AIBU to think, can money buy happiness? in some ways, it absolutely can!

Money buys you freedom. I don't think that's a new concept though.

Would agree, we’ve everything breaking at the moment and are trying to get by and fix ourselves also and it sucks! Add in travel, meeting people etc and life would be so much easier!! The idea of a huge washing machine and dryer would be amazing too! Saying that robot hoovers aren’t my thing-all the moving, carrying involved- my dream is a light handheld!

With health it’s patchy, money can buy relief and better appointments but in the end it’s not going to help you.

What money has really bought me isn’t “stuff.”

@Relaxednhappy your post is full of the stuff you've bought, in a frankly vulgar list.

Money is essential for happiness. Not having money impacts quality of life in every way, from your stress levels to your supermarket shop.

Do you pay for ChatGPT too 😂

If the requirements for happiness are things which can be purchased then, yes money can buy happiness.
The questions then raised are:
1-What are the things which give rise to happiness?
and
2-Can those things be bought?

Happiness is subjective. Money can buy security, travel and the ability to do interesting things, have a secure home and not worry about paying for the basics.

I'd much rather have money and be miserable than have no money and be miserable. I'm less likely to be happy trapped in a job I can't leave without leaving myself destitute than I am having money and choices.

It’s an interesting one for me. I’m not interested in money in terms of buying lots of possessions, I can do without a lot of stuff and I’m naturally thrifty. BUT I do agree that money can enhance choice, convenience and free up valuable time. I’m somebody who values autonomy over my time, so I can see the link with more money improving happiness by giving you more choice over how you spend your time.

What would make me happy is to have so much money that I could give it away to help other people without impinging on my fairly modest lifestyle, see Andrew Carnegie, Warren Buffett and (I hate to say it) Bill Gates, what are Musk and Bezos doing with their billions, absolutely fuck all.

It doesn’t buy happiness as my mum said but it does buy choice and misery in comfort

Yeah I absolutely wouldn't buy a second home if I won the lottery. It's just another millstone round your neck, having to manage it, or make decisions for someone else managing it. Neither would I buy a much bigger house. What's the point? There is only DH and me at home now. As long as it had enough space for family to stay that's fine. Don't need a massive garden. All that is just so high maintenance. For me, money would buy freedom. Freedom to go off on holiday whereverand whenever you like and rent the nicest property you want for as long as you like, or stay in a lovely hotel and have everything done for you.

I used to think a holiday home would be great. But totally changed my mind now I'm a bit older and more financially savvy and seen other people regretting holiday home purchases abroad, or caravans etc.

I have been poor, and I know money helps with lot's of lifes difficulties, but to me that doesn't equate with it buying happiness, it definately buys peace of mind re bills, health issues etc.

I wasn't suggesting you are not loved, I was talking generally.

But you say you aren't poor (although I'm not suggesting you're filthy rich either). Until you are in my position I don't see how you can't really comment. And by the way, I am loved. My son loves me very much.

No, and if you are I sympathise.
But as I said, money can solve lot's of problems, but it can't buy happiness.

I would rather be poor and loved, than rich and lonely.

You can use semantics and sentimental notions as much as you like, but I can guarantee that there's absolutely no happiness in poverty. There's no happiness in hunger or damp and dangerous housing, or living in daily dread that your 18 year old car will stop working. Or worrying daily what the hell will become of your disabled child when you die. The "lots of problems" that money can solve would eliminate all of that. So it depends on your idea of happiness. If you personally could live happily with all of the problems I've cited, then I commend you. Are you in that position?

Well to be fair, she had worked all her life. The win came after she had retitred.

I agree with you OP. I was a SAHM and until recently I felt shit about it, I felt guilty for my DH carrying the financial load, I felt guilty to myself for not continuing with a career that I loved, I thought I wasn’t showing my DDs what it was to be an independent woman. We were never skint, but rather than enjoy being off with the kids, I was always a bit embarrassed and guilty about it. Then I had an inheritance that allowed us to pay off the mortgage and a bit left over. It lifted the guilt and now I enjoy it and make the most of it. It’s just really eased the pressure.

Wealth without work. It’s a sin.

I knew a woman, a neighbour of mine, who won quite big on the lottery.
The family went from being comfortably off to being rich. They moved to a big house by the coast,. The last I heard the family had split over differences on how the money should be spent, a couple of years later she died of ill health, but apparently before she died she told people winning the lottery ruined her life.

When my husband and I were starting our business and before we had accumulated any wealth, a friend of ours who is a bit of a serial entrepreneur told us that money doesn’t solve problems, it just brings a different kind of problem. Sometimes worry and stress are the price you pay for making money and being in business.

And to add, you do seem to lose a bit of perspective when you are caught up in it and it requires you to be conscious enough to look up and remind yourself to be grateful for the opportunity to make and accumulate wealth and for the life that it provides. But the stress is super high and I’ve recently been on the verge of a breakdown and had to take a step back to find some balance and energy to get going again.

I think your second paragraph is simplistic and a bit narrow-minded. Look at Steve Jobs, Anthony Bourdain, John Paul Getty. What if you don’t know what the life you want looks like? Or you do and you pay for it and it makes you miserable, such as a big house or an expensive course? It can’t buy you a partner or friend who’ll love you back if that’s what will make you happy, or bring back your loved ones. It won’t cure your incurable cancer.

It can also pay for the antibiotics when needed.

So you can demonstrate that money can solve lots of problems, that's not the same as it buying happiness.

Absolutely. I've lived in complete poverty and as much as I tried to make the best of things, there's only so many times you can smile through the 'free' things in life, such as walks and taking the children to the park. The summer holidays made me particularly anxious trying to find free or low-cost things to do, not to mention the neverending search for money-off coupons, freebies, things in the reduced section that no-one else wants.

Now my children are older I've been able to increase my hours at work. The result has changed my life. I'm not rich by any stretch of the imagination but at least I'm not missing meals, living off scraps of food my children have left or only buying value brand food and products in supermarkets. It was an existence that went on for years until recently. Don't get me started on how much I dreaded the expense of Christmas...

It can help with physical health issues though too. Money buys help and equipment.