money gives happiness essay

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Does More Money Really Make Us More Happy?

• Elizabeth Dunn
• Chris Courtney

A big paycheck won’t necessarily bring you joy

Although some studies show that wealthier people tend to be happier, prioritizing money over time can actually have the opposite effect.

• But even having just a little bit of extra cash in your savings account ($500), can increase your life satisfaction. So how can you keep more cash on hand?
• Ask yourself: What do I buy that isn’t essential for my survival? Is the expense genuinely contributing to my happiness? If the answer to the second question is no, try taking a break from those expenses.
• Other research shows there are specific ways to spend your money to promote happiness, such as spending on experiences, buying time, and investing in others.
• Spending choices that promote happiness are also dependent on individual personalities, and future research may provide more individualized advice to help you get the most happiness from your money.

Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here .

How often have you willingly sacrificed your free time to make more money? You’re not alone. But new research suggests that prioritizing money over time may actually undermine our happiness.

• ED Elizabeth Dunn is a professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia and Chief Science Officer of Happy Money, a financial technology company with a mission to help borrowers become savers. She is also co-author of “ Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending ” with Dr. Michael Norton. Her TED2019 talk on money and happiness was selected as one of the top 10 talks of the year by TED.
• CC Chris Courtney is the VP of Science at Happy Money. He utilizes his background in cognitive neuroscience, human-computer interaction, and machine learning to drive personalization and engagement in products designed to empower people to take control of their financial lives. His team is focused on creating innovative ways to provide more inclusionary financial services, while building tools to promote financial and psychological well-being and success.

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More Proof That Money Can Buy Happiness (or a Life with Less Stress)

When we wonder whether money can buy happiness, we may consider the luxuries it provides, like expensive dinners and lavish vacations. But cash is key in another important way: It helps people avoid many of the day-to-day hassles that cause stress, new research shows.

Money can provide calm and control, allowing us to buy our way out of unforeseen bumps in the road, whether it’s a small nuisance, like dodging a rainstorm by ordering up an Uber, or a bigger worry, like handling an unexpected hospital bill, says Harvard Business School professor Jon Jachimowicz.

“If we only focus on the happiness that money can bring, I think we are missing something,” says Jachimowicz, an assistant professor of business administration in the Organizational Behavior Unit at HBS. “We also need to think about all of the worries that it can free us from.”

The idea that money can reduce stress in everyday life and make people happier impacts not only the poor, but also more affluent Americans living at the edge of their means in a bumpy economy. Indeed, in 2019, one in every four Americans faced financial scarcity, according to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The findings are particularly important now, as inflation eats into the ability of many Americans to afford basic necessities like food and gas, and COVID-19 continues to disrupt the job market.

Buying less stress

The inspiration for researching how money alleviates hardships came from advice that Jachimowicz’s father gave him. After years of living as a struggling graduate student, Jachimowicz received his appointment at HBS and the financial stability that came with it.

“My father said to me, ‘You are going to have to learn how to spend money to fix problems.’” The idea stuck with Jachimowicz, causing him to think differently about even the everyday misfortunes that we all face.

To test the relationship between cash and life satisfaction, Jachimowicz and his colleagues from the University of Southern California, Groningen University, and Columbia Business School conducted a series of experiments, which are outlined in a forthcoming paper in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science , The Sharp Spikes of Poverty: Financial Scarcity Is Related to Higher Levels of Distress Intensity in Daily Life .

Higher income amounts to lower stress

In one study, 522 participants kept a diary for 30 days, tracking daily events and their emotional responses to them. Participants’ incomes in the previous year ranged from less than $10,000 to $150,000 or more. They found:

• Money reduces intense stress: There was no significant difference in how often the participants experienced distressing events—no matter their income, they recorded a similar number of daily frustrations. But those with higher incomes experienced less negative intensity from those events.
• More money brings greater control : Those with higher incomes felt they had more control over negative events and that control reduced their stress. People with ample incomes felt more agency to deal with whatever hassles may arise.
• Higher incomes lead to higher life satisfaction: People with higher incomes were generally more satisfied with their lives.

“It’s not that rich people don’t have problems,” Jachimowicz says, “but having money allows you to fix problems and resolve them more quickly.”

