This is a nagging question that has bothered me throughout my adult years. As I have made every major life decision, from my college major, to my first job, to my most recent job, it has been there haunting me.
Should one devote his/her life to the pursuit of wealth at all costs, or should one devote that same zeal towards doing what makes you happy in life? Do I need a new car, a bigger house, a nicer watch, expensive clothes, or fancy cuisine, or do I need to focus on being happy?
I take it as self-evident that happiness is the better goal for myself. However, I also understand that I enjoy the comforts that can only be obtained through financial solvency. Money does not make me happy, but abject poverty would make it much more difficult for me to remain happy. Most dreams can be followed in such a way that they provide a living wage. For myself, I will probably never be rich, but I am having a blast–and I am still able to pay the mortgage and drink good whiskey. Life is good.
The best lack all conviction
The worst are full of passionate intensity.
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I agree with Spiritus, CK, and Beer. Life is full of tradeoffs. We learn more about what we really want by making choices along the way, and finding out how we feel about them.
Addressing the job/career side of the issue:
My sentiment is that no amount of money could make up for a lifetime of jobs that made me miserable. I think it’s pretty important to find jobs that at least make some part of you happy, unless you find one that, while making you totally miserable, will pay you enough to let you retire comfortably in five years. (And I’m still not sure I’d go for that.)
Sometimes it’s not even either/or; I recently went from a job that paid miserably and made me miserable, too, to a job that I happen to be crazy about, and pays much better, too.
There’s a book called Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow which I haven’t read, but what I get out of the title is that it’s a lot easier to do well whatever it is that you’re doing in a profession you love - which should make it easier to move up the ranks into that profession’s better-paying jobs.
Most of us don’t have the self-discipline to do things well that we hate, year after year after year, and that would be bound to affect our prospects for better jobs. So my advice certainly leans more toward going with the jobs you love, assuming they pay the bills.
Happiness. Definitely. I had a job in my career field where there was every prospect of regular advancement, a very nice salary, and perks it would be easy to get used to. The only catch: I’d have to spend the next thirty years of my life doing something that bored me to tears and that I personally did not consider either interesting or important. The very thought of those thirty years terrified me, and all the goodies couldn’t off-set that fear and loathing.
When I had a chance to move to the job I have now, making peanuts but doing something I love and personally think is necessary and relevant, I jumped at the chance. Heck, I nearly wept with joy for the opportunity. If I stay with this job for my whole career, I will never make much money and I will never have any “perks” beyond health insurance and a reasonable amount of paid vacation. But I have a reason to get up in the morning and I don’t dread going to work anymore, and I can with equanimity contemplate doing this work for the next thirty years . . . though I don’t know that I will.
Once I knew I couldn’t live a stylish but deeply bored life, the important thing for me was to get out fast, before I had a chance to get used to all the perks I’d be giving up. I think it’s very easy to be seduced by the trappings of financial “success” and come to feel that you can’t live without a nice car, a nice house, etc. And I’m certain it’s easier to decide to live without such things than it is to give them up once you have them. But I have never, for one moment, regretted my decision.
I have to also go with “both.” I am not particularly thrilled at my current job. Nor am I particularly unhappy. It has its ups and downs, just like anything else. There are other jobs I’d rather be doing, but I can’t support a family doing those jobs. So I compromise. And, of course, moderating this message board brings tremendous happiness to my otherwise meaningless life.
Money won’t buy you happiness, but poverty won’t either.
What money will do is give you more options and choices. I have had opportunites of every stripe present themselves, and in many cases, available cash flow was a determining factor. I have never been wealthy, but I am rich in the intangibles, and I know I don’t ever want poverty.
I personally could be content to just pay my bills, eat well and have a little left over to play with; however, I have a parent and children, and the Word says in proverbs that you should take care of one generation up and two down. I guarantee this will take more than just enough for me, and so I will pursue wealth, not for wealths’ sake (The love of money is the root of all evil) but for the choices it will grant, and the good I can do with it. Take your top ten ‘problems’ and throw $50,000.00 at them; how many would go away? In deuteronomy God says that poverty is a curse, which is a self-evident statement.
Now, having said all that we must also recognize that to whom much is given, much is required; wealth has its’ responsibilities, and TANSTAAFL.
VB
When you are lost, or in doubt, run in circles! Scream & shout!
Check this out. My brother PREFERS to be poor. Actually would rather be poor than “less poor.” I guess he thinks that more money or things might cloud his perception of the true world around him or something. He’s working toward a degree in music, but is always a step behind actually making a living at it. He works in a nursing home, which he enjoys, but doesn’t want to move up from “basic orderly” to anything that might make him more money. And he’s 45 years old! He claims he’s happy, but I don’t think he is. Deep down.
GirlFace, I would bet your brother is suffering a combination of self-doubt and lack of motivation. I did the same thing for years… working silly jobs, claiming I was fine on the measly amount of money I was making. In truth, I just couldn’t push myself to do better, and wasn’t sure I was really capable of it.
Then again, maybe he really is enjoying himself. Who knows?
I like my job and I make a good wage. I wouldn’t work a job I hated for more money. But I don’t think I could work a job I loved for much less money than this. (Maybe I could, if I moved out of San Francisco…) So I guess I’m agreeing with everyone else: a balance.
