This. We are not rich and never have been. Our parents did not go to college, only one completed high school. We went to college and worked our asses off for years and are now retired. After paying off the college loans and grad school loans we eventually ended up doing ok but still lived under our “means”. But what Voyager says about the peace of mind that money buys is absolutely true.
While we were climbing up the “ladder of success” I remember many occasions where we had $5.00 in the bank until the next paycheck. I told my daughter one time we couldn’t buy something because we didn’t have the money for it, she said we should just go to the money machine (ATM) and get some more, hahahahahhaha.
When we finally got to the point where we were both working again, after kids, it was wonderful! For me, not worrying about money to buy hamburger, or the car breaking down, or the furnace going out, or paying the heating bill, was pure bliss.
I’m going to have to disagree with this. I bought a Toyota 4 runner in 1990 and loved it forever. I tried to trade it for another in 2001 but they stopped making it with a manual tranny so I bought an X5 instead. I kept the 4-runner it til 2009 when I finally traded it for a BMW 1 series with a 6 speed manual. The 1 still seems new to me:cool: And I still miss the 4-runner. The X was traded for a Chevy 2500hd in 2008 and I don’t miss it at all.
Money maybe can’t buy happiness DIRECTLY, at least yet, but money in itself can make you happy you have it as well as buy things and experiences which lead to happiness. Also, while money may not always lead to happiness, neither does being bankrupt and arguably less so.
I disagree. Happiness seems to come from what you believe in (sometimes) so if you find a million dollars, and you percieve it as a completely good value, why WOULDN’T you feel happiness or pleasure? Also if money can’t buy at least some stuff to make you happy, then why not throw out all material objects that you own soley for pleasure ( such as music, movies, books, etc.)? Not to actually get you to do it, but isn’t owning these items deep down saying they might bring you happiness or enjoyment? Well, oftentimes, this was brought to you by money.
Money does indeed have the potential to reduce misery, which can in turn result in happiness, but it may not help if the source of unhappiness is pathological - and money does provide the means for people to make themselves very unhappy, if they don’t take care about how they use it.
But yeah - ‘money can’t buy happiness’ is great as a pithy saying, but not very usefully true.
The guy I mentioned on the previous page died quite suddenly (at too young an age) last week. In his garage, now stands an Aston Martin DB9 Vanquish, driven twice, and some high-end limited edition Lotus, never driven at all.
I’m not posting this to gloat (as he was a relative and his loss is very sorely felt), but it’s interesting to note that it is possible to be so adequately resourced that life becomes a relentless pursuit of the next conquest - never actually stopping to savour any of them.
because if you think happyness comes entirely from material things then you are a shallow person.
nothing beats having a good relationship/family. you see some pretty screwed up people who are obscenely wealthy imo. loads of them. not that money isn’t nice to have of course. money is the ticket not the vehicle in the pursuit of happyness.
Money can make relationships easier, or it can induce relationship hell. Poverty can make relationships strained, or it may strengthen them - I’d be interested to know if there are measured stats indicating which way it tends to go in either scenario.
There is some discussion of the link between money and happiness here.
The basic conclusion was that at low levele of income there is a strong correlation between money and happiness, since the lack of money led to a feeling of insecurity, but that once you had enough money to be secure, the effect of money on was practically non-existent.
Oh, and as an aside, a few years ago I thought I had enough money, in that I didn’t worry about it and felt pretty secure. 3 years of unemployment taught me that I was wrong – I didn’t have enough to be secure.
I think he was referring to the pain he felt over the loss of his father and brother, not that he was a generally miserable person. I’d say he turned out better than okay.
Et al. Man, you guys should turn in your Doper cards or something. That movie is pretty much required geek viewing. Just give me a pass when I don’t understand a Dr. Who reference or something.
