To think money can make you happier?

[sweetmotherog]

Fair enough if you're clinically depressed or grieving, then it probably won't.

But I've been on both sides of the coin and I can sincerely say I feel happier with money.

Not because I'm particularly materialistic at all, it's just nice having no worries and being able to purchase whatever you'd really like or need (within reason).

Obviously I'm not talking about the type of money (for me) that buys sports cars and mansions. But going out for dinner with DC and family, being able to go and do any activity, buying whatever I need or think would be nice....

It's just so much more effortless. Being skint is fucking miserable, as is having only enough to 'get by'. Having to watch what you spent is tiresome and boring.

AIBU to say money can make you happy?

I know quite a few wealthy people. Many of them are not happy at all. Money can’t fix poor health, distant children, unkind husbands, loneliness.

Maybe blue. But they'd be even less happy if they were also skint and struggling to pay the bills or keep a roof over their head.

Money buy choice and frequently having a choice makes you feels happier.

You can choose where you shop. What car you drive. Where you live. What you wear. What you eat. What activities you do.

I have been both very poor and, currently, very comfortable. Of all the things in my life giving me stress and unhappiness knowing I don't have to worry about money is something I am very grateful for and happy about.

Being really skint definitely contributed to my PND when I was on mat leave with DC2. We live quite rurally and need a car to get around. I had to save all our petrol for school runs so some days i literally couldn’t afford to leave the house. It was bleak.

A few years on and we’re much, much more comfortable now. The relief of just being able to put whatever I want in my supermarket trolley is immense.

Many of them are not happy at all. Money can’t fix poor health, distant children, unkind husbands, loneliness.

And many people have these things plus money worries.

I'm willing to be a guinea pig so if everyone can send me £50 I'll get back to you and let you know whether I'm happier or not.

Money can make life more comfortable, this in turn can make you feel happier. Hiring a cleaner means you do not spend half a Saturday cleaning. Eating out or ordering a take away means you are not obligated to cook. Living on a nice road, area where people do not fly tip, graffiti makes you feel safe. We had graffiti and fly tipping problems a few years back which got so bad I was anxious on arriving home. I jumped at any outside noise assuming it was boys up to no good.

Everyone has troubles whether wealthy or broke. Troubles are far easier to bear when finances are not tight.

Money gives you choices.

i think there are limits. Being brought up to be able to have anythig you want doesnt exactly teach you the value of anything, but having no money is stressful and soul destroying.

Money doesn't BUY happiness - you still have to put the work in..

Money can’t fix poor health, distant children, unkind husbands, loneliness.

Because those things never affect poor people.

Money can definitely buy happiness if the things you want/need are available to buy.
I'd rather be miserable and comfortable,not even rich, than miserable and poor. Who wouldn't?

Things that suck atm:
*I can't afford another child so I'm not having another despite desperately wanting one
*we live in a one bed that gets damp and mouldy for about 6 months a year
*my job
*my partner getting older and having no idea for how much longer he'll be physically able to do his job, which then adds worrying about the future.

All of these can be solved with more money easily. I'm not even talking millions here, and the posters mentioning the cut off being 70-80k as the cut off make me laugh. I can't even imagine having that kind of income, and there are thousands of people that are in much worse situations than mine.

I bet people on 12k a year find little comfort in the fact that people on over 70k suddenly stop being as happy.

I think money would make me happy at this point in my life. I have DS, lovely family and friends, a job I enjoy.

I have been on benefits in the past and I was miserable. I have more money now I'm working again, enough not to worry about bills but not enough for many luxuries.

Oh and I wouldn't even want loads of money either, just enough to buy a house that I can call my own instead of the rented flat I'm in and for a few holidays a year.

Mr Micawber’s recipe for happiness holds true:

“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.”

Of course inflation has somewhat affected things since the days of David Copperfield but the principle is sound. Not having to constantly worry about money hugely relieves a cause of unhappiness.

It definitely can. Money buys you time and energy and choices and, to some extent, health, all of which are the key ingredients to happiness.
It can allow you to pay other people to do the drugery work in your life, so you don;t have to.