Why cash matters

In another study, researchers presented about 400 participants with daily dilemmas, like finding time to cook meals, getting around in an area with poor public transportation, or working from home among children in tight spaces. They then asked how participants would solve the problem, either using cash to resolve it, or asking friends and family for assistance. The results showed:

• People lean on family and friends regardless of income: Jachimowicz and his colleagues found that there was no difference in how often people suggested turning to friends and family for help—for example, by asking a friend for a ride or asking a family member to help with childcare or dinner.
• Cash is the answer for people with money: The higher a person’s income, however, the more likely they were to suggest money as a solution to a hassle, for example, by calling an Uber or ordering takeout.

While such results might be expected, Jachimowicz says, people may not consider the extent to which the daily hassles we all face create more stress for cash-strapped individuals—or the way a lack of cash may tax social relationships if people are always asking family and friends for help, rather than using their own money to solve a problem.

“The question is, when problems come your way, to what extent do you feel like you can deal with them, that you can walk through life and know everything is going to be OK,” Jachimowicz says.

Breaking the ‘shame spiral’

In another recent paper , Jachimowicz and colleagues found that people experiencing financial difficulties experience shame, which leads them to avoid dealing with their problems and often makes them worse. Such “shame spirals” stem from a perception that people are to blame for their own lack of money, rather than external environmental and societal factors, the research team says.

“We have normalized this idea that when you are poor, it’s your fault and so you should be ashamed of it,” Jachimowicz says. “At the same time, we’ve structured society in a way that makes it really hard on people who are poor.”

For example, Jachimowicz says, public transportation is often inaccessible and expensive, which affects people who can’t afford cars, and tardy policies at work often penalize people on the lowest end of the pay scale. Changing those deeply-engrained structures—and the way many of us think about financial difficulties—is crucial.

After all, society as a whole may feel the ripple effects of the financial hardships some people face, since financial strain is linked with lower job performance, problems with long-term decision-making, and difficulty with meaningful relationships, the research says. Ultimately, Jachimowicz hopes his work can prompt thinking about systemic change.

“People who are poor should feel like they have some control over their lives, too. Why is that a luxury we only afford to rich people?” Jachimowicz says. “We have to structure organizations and institutions to empower everyone.”

[Image: iStockphoto/mihtiander]

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Happiness Economics: Can Money Buy Happiness?

It only costs a small amount, a slight risk, with the possibility of a substantial reward.

But will it make you happy? Will it give you long-lasting happiness?

Undoubtedly, there will be a temporary peak in happiness, but will all your troubles finally fade away?

That is what we will investigate today. We explore the economics of happiness and whether money can buy happiness. In this post, we will start by broadly exploring the topic and then look at theories and substantive research findings. We’ll even have a look at previous lottery winners.

For interested readers, we will list interesting books and podcasts for further enjoyment and share a few of our own happiness resources.

Ka-ching: Let’s get rolling!

Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Happiness & Subjective Wellbeing Exercises for free . These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients identify sources of authentic happiness and strategies to boost wellbeing.

This Article Contains

What is happiness economics, theory of the economics of happiness, can money buy happiness 5 research findings, 6 fascinating books and podcasts on the topic, resources from positivepsychology.com, a take-home message.

Happiness economics is a field of economics that recognizes happiness and wellbeing as important outcome measures, alongside measures typically used, such as employment, education, and health care.

Economics emphasizes how specific economic/financial characteristics affect our wellbeing (Easterlin, 2004).

For example, does employment result in better health and longer lifespan, among other metrics? Do people in wealthier countries have access to better education and longer life spans?

In the last few decades, there has been a shift in economics, where researchers have recognized the importance of the subjective rating of happiness as a valuable and desirable outcome that is significantly correlated with other important outcomes, such as health (Steptoe, 2019) and productivity (DiMaria et al., 2020).

Broadly, happiness is a psychological state of being, typically researched and defined using psychological methods. We often measure it using self-report measures rather than objective measures that are less vulnerable to misinterpretation and error.

Including happiness in economics has opened up an entirely new avenue of research to explore the relationship between happiness and money.

Andrew Clark (2018) illustrates the variability in the term happiness economics with the following examples:

• Happiness can be a predictor variable, influencing our decisions and behaviors.
• Happiness might be the desired outcome, so understanding how and why some people are happier than others is essential.

