different kind of happiness in living with someone you love. You cannot buy love with money, and there are many, many rich people who can attest that money only makes their attempts to find love more difficult.

5) If someone earns respect in society, that can also be a factor for whether they’re happy. It’s very possible to be rich, but not respected, where suddenly your life circumstances are not protecting you the way you expect money to. I call this the true value of every dollar. If someone earns wealth by stepping on others and then gets in trouble, who is going to help them? I can guarantee the process will cost them greatly, compared to someone who is in trouble, but respected enough by others that even random strangers online will come to their aid.

The definition of happiness varies from person to person. For some, it’s about excitement and novelty, where for others it’s about security or even personal growth. I have a strong belief that money can’t buy happiness, only rent it. In addition to the above reasons, I have many more points to support my belief. One such collection of points, I turned into a post: The Homeless Millionaire: How Making Money Is Only Half the Battle.

In conclusion, I would like to mention a quote I once heard: “I am happy today because I will be happy tomorrow.” There is an internal, intentional nature to true happiness that is both unrelated to and unaffected by external things.

Please feel free to reply to me if you need more discussion, and I would appreciate it if you leave feedback after reading that post.

Thanks,

Cleo