It pays for you to do what you want to do and have the right equipment to do it - from musical instruments and lessons, to sports/outdoor pursuits kit to good theatre tickets. It gives you nicer surroundings in safer places, stylish clothes, shoes and hair, which in turn make other people behave better towards you (shouldn't be true, but is) and takes away a lot of anxiety which debt or expensive necessary outlay can create.

I've heard that beyond a certain point too much money causes just as much anxiety as not enough: are your friends really your friends or tagging along for free lunches? Do you trust your advisors with investments? Are sales people stiffing you etc.

I\d love to have enough money to do exactly what I want to do with my home, my life, my health and most of all with and for family. That would bring enormous happiness.

Of course it does.

I used to date a millionaire and he was pretty fucking happy, to be honest.

I'm not even sure I believe 'money can make you happier up to a point'. It's not about material things particularly, just that life is just significantly easier if you have lots of money. Most every day stresses melt away and you can run away to the Carribbean when you get sick of everyone. And if a disaster does strike, you have a lot of money to chuck at it and money can make a lot of problems easier.

Then I married a squaddie. sigh

I think of course money can improve your life and thus make you happier (up to a point). But money will never make you happy on its own. Because money can't buy you love, companionship, fulfilment.

I think it can on the proviso you are aware of how awful life can be without money. I grew up in poverty, my father died young, we had nothing. I’m very very careful with money now because I’m so aware of how bad things can be (we often had no electricity or gas, sat by candlelight, couldn’t take a bath as no hot water, no food etc

If I had money now I’d not spend it on frivolous things. I’d spend it on wellbeing and ensuring we were as secure as we could be. And that would make me happy!

I think being financially secure can make you happier. I don't think money on it's own can make you happy. There's plenty of miserable lonely millionaires out there that have a life I wouldn't want despite the money.

FWIW I'm earning more now than I ever have but I don't feel any happier about that aspect. I'm happier about a better work/ life balance- wfh a few days a week which allows me to do school drop offs/ picks ups. Like others said money gives you choices.

It definitely makes me happier. I've been skint as a single parent and it was bloody horrible. After you have had your needs met though and a bit extra on top then I think it plateaus. I'm not well off by a long shot but I can afford a cheap break in the sun once a year and nice clothes (think Next price range not Chanel) I have a fairly crappy 08 Plate car) I feel that I live exactly the same life as a middle class person but in cheaper surroundings. Having more money wouldn't make me a happier person. Maybe I'd have posher clothes and go to Sandals rather than the Costa del sol.

Money only helps up to a point. Lack of money worries is great, but pots of it doesn't bring happiness (just scroungers and hangers-on).

It does facilitate shoes, however. Shoes bring me happiness.

It does.

If I couldn't have an impromptu day out tomorrow with my sons or a night out with my DH then that would be shit.

My bills are paid, I can go on holidays and I can treat my family. I don't need to worry if one of my sons need shoes etc but I am very far from rich.

I wish t go into how and why but I know what it does. Especially in large amounts

All the money in the world might help my sister to control her diabetes. But it won’t fix it. It won’t make her not diabetic.
Is an example of what I was trying to say.

This is reductive and also rather offensive.

I'm type 1 diabetic and happy - I have access to the very best medical tech and believe you me it makes an AMAZING difference to the suffocating mental load of trying to manage diabetes without it. My quality of life is enhanced by it.

In turn, far less anxiety and stress, less physical misery of feeling like shite from high or low blood sugar. There are well-documented links between high or variable blood sugar and mental health.

So no, it doesn't cure it but that's a very black and white way to look at it.

Life isn't perfect for anyone but it's extremely disingenuous to write off the very real game changers that come with having financial resources when you are chronically ill.

Money can’t fix poor health, distant children, unkind husbands, loneliness.

If you come into money, your children won't be distant for long, and your husband will suddenly be a lot nicer to you, and you'll gain a lot of new friends, especially if you're in poor health and not expected to last long