However, the connection between our behavior and happiness must be better understood. Even though “being happy” is a desired outcome, people still make decisions that prevent them from becoming happier. For example, why do we choose to work more if our work does not make us happier? Why are we unhappy even if our basic needs are met?

An example of how happiness can influence decision-making

Sometimes, we might choose not to maximize a monetary or financial gain but place importance on other, more subjective outcomes.

To illustrate: If faced with two jobs — one that pays well but will bring no joy and another that pays less but will bring much joy — some people would prefer to maximize their happiness over financial gain.

If this decision were evaluated using a utility framework where the only valued outcomes were practical, then the decision would seem irrational. However, this scenario suggests that psychological outcomes, such as the experience of happiness, are as crucial as other socio-economic outcomes.

Economists recognize that subjective wellbeing , or happiness, is an essential characteristic and sometimes a desirable outcome that can motivate our decision-making.

In the last few decades, economics has shifted to include happiness as a measurable and vital part of general wellbeing (Graham, 2005).

The consequence is that typical economic questions now also look at the impact of employment, finances, and other economic metrics on the subjective rating and experience of happiness at individual and country levels.

Happiness is such a vital outcome in society and economic activity that it must be involved in policy making. The subjective measure of happiness is as important as other typical measures used in economics.

Many factors can contribute to happiness. In this post, we consider the role of money. The relationship between happiness, or subjective wellbeing, and money is assumed to be positive: More money means greater happiness.

However, the relationship between money and happiness is paradoxical: More money does not guarantee happiness (for an excellent review, see Graham, 2005).

Specifically, low levels of income are correlated with unhappiness. However, as our individual wealth increases and our basic needs are met, our needs change and differ in their importance.

Initially, our happiness is affected by absolute levels of income, but at a certain threshold, we place importance on relative levels of income. Knowing how we rank and compare to other people, in terms of wealth and material possession, influences our happiness.

The relationship between wealth and happiness continues to increase, but only to a certain point; at this stage, more wealth does not guarantee more happiness (Easterlin, 1974; Diener et al., 1993).

This may be at odds with our everyday lived experience. Most of us choose to work longer hours or multiple jobs so that we make more money. However, what is the point of doing this if money does not increase our happiness? Why do we seem to think that more money will make us happier?

History of the economics of happiness

The relationship between economics and happiness originated in the early 1970s. Brickman and Campbell (1971, as cited in Brickman et al., 1978) first argued that the typical outcomes of a successful life, such as wealth or income, had no impact on individual wellbeing.

Easterlin (1974) expanded these results and showed that although wealthier people tend to be happier than poor people in the same country, the average happiness levels within a country remained unchanged even as the country’s overall wealth increased.

The inconsistent relationship between happiness and income and its sensitivity to critical income thresholds make this topic so interesting.

There is some evidence that wealthier countries are happier than others, but only when comparing the wealthy with the poor (Easterlin, 1974; Graham, 2005).

As countries become wealthier, citizens report higher happiness, but this relationship is strongest when the starting point is poverty. Above a certain income threshold, happiness no longer increases (Diener et al., 1993).

Interestingly, people tend to agree on the amount of money needed to make them happy; but beyond a certain value, there is little increase in happiness (Haesevoets et al., 2022).

Measurement challenges

Measuring happiness accurately and reliably is challenging. Researchers disagree on what happiness means.

It is not the norm in economics to measure happiness by directly asking a participant how happy they are; instead, happiness is inferred through:

• Subjective wellbeing (Clark, 2018; Easterlin, 2004)
• A combination of happiness and life satisfaction (Bruni, 2007)

Furthermore, happiness can refer to an acute psychological state, such as feeling happy after a nice meal, or a lasting state similar to contentment (Nettle, 2005).

Researchers might use different definitions of happiness and ways to measure it, thus leading to contradictory results. For example, happiness might be used synonymously with subjective wellbeing and can refer to several things, including life satisfaction and financial satisfaction (Diener & Oishi, 2000).

It seems contradictory that wealthier nations are not happier overall than poorer nations and that increasing the wealth of poorer nations does not guarantee that their happiness will increase too. What could then be done to increase happiness?

