Does money buy happiness?

No, but you can buy your own misery.

It buys books, travel, and education.

money cannot buy you happiness, it just allows you to be miserable in comfort.

cheers.

I'll be glad to sell you some happiness.

Just give me all your money, and then we can talk.

A wiser man than me sang:

"All the money you made will never buy back your soul"

He was talking about regret for war mongering, so maybe that takes this to a too-dark place, but the words resonate with me

There are millions of happy people that live on 1$ per day or less. There are thousands of rich people that are on the verge of doing suicide because of how unhappy they feel. I think this answers your question.

When I was in my early 20s and just starting my career I thought that earning more money will make me happier. I always imagined that with more money I would be able to give better for my family. So I was working my ass off to get bigger and bigger salary sacrificing my health somewhat and simple things in life. When I got an increase I was happy for some time, perhaps some months but after some time I always felt that I need a little more to be truly happy. And the cycle started over.

The problem was that no one ever told me that money have absolutely nothing to do with your happiness. At some point I started to question myself why don't I feel happy and started to look for answers. It took some time to find out and understand how your mind works and how to take care of your inner self. I'm still in process of learning as this is a never ending process. But now I am much more happy and much much much less concerned about money.

Does money buy happiness? No, but it can make the down payment if you are wise enough to understand there is a lot more to life.

Now I don't know, but I been told

It's hard to run with the weight of gold,

Other hand I have heard it said,

It's just as hard with the weight of lead.

-Grateful Dead

It's very simple. Money can give you comfort, piece of mind, and the freedom to do more. And you can use the those opportunities to create a happier a life. But money in itself will make you no happier than you were before you had the money.

If I had a load of money but a stressful job - no, the money wouldn't make me happy and allow me to put up with my job. Right now I have a job I hate and a decent salary. I can't imagine being paid more and that making the job easier or enabling me to put up with it. I would still have to dedicate 40-50 hours per week to the job which I hate.

If I won the lottery and had the freedom to do whatever I wanted to do, I reckon it would make me happy. So is that money, or the freedom?

Right now, I'm looking for a career change and striving for somewhere in the middle. I want first and foremost a fulfilling job I don't hate, but I recognize I need to pays the bills and I want some luxury in life like holiday, home improvements etc.

I am a firm believer that money can 100% buy happiness. From the words of the famous Daniel Tosh “Have you ever seen a sad person on a jet ski?” The answer is no. Hypothetically speaking let’s say you win the lottery and take home a lump sum of $200 Million Dollars after taxes and you also had the option of being anonymous which means no long lost cousins and relatives knocking on your door expecting there hand out your life would change forever for the better.

Your daily schedule would be stress free and enjoyable. You want to take a vacation you can, you want a big fully loaded luxurious mansion its yours, you want to go to Las Vegas and act like a high roller you can, the Rolls Royce, Lamborghini, Bentley all realistic and affordable options for you. Longevity good health is yours. The word stress won’t exist much to you especially the financial kind because like I said above nobody really knows you have this money. So to tell me that money can’t buy happiness is a BS lie that those that are wealthy want all of us to think so they don’t have any competition up at the top.

The truth is the word “HAPPINESS” really means “WEALTH” and this is a fact.

It does in the short term. Eventually that will fade away. The human brain normalizes every situation.

Money does not make you happy.

Howeber, lack of money contributes substantially to misery.

It also depends to a great extent where you are in life. When I started out, I was poor, but I was pretty happy striving to get ahead.

But I think I would be pretty miserable if I was poor at this stage of my life. There would be much stress involved raising a family and being poor.

Of course it can buy happiness. What else can *buy* happiness?

Obtaining happiness is different and to many previous posters' points, can be independent of wealth.

At what margin? Moving from $3/day to $30 -> big happiness gains. (Though most of us would still struggle to live on 11k a year). Moving from $500/day to $530 a day, same in absolute terms, not obvious that you'd notice much difference. One number I've seen quoted a lot is that the two are positively related up to 75k/year but I haven't read the study myself http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2019628,00.html

There are some good points in this thread. I do not think money buys happiness but poverty does cause sadness. I just want a comfortable and safe life. Nothing fancy. The older I get the most important thing to me is my health. Money cannot buy that. Health is wealth.

Its my observation that an individual's personality is pretty well established before they even get to high school.

Yes. I would be very unhappy if I didn't have a safe, warm house. I would be even more unhappy if I were hungry. Beyond those most basic needs I do enjoy being able to travel to cool places, eat a nice restaurants, and if there's an occasional issue with a car or the house it doesn't send me into a desperate situation where I have to work an extra job or borrow money etc.

I remember living like that and the stress one major car repair would cause me is no fun.