to say money does not equal happiness.

[iliketherain]

as title.

I just wish some people would put other things above money....

[Laquitar]

No money don't buy happiness. But it can sometimes buy exit from unhappy situations or ease it. Money can buy expensive medical treatments, a good wheelchair or a special bath, can buy a ticket out of an abusive marriage, can bring families who live all over the world closer, can buy you sleep when you suffer PND etc. And poverty can lead to depression when you don't even have the bus fair, it does drag you down.

Having said i agree that people and relationships are more important and i'm sure most people would choose family over money. And yes, of course you can be poor and happy. My parents were poor and we had a big tragedy thrown it but i still have happy memories. But i'm not sure how it would have been if my parents had an abusive marriage for example or something else on top of being poor.

[forehead]

Yes Maisie, i have given to extended family and friends without them being aware of my financial situation.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

perhaps not, but I'd rather cry in a mansion than a hovel.

Also, the more money have the more control you have over your happiness. If we could afford it, I would send ds (ASD) to a private special school with appropriate support than fight day after day with stressful battles and phonecalls.

Money isn't important to me, but many of the things that you can do with it would make a huge improvement to our lives, which currently are extremely stressful and mostly miserable.

[Chipsycheese]

I would choose my children and my husband over anything else in the world and any amount of money, I am lucky to have healthy children.
A car that's not crap would be nice. So would having spare cash at the end of the month, especially to buy a lovely pair of shoes.
I get bank statements from my 'savings' account I opened a year ago, balance is still zero!
So definitely money can't buy you happiness as we don't have much money but we are pretty happy most of the time (not including PMT days, moody teenager days or 6 year old naughtiness days)

[BrandyAlexander]

I agree with others it does change your relationships with people because people treat you differently. For a start, you are not allowed to complain about anything ever for fear that your own problems are trivial compared to what others might be going through. Also, we saw a house recently that we liked but decided not to go for it because when we bought current house everyone seemed to know how much it cost without us saying anything. The other house would reveal too much about our financial status and that's too intrusive.

My brothers and sisters have all done well financially - nothing like doing gcses and a levels while you're homeless to concentrate the mind and give all of us career focus - do don't need my money. I give a set % of my income to charity and we give money to extended family through dm (they think it comes from her).

[ginmakesitallok]

I don't think that money=happiness, but it certainly makes it easier to be happy. There's a certain level of wealth that people need to survive - to be able to eat/have somewhere warm and safe to live, to be clothed. Then above that there's a level that allows people to engage with whatever community they live in - so they can afford to keep up with whoever their Jones' are (thinking about the car/holidays/designer clothes perhaps?). Above that there's being able to afford to change who your "Jones'" are - so the ability to move house, to have a better standard of living than your parents. And then there's the BIG money! I'd say to have a good chance at happiness you need enough to keep up with your original Jones'.

[Laquitar]

novice yes, with bloody houseprices and zoopla etc nothing is secret any more . Remember the old good days when we were trying to guess how much someone bought his house?

[BrandyAlexander]

Hi Laquitar, oh yes the old days were much more fun! Now it seems that on receipt of a change of address card, everybody gets straight to the net to see how much you spent rather than their address book to record your address! We hadn't expected it last time so we were caught out big time.

[SansaLannister]

Actually, there's plenty of hard research out there that shows being poor can shorten your life quite significantly.

Having been working poor most of my adult life, I can tell you, I wish I'd valued money far more than I did when I was a young adult and I will not be making the same mistake with my children, teaching them all this twaddle about 'it doesn't buy hapiness'. People who spout that have never been in the emergency element of their power meter with days to go before payday, making the kids believe having breakfast for dinner is a treat because you only had porridge and potato waffles left to eat (and no, it's not from spending on fripperies or poor budgetting before someone spraffs that shite as well).

[Fecklessdizzy]

... Maybe not, but I could do with a shed load to test the hypothosis ...

[HengshanRoad]

I think it's a pretty trite statement to be honest, designed to appease poor people. I'm by no means rich myself, but the more money I get, the happier I become.

[EttiKetti]

It's true in our case, we're far from.wealthy but we get by and are very happy. My mums DP is a multimillionaire, has never worked, all inherited/family money and is utterly miserable. He almost takes it to a professional level, its so constant (and moany!!!!)

[AmberLeaf]

I too think that only people who have never been really poor say that.

You can be as chipper as you like but not having enough money to turn on the heating for when your children get up on for school on a january morning is miserable and theres only one thing that can change that = more money!

Pagwatch Your children, dog and house are all gorgeous!

[CheerfulYank]

There's a difference between not having much money and having no money, and I think that's the difference.

I don't have much money. I can't go on holidays, etc. BUT I can buy my son fairly nice things. I have to search ebay like a madwoman, but I can do it. We might have some strange meals near the end of the month when money is tight, but we always have plenty to eat. It gets cold and we try to keep the heat low, but we aren't freezing thanks to the law that says they can't shut the heat off . There are a lot of things I want but can't have. But I have everything I need , and I think that's the difference.

And yes I'm very happy. :)

[CogitoErgoSometimes]

YANBU.... money may not make you happy but there are few things in life as miserable as the grinding, soul-destroying experience of being poor. I'd rather take my chances on pursuing with a few quid in the bank than none...

[Morloth]

Money might not buy happiness but it can certainly make quite a bit of sadness and stress go away.

I have been rich and I have been poor (properly hungry poor) and rich is much, much better.

In real life not very many people know just how rich we are I suspect. We don't advertise, we don't live in a particularly flash house, in a particularly flash suburb nor drive a flash car. But I don't have to worry about money, probably never again given how careful we are. And that makes me happy, deeply content and happy.

So in my case, money does appear to have bought happiness.

[MrsSchadenfreude]

No, but you can at least be miserable in comfort if you have lots of money.

[KittyFane]

Iliketherain... What prompted this thread I wonder....?!
Money and education give a person choice in life.

Choice and freedom to be whatever you want to be.

It is harder to spread your wings, get a good level of education and see the world outside of your own front door- without a certain amount of money.

I'm not talking about a massive amount of money but yes, money has enabled us to do some amazing things which have educated us , broadened our horizons and made us very happy.

[TashHag]

It's interesting that the first two threads that caught my eye this morning were this one and this