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What is the relationship between income/wealth and happiness? To answer that question, we looked at studies to see where and how money improves happiness, but we’ll also consider the limitations to the positive effect of income.

Money buys access; jobs boost happiness

Overwhelming evidence shows that wealth is correlated with measures of wellbeing.

Wealthier people have access to better healthcare, education, and employment, which in turn results in higher life satisfaction (Helliwell et al., 2012). A certain amount of wealth is needed to meet basic needs, and satisfying these needs improves happiness (Veenhoven & Ehrhardt, 1995).

Increasing happiness through improved quality of life is highest for poor households, but this is explained by the starting point. Access to essential services improves the quality of life, and in turn, this improves measures of wellbeing.

Most people gain wealth through employment; however, it is not just wealth that improves happiness; instead, employment itself has an important association with happiness. Happiness and employment are also significantly correlated with each other (Helliwell et al., 2021).

Lockdown on happiness

The World Happiness Report (Helliwell et al., 2021) reports that unemployment increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, and this was accompanied by a marked decline in happiness and optimism.

The pandemic also changed how we evaluated certain aspects of our lives; for example, the relationship between income and happiness declined. After all, what is the use of money if you can’t spend it? In contrast, the association between happiness and having a partner increased (Helliwell et al., 2021).

Wealthier states smile more, but is it real?

If we took a snapshot of happiness and a country’s wealth, we would find that richer countries tend to have happier populations than poorer countries.

For example, based on the 2021 World Happiness Report, the top five happiest countries — which are also wealthy countries — are Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Switzerland, and the Netherlands (Helliwell et al., 2021).

In contrast, the unhappiest countries are those that tend to be emerging markets or have a lower gross domestic product (GDP), e.g., Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and India (Graham, 2005; Helliwell et al., 2021).

At face value, this makes sense: Poorer countries most likely have other factors associated with them, e.g., higher unemployment, more crime, and less political stability. So, based on this cross-sectional data, a country’s wealth and happiness levels appear to be correlated. However, over a more extended period, the relationship between happiness and GDP is nil (Easterlin, 2004).

That is, the subjective wellbeing of a population does not increase as a country becomes richer. Even though the wealth of various countries worldwide has increased over time, the overall happiness levels have not increased similarly or have remained static (Kahneman et al., 2006). This is known as a happiness–income paradox.

Easterlin (2004) posits four explanations for this finding:

• Societal and individual gains associated with increased wealth are concentrated among the extremely wealthy.
• Our degree of happiness is informed by how we compare to other people, and this relative comparison does not change as country-wide wealth increases.
• Happiness is not limited to only wealth and financial status, but is affected by other societal and political factors, such as crime, education, and trust in the government.
• Long-term satisfaction and contentment differ from short-term, acute happiness.

Kahneman et al. (2006) provide an alternative explanation centered on the method typically used by researchers. Specifically, they argue that the order of the questions asked to measure happiness and how these questions are worded have a focusing effect. Through the question, the participant’s attention to their happiness is sharpened — like a lens in a camera — and their happiness needs to be over- or underestimated.

Kahneman et al. (2006) also point out that job advancements like a raise or a promotion are often accompanied by an increase in salary and work hours. Consequently, high-paying jobs often result in less leisure time available to spend with family or on hobbies and can cause more unhappiness.

Not all that glitters is gold

Extensive research explored whether a sudden financial windfall was associated with a spike in happiness (e.g., Sherman et al., 2020). The findings were mixed. Sometimes, having more money is associated with increased life satisfaction and improved physical and mental health.

This boost in happiness, however, is not guaranteed, nor is it long. Sometimes, individuals even wish it had never happened (Brickman et al., 1978; Sherman et al., 2020).

Consider lottery winners. These people win sizable sums of money — typically more extensive than a salary increase — large enough to impact their lives significantly. Despite this, research has consistently shown that although lottery winners report higher immediate, short-term happiness, they do not experience higher long-term happiness (Sherman et al., 2020).

Here are some reasons for this:

• Previous everyday activities and experiences become less enjoyable when compared to a unique, unusual experience like winning the lottery.
• People habituate to their new lifestyle.
• A sudden increase in wealth can disrupt social relationships among friends and family members.
• Work and hobbies typically give us small nuggets of joy over a more extended period (Csikszentmihalyi et al., 2005). These activities can lose their meaning over a longer period, resulting in more unhappiness (Sherman et al., 2020; Brickman et al., 1978).

