Can you buy happiness with money? A lot of people will say NO!
“But it is more comfortable to cry inside a limo than on a bicycle” (A the line picked from the internet)
The Role of Money in Making You Happy
You might often hear from intellectuals and spiritualists that money is not important. However, you a common man/woman know money is required for survival and money is the practical reality of human civilization. You need love in your life and you need to live a healthy life, however, everything is all but a waste of love, and health is not coupled with enough money. How much money you have or how much money you are generating determines your survival. Your Mental Health and Quality of life are also determined by the money you have with you.
There are numerous indicators of happiness, and the main of course is money. Let’s categorize people into three groups and try to analyze their happiness index in terms of survival.
Rich: They earn more than they spend. They have surplus money. They can get their hands on whatever they want and they can do whatever their heart desire and money is never a problem. They, of course, have a lot of issues; however, their issues are in no way related to money in most cases.
Poor: They have limited income, thus, they are deprived of a lot of things. Their primary focus is on survival and they struggle even for the basic things. They don’t give a damn about the concepts like happiness, sadness, mental well-being, wellness, etc. as they are always struggling for bread and butter.
The Middle Cass: For the middle class, income is always limited, yet they have high expenses. Even when they cut their expenses, they are always struggling to manage their life with the money they are generating. They are always dissatisfied with life. And the reason is always money.
How to Become Happy Even When You Don’t Have Money
You might be listening to numerous “happiness gurus” or “financial advisers,” however, no one but only you can help yourself. Here’s how you can do it.
1. Learn to monitor control: Most of our expenses are an inability to monitor self-control. Avoid impulsive buying and validate the need for spending before moving forward with the purchase. Something you want dearly at this moment can be a waste later on. Therefore, before buying anything always think and try to get an answer will I actually need this thing 5 months later, one year later?
2. You don’t have to impress others: Sad but true, most of our purchases are the things that we acquire just to impress our friends, family, relatives, and society in general. Show what you are and stop pretending.
3. Do not spend if you don’t have money: You can compromise on your living standard for some time until things begin to improve, and there is no harm in this. Try to lower your standard when you are in difficult situations. This will leave you with enough money to fulfilling your basic needs.
4. You need to Sav: Even a little percentage of savings from your income will help you to gain peace of mind because you know you have enough money for an emergency. There is a good reason why people say when you save a penny, you are also earning a penny.
5. Plan properly. Start by making a list of things that you need most, food, for instance; things that you don’t need badly, for instance, a new Tshirt as you already have a lot of old stuff; and things that you don’t need, a packet of chips to eat while watching TV. You can start cutting expenses on things that you don’t need.
6. Value your assets: Humans often forget to value all that they have and get attracted to the things that other people have. Concentrate on things, good things, you have. Concentrating on positive aspects of life will help you develop optimism and this will make you less sad when you encounter problems. This will also help you understand the true value of your possession.
Can Money Buy You Happiness? NOT Always
In the opening of this article, we said that money cannot buy happiness “but it is more comfortable to cry inside a limo than on a bicycle.”
You can buy happiness with money. You can go to a posh restaurant, eat good food and remain happy the entire evening. You bought happiness with money. However, this happiness does not last long. If you are struggling with money, you cannot go to a posh restaurant every day.
If you want to remain happy, you need something more than rushing to buy happiness with money. Plan your money!
Planning money does not mean looking for ways to make more money. Well, you need to make more because of ever-increasing necessities; however, always concentrating on how to earn more will make you sad. Therefore, start with how to best use the resources you have. This will help you to regulate the levels of finance associated with stress. Nothing can replace the importance of money. Before you can be happy, you need to survive and only money can guarantee your survival. If you are unhappy, you cannot use your money to buy happiness. However, the money of course is an important entity for a happy life.
What You Should do When the Need for Money Begins to Affect Your Mental Health
A lot of people think all their endeavors geared towards making money give them extreme pleasure.
Do you actually think money brings you extreme pleasure?
Being rich is fine but think about your mental peace.
There is no doubt that as much a person becomes richer he loses his liveliness in the process. The biggest problem of a man is that he has no time for himself. He acquired physical property but has lost his mental freedom. Our body works all the time, therefore, we also need a lot of rest. When your body is at rest, it repairs and recharges itself. If we don’t rest, we cannot do things in a proper way.
We have our own reasons to speak in favor or against the present-day time-management methods but we all need to agree that time management is important. However, time management does not mean you are restricting yourself from the duties and responsibilities of your personal and professional life. If you’re unable to feel relaxed during your work or feel too stressed then you should recheck your work schedule. Getting rest should be on the list of priorities in your life along with work.
It’s a scientifically proven fact that when you concentrate too much on the outer world, search for new ways of earning, look for new ways of entertainment with gadgets, or concentrate too much on artificial happiness, your mind gets too much tired. The only thing that can relieve you is when you stop all your money-related activities. Better stop thinking about everything because your system needs rest.
Thinking too much about outer activities and giving no time to your mental peace will tire you to a point of no recovery. You could manage to save yourself from reaching that stage only if you could control it by putting a total shutdown on all your activities once in a while. Just give yourself a break from the outer world and live with your own self and your loved ones.
Let me conclude this article with advice from Neal Elgar Miller, an American experimental psychologist who worked on experiments where he studied how people’s ideas reflected behavior in real-life situations. He concluded that the biggest problem for this generation was that the people had no time. He emphasized the need for proper rest for keeping ourselves prepared for the next project.