Generally people believe money will make them happier, despite
Psychological research showing overwhelmingly – time and time again – that it doesn’t.
Take a five or ten pound note and tell me what is in that will make you happy. Of course, it is not money itself, but what it can do for you.
So really what people want when they think about money is one of two things.
1. Freedom from the worry and restrictions of debt and poverty.
2. Freedom to have the things and experiences that they want without concern of how to pay for it.
And money can bring these things. So it seems to take away what are persistent and niggling worries for most people. However if your Operating System is flawed in this way and you get money, you will end up just replacing that worry with another.
Unfortunately money can bring a lot of other baggage with it. Many people want money to get away from the pressure of debt. But they don’t realise that lots of money brings equal pressures… in the fear of losing it …and where do you put it that’s safe?
Who can you trust that won’t rip you off?
And how do you say no to the thousands that you’re an easy target for begging requests – in all of their forms?
Money isn’t an easy answer. Nor is it evil. It’s just a tool for life.
Psychological study after study has demonstrated that money won’t bring happiness.
In the 1981 report The Sense of Well-Being in America Angus Campbell shared the findings of his long-running study. Between 1955 and 1971 the average income in the U.S rose 40% controlling for inflation, yet those interviewed in 1971 were less happy with their standard of living.
Lottery winners who’ve suddenly gained millions illustrate time after time that money won’t bring happiness. Money is just an accelerator.
It brings life experiences – good and bad – to you faster and more powerfully.
Studies of lottery winners show us that after their win, their happiness level rises considerably. But after a year their happiness level often goes lower than it was before their win.
What happens is that suddenly they have all their (lack of) money problems taken away. And so for a while their happiness levels rise.
But in their place come a whole host of other issues. They get distanced from their old friends because they no longer have so much common ground. With more money they gravitate to more expensive tastes and places. So they move from one social set to another. Though they may not be accepted, as belonging, in their new set.