Sherman et al. (2020) further argue that lottery winners who decide to quit their job after winning, but do not fill this newly available time with some type of meaningful hobby or interest, are also more likely to become unhappy.

Passive activities do not provide the same happiness as work or hobbies. Instead, if lottery winners continue to take part in activities that give them meaning and require active engagement, then they can avoid further unhappiness.

Happiness: Is it temperature or climate?

Like most psychological research, part of the challenge is clearly defining the topic of investigation — a task made more daunting when the topic falls within two very different fields.

Nettle (2005) describes happiness as a three-tiered concept, ranging from short-lived but intense on one end of the spectrum to more abstract and deep on the other.

The first tier refers to transitory feelings of joy, like when one opens up a birthday present.

The second tier describes judgments about feelings, such as feeling satisfied with your job. The third tier is more complex and refers to life satisfaction.

Across research, different definitions are used: Participants are asked about feelings of (immediate) joy, overall life satisfaction, moments of happiness or satisfaction, and mental wellbeing . The concepts are similar but not identical, thus influencing the results.

Most books on happiness economics are textbooks. Although no doubt very interesting, they’re not the easy-reading books we prefer to recommend.

Instead, below you will find a range of books written by economists that explore happiness. These should provide a good springboard on the overall topic of happiness and what influences it, in case any of our readers want to pick up a more in-depth textbook afterward.

If you have a happiness book you would recommend, please let us know in the comments section.

1. Happiness: Lessons from a New Science – Richard Layard

Richard Layard, a lead economist based in London, explores in his book if and how money can affect happiness.

Layard does an excellent job of introducing topics from various fields and framing them appropriately for the reader.

The book is aimed at readers from varying academic and professional backgrounds, so no experience is needed to enjoy it.

Find the book on Amazon .

2. Happiness by Design: Change What You Do, Not How You Think – Paul Dolan

This book has a more practical spin. The author explains how we can use existing research and theories to make small changes to increase our happiness.

Paul Dolan’s primary thesis is that practical things will have a bigger effect than abstract methods, and we should change our behavior rather than our thinking.

The book is a quick read (airport-perfect!), and Daniel Kahneman penned the foreword.

3. The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed and Happiness – Morgan Housel

This book is not necessarily about happiness economics, but it is close enough to the overall theme that it is worth mentioning.

Since most people are concerned with making more money, this book helps teach the reader why we make the decisions we do and how we make better decisions about our money.

This book is a worthwhile addition to any bookcase if you are interested in the relationship between finances and psychology in general.

4. Happiness: The Science Behind Your Smile – Daniel Nettle

If you are interested in happiness overall, then we recommend Happiness: The Science Behind Your Smile by Daniel Nettle, a professor of behavioral science at Newcastle University.

In this book, he takes a scientific approach to explaining happiness, starting with an in-depth exploration of the definition of happiness and some of its challenges.

The research that he presents comes from various fields, including social sciences, medicine, neurobiology, and economics.

Because of its small size, this book is perfect for a weekend away or to read on a plane.

5 & 6. Prefer to listen rather than read?

One of our favorite podcasts is Intelligence2, where leading experts in a particular field gather to debate a particular topic.

This show’s host, Dr. Laurie Santos, argues that we can increase our happiness by not hoarding our money for ourselves but by giving it to others instead. If you are interested in this episode , or any of the other episodes in the Happiness Lab podcast series, then head on over to their page.

There are several resources available at PositivePsychology.com for our readers to use in their professional and personal development.

In this section, you’ll find a few that should supplement any work on happiness and economics. Since the undercurrent of the topic is whether happiness can be improved through wealth, a few resources look at happiness overall.

Valued Living Masterclass

Although knowledge is power, knowing that money does not guarantee happiness does not mean that clients will suddenly feel fulfilled and satisfied with their lives.

For this reason, we recommend the Valued Living Masterclass , for professionals to help their clients find meaning in their lives. Rather than keeping up with the Joneses or chasing a high-paying job, professionals can help their clients connect with their inner meaning (i.e., their why ) as a way to find meaning and gain happiness.

