We've all heard the saying 'money cannot buy you happiness' however when we provide our customers with their tax refund and see the smiles on their faces we started to question this saying. Here's our take on whether money can actually bring you happiness...
Money is a necessity and for many people in the world it's used solely as a means to purchase the daily essentials - food, shelter and warmth. If you've still got some cash after the essentials have been taken care of, then you have the not so tough decision on how to spend it. You might save it for a rainy day (some appear to be happy using the money to generate more, maybe this is for future happiness?), but statistics show most of us prefer to spend - according to the TVNZ website us New Zealanders spend 22 cents more than every dollar we make.
If you’re looking to buy happiness you’ll need to spend your money wisely; HOW you spend your money in our opinion is what’s important. In today’s society, there’s a lot of commercial focus placed on buying material things. Marketers for example place pressure for you to buy the coolest, latest and usually most expensive product or service. In general terms the happiness we get from buying things can at times be limited and often leads to being discontent, by nature the more we have, the more we want.
If you really want to enjoy your money, then take Nick Fadoir's advice; he suggests that consumers who spend their money on leisure activities and experiences are more likely to display higher levels of satisfaction and overall happiness.
Tammy Strobel has an opposite approach, rather than spending money to make her happy she performed the opposite. As a professional couple she and her partner increased life enjoyment by working less and living a simpler lifestyle. To do this they simply downsized their house, which meant less room to store things, which resulted in less material purchases and a lower weekly upkeep, allowing them to work less and spend more time doing the things they really enjoyed.
We believe the saying 'money can't buy you happiness' is correct in the sense that money can't buy you happiness, people buy happiness! We recommend instead of thinking along the lines that I need more money (to buy more things) to make me happy, we recommend spending time identifying what things in your life makes you happy and then investing in those areas.
That's our 5 cents worth on the subject, we’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave us a comment below or on our Facebook page.
