Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Does Money Buy Happiness??
This is the age-old question. Does money buy happiness? The simple answer for this would be no, money can’t buy happiness. Everyone knows that money can’t buy love. We all know that money can’t buy friendship either, well real friendship anyway. Money will never be able to buy a family for you. So what’s my take on this subject? Well, I’m glad you asked. My answer to this question is like many other thoughts I have on somewhat simple subjects. Let’s take something simple and make it far more complex than it should be. Here is my answer: Money can buy happiness. Before all my left-leaning friends get angry please hear me out. I came up with my top three reasons why I believe money can buy happiness.
1) I’ve been poor and I was very unhappy
I spent a good part of my life living without. Growing up was tough. We were never rich. I vividly remember “tuna surprise” for dinner. The surprise was if we finished dinner. I remember bread for lunch at school and trying to hustle kids for their lunch money. I remember Hamburger Helper night and the joy of Shake and Bake Chicken night. I remember the used hockey equipment expo’s we would go to for skates before the season started. “Play it Again Sports” was Shangri-La. I remember getting my older brothers hand me downs and then told at the age of 13 if I want new clothes I better get a job. Needless to say, I got a job real quick. When I think of my childhood I would to say this; I actually had a great childhood. I always had dinner. I always got gifts on Christmas, well most years. I was able to play sports despite how expensive they can be. I got taught the value of hard work and the pain of the struggle. Those lessons were important. When I went off on my own and started taking care of myself it got much harder. I could barely pay my bills. I could barely feed myself. I was constantly struggling and it made me miserable. I think if I had a bit more money during those times I would have been happier. I actually know I would have been a lot happier. Now I can pay my bills without worry and it makes me very happy. I have a feeling that my parents would have been a lot happier if taking care of me and my brother was easier. A few vacations here and there wouldn’t have hurt either. I know for a fact more money would have accomplished that.
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2) Money is a Measuring Stick
Till this day money is still a measuring stick of success. Yes, it can’t buy you love, friends, family or good health. What you can do is demand more money if you work harder. You can also demand more money if you are smarter and more talented than the rest. I myself see no better way to show that I have done a good job than paying me for it. That doesn’t mean that everyone can demand more money from their employer if they work harder. I’ve spent 12 years in the restaurant industry, so believe me I know. What you can do is make a logical decision based on the information you have. You can decide: I am way too smart and hard-working for this menial job; a job that won’t compensate me properly. Upon making that choice you can then look for more rewarding work. Will it work out? Who knows? What I do know is this: I expect to get paid for the work I do. I also expect to get paid fairly. Otherwise, why would I work hard?
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3) Money equals Freedom
This is the main reason I think money can buy happiness. Money CAN buy time off work. Money CAN buy vacations. Money CAN buy a good education for yourself or your children. Money CAN buy a car that doesn’t break down every five feet. Most importantly to me, money CAN buy me the ability to do the work I want to do. If I didn’t have to worry about paying bills life would be different. I would live on a beach somewhere reading books and sipping daiquiris. That is what money equates to for me. Money equals freedom from the things that you need to have money to get. That is worth all the gold in the world to me.
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Thanks for reading my post about money and happiness. While writing this post I had two reoccurring thoughts. Writing always seems to bring music or movies into my mind. This time I immediately thought about the Notorious BIG song “Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems.” In that song, Biggie says that the more money you make the more problems you get. He says that jealousy and envy come with the territory. Call me ignorant, but I will trade those problems for the problems associated with the lack of money. Writing this article also made me think of one of my favorite movies. The 1996 movie “Jerry Maguire” was a movie about a sports agent navigating his way through a ruthless industry. Cuba Gooding Junior’s character “Rod Tidwell” had to be my favorite role in the movie. My favorite part had to be when he describes to Jerry what the word “Quan” means. Rod says Quan is, “Love, respect, community and the dollars too. The entire package, The Quan.”
Someone once told me that there are two types of people who don’t care about money: Those that have a lot of it and those that have none. I’m with “Rod Tidwell” on this one. Show me the money and show me the Quan.
Email – joe@budgetboss.ca
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