Three free exercises

If you want to try it out before committing, look at the Meaning & Valued Living exercise pack , which includes three exercises for free.

Recommended reading

Read our post on Success Versus Happiness for further information on balancing happiness with success, in any domain . This topic is poignant for readers who conflate happiness and success, and will guide readers to better understand their relationship and how the two terms influence each other.

For readers who wonder about altruism , you would find it interesting that rather than hoarding, you can increase your happiness through volunteering and donating. In this post, the author, Dr. Jeremy Sutton, does a fabulous job of approaching altruism from various fields and provides excellent resources for further reading and real-life application.

Our last recommendation is for readers who want to know more about measuring subjective wellbeing and happiness . The post lists various tests and apps that can measure happiness and the overall history of how happiness was measured and defined. This is a good starting point for researchers or clinicians who want to explore happiness economics professionally.

17 Happines Exercises

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others develop strategies to boost their wellbeing, this collection contains 17 validated happiness and wellbeing exercises . Use them to help others pursue authentic happiness and work toward a  life filled with purpose and meaning

17 Exercises To Increase Happiness and Wellbeing

Add these 17 Happiness & Subjective Well-Being Exercises [PDF] to your toolkit and help others experience greater purpose, meaning, and positive emotions.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

As you’ve seen in our article, the evidence overwhelmingly clarifies that money does not guarantee more happiness … well, long-term happiness.

Our happiness is relative since we compare ourselves to other people, and over time, as we become accustomed to our wealth, we lose all the happiness gains we made.

Money can ease financial and social difficulties; consequently, it can drastically improve people’s living conditions, life expectancy, and education.

Improvements in these outcomes have a knock-on effect on the overall experience of one’s life and the opportunities for one’s family and children. Nevertheless, better opportunities do not guarantee happiness.

Our intention with this post was to illustrate some complexities surrounding the relationship between money and happiness.

Knowing that money does not guarantee happiness, we recommend less expensive methods to improve one’s happiness:

• Spend time with friends.
• Cultivate hobbies and interests.
• Stay active and eat healthy.
• Try to live a meaningful life.
• Give some love (go smooch your partner or tickle your dog’s belly).

Diamonds might be a girl’s best friend, but money is a fair weather one, at best.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Happiness Exercises for free .

• Brickman, P., Coates, D., & Janoff-Bulman, R. (1978). Lottery winners and accident victims: Is happiness relative? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 36 (8), 917.
• Bruni, L. (2007). Handbook on the economics of happiness . Edward Elgar.
• Clark, A. E. (2018). Four decades of the economics of happiness: Where next? Review of Income and Wealth , 64 (2), 245–269.
• Csikszentmihalyi, M., Abuhamdeh, S., & Nakamura, J. (2005). Flow. In A. J. Elliot & C. S. Dweck (Eds.), Handbook of competence and motivation (pp. 598–608). Guilford Publications.
• Diener, E., Sandvik, E., Seidlitz, L., & Diener, M. (1993). The relationship between income and subjective well-being: Relative or absolute? Social Indicators Research , 28 , 195–223.
• Diener, E., & Oishi, S. (2000). Money and happiness: Income and subjective well-being across nations. Culture and Subjective Well-Being , 185 , 218.
• DiMaria, C. H., Peroni, C., & Sarracino, F. (2020). Happiness matters: Productivity gains from subjective well-being. Journal of Happiness Studies , 21 (1), 139–160.
• Easterlin, R. A. (1974). Does economic growth improve the human lot? Some empirical evidence. In P. A. David & M. W. Reder (Eds.), Nations and households in economic growth: Essays in honor of Moses Abramovitz (pp. 89–125). Academic Press.
• Easterlin, R. A. (2004). The economics of happiness. Daedalus , 133 (2), 26–33.
• Graham, C. (2005). The economics of happiness. World Economics , 6 (3), 41–55.
• Haesevoets, T., Dierckx, K., & Van Hiel, A. (2022). Do people believe that you can have too much money? The relationship between hypothetical lottery wins and expected happiness. Judgment and Decision Making , 17 (6), 1229–1254.
• Helliwell, J., Layard, R., & Sachs, J. (Eds.) (2012). World happiness report . The Earth Institute, Columbia University.
• Helliwell, J. F., Layard, R., Sachs, J. D., & Neve, J. E. D. (2021). World happiness report 2021 .
• Kahneman, D., Krueger, A. B., Schkade, D., Schwarz, N., & Stone, A. A. (2006). Would you be happier if you were richer? A focusing illusion. Science , 312 (5782), 1908–1910.
• Nettle, D. (2005). Happiness: The science behind your smile . Oxford University Press.
• Sherman, A., Shavit, T., & Barokas, G. (2020). A dynamic model on happiness and exogenous wealth shock: The case of lottery winners. Journal of Happiness Studies , 21 , 117–137.
• Steptoe, A. (2019). Happiness and health. Annual Review of Public Health , 40 , 339–359.
• Veenhoven, R., & Ehrhardt, J. (1995). The cross-national pattern of happiness: Test of predictions implied in three theories of happiness. Social Indicators Research , 34 , 33–68.

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A business journal from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Does Money Buy Happiness? Here’s What the Research Says

March 28, 2023 • 5 min read.

Reconciling previously contradictory results, researchers from Wharton and Princeton find a steady association between larger incomes and greater happiness for most people but a rise and plateau for an unhappy minority.

• Finance & Accounting

The following article was originally published on Penn Today .

Does money buy happiness? Though it seems like a straightforward question, research had previously returned contradictory findings, leaving uncertainty about its answer.

Foundational work published in 2010 from Princeton University’s  Daniel Kahneman  and Angus Deaton had found that day-to-day happiness rose as annual income increased, but above $75,000 it leveled off and happiness plateaued. In contrast, work published in 2021 from the University of Pennsylvania’s  Matthew Killingsworth  found that happiness rose steadily with income well beyond $75,000, without evidence of a plateau.

To reconcile the differences, Kahneman and Killingsworth paired up in what’s known as an adversarial collaboration, joining forces with Penn Integrates Knowledge  University Professor  Barbara Mellers  as arbiter. In a new  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences  paper , the trio shows that, on average, larger incomes are associated with ever-increasing levels of happiness. Zoom in, however, and the relationship becomes more complex, revealing that within that overall trend, an unhappy cohort in each income group shows a sharp rise in happiness up to $100,000 annually and then plateaus.

“In the simplest terms, this suggests that for most people larger incomes are associated with greater happiness,” says Killingsworth, a senior fellow at Wharton and lead paper author. “The exception is people who are financially well-off but unhappy. For instance, if you’re rich and miserable, more money won’t help. For everyone else, more money was associated with higher happiness to somewhat varying degrees.”

Mellers digs into this last notion, noting that emotional well-being and income aren’t connected by a single relationship. “The function differs for people with different levels of emotional well-being,” she says. Specifically, for the least happy group, happiness rises with income until $100,000, then shows no further increase as income grows. For those in the middle range of emotional well-being, happiness increases linearly with income, and for the happiest group the association actually accelerates above $100,000.

Joining Forces to Ask: “Does Money Buy Happiness?”

The researchers began this combined effort recognizing that their previous work had drawn different conclusions. Kahneman’s 2010 study showed a flattening pattern where Killingsworth’s 2021 study did not. As its name suggests, an adversarial collaboration of this type — a notion originated by Kahneman — aims to solve scientific disputes or disagreements by bringing together the differing parties, along with a third-party mediator.

Killingsworth, Kahneman, and Mellers focused on a new hypothesis that both a happy majority and an unhappy minority exist. For the former, they surmised, happiness keeps rising as more money comes in; the latter’s happiness improves as income rises but only up to a certain income threshold, after which it progresses no further.

To test this new hypothesis, they looked for the flattening pattern in data from Killingworth’s study, which he had collected through an app he created called Track Your Happiness. Several times a day, the app pings participants at random moments, asking a variety of questions including how they feel on a scale from “very good” to “very bad.” Taking an average of the person’s happiness and income, Killingsworth draws conclusions about how the two variables are linked.

A breakthrough in the new partnership came early on when the researchers realized that the 2010 data, which had revealed the happiness plateau, had actually been measuring unhappiness in particular rather than happiness in general.

“It’s easiest to understand with an example,” Killingsworth says. Imagine a cognitive test for dementia that most healthy people pass easily. While such a test could detect the presence and severity of cognitive dysfunction, it wouldn’t reveal much about general intelligence since most healthy people would receive the same perfect score.

“In the same way, the 2010 data showing a plateau in happiness had mostly perfect scores, so it tells us about the trend in the unhappy end of the happiness distribution, rather than the trend of happiness in general. Once you recognize that, the two seemingly contradictory findings aren’t necessarily incompatible,” Killingsworth says. “And what we found bore out that possibility in an incredibly beautiful way. When we looked at the happiness trend for unhappy people in the 2021 data, we found exactly the same pattern as was found in 2010; happiness rises relatively steeply with income and then plateaus.”

“The two findings that seemed utterly contradictory actually result from data that are amazingly consistent,” he says.

Does It Matter Whether Money Can Buy Happiness?

Drawing these conclusions would have been challenging had the two research teams not come together, says Mellers, who suggests there’s no better way than adversarial collaborations to resolve scientific conflict.

“This kind of collaboration requires far greater self-discipline and precision in thought than the standard procedure,” she says. “Collaborating with an adversary — or even a non-adversary — is not easy, but both parties are likelier to recognize the limits of their claims.” Indeed, that’s what happened, leading to a better understanding of the relationship between money and happiness.

And these findings have real-world implications, according to Killingsworth. For one, they could inform thinking about tax rates or how to compensate employees. And, of course, they matter to individuals as they navigate career choices or weigh a larger income against other priorities in life, Killingsworth says.

However, he adds that for emotional well-being money isn’t the be all end all. “Money is just one of the many determinants of happiness,” he says. “Money is not the secret to happiness, but it can probably help a bit.”

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Research: Can Money Buy Happiness?

In his quarterly column, Francis J. Flynn looks at research that examines how to spend your way to a more satisfying life.

September 25, 2013

A boy looks at a toy train he received during an annual gift-giving event on Christmas Eve 2011. | Reuters/Jose Luis Gonzalez

What inspires people to act selflessly, help others, and make personal sacrifices? Each quarter, this column features one piece of scholarly research that provides insight on what motivates people to engage in what psychologists call “prosocial behavior” — things like making charitable contributions, buying gifts, volunteering one‘s time, and so forth. In short, it looks at the work of some of our finest researchers on what spurs people to do something on behalf of someone else.

In this column I explore the idea that many of the ways we spend money are prosocial acts — and prosocial expenditures may, in fact, make us happier than personal expenditures. Authors Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton discuss evidence for this in their new book, Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending . These behavioral scientists show that you can get more out of your money by following several principles — like spending money on others rather than yourself. Moreover, they demonstrate that these principles can be used not only by individuals, but also by companies seeking to create happier employees and more satisfying products.

According to Dunn and Norton, recent research on happiness suggests that the most satisfying way of using money is to invest in others. This can take a seemingly limitless variety of forms, from donating to a charity that helps strangers in a faraway country to buying lunch for a friend.

Witness Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, two of the wealthiest people in the world. On a March day in 2010, they sat in a diner in Carter Lake, Iowa, and hatched a scheme. They would ask America‘s billionaires to pledge the majority of their wealth to charity. Buffet decided to donate 99 percent of his, saying, “I couldn‘t be happier with that decision.”

And what about the rest of us? Dunn and Norton show how we all might learn from that example, regardless of the size of our bank accounts. Research demonstrating that people derive more satisfaction spending money on others than they do spending it on themselves spans poor and rich countries alike, as well as income levels. The authors show how this phenomenon extends over an extraordinary range of circumstances, from a Canadian college student purchasing a scarf for her mother to a Ugandan woman buying lifesaving malaria medication for a friend. Indeed, the benefits of giving emerge among children before the age of two.

Investing in others can make individuals feel healthier and wealthier, even if it means making yourself a little poorer to reap these benefits. One study shows that giving as little as $1 away can cause you to feel more flush.

Quote Investing in others can make you feel healthier and wealthier, even if it means making yourself a little poorer.

Dunn and Norton further discuss how businesses such as PepsiCo and Google and nonprofits such as DonorsChoose.org are harnessing these benefits by encouraging donors, customers, and employees to invest in others. When Pepsi punted advertising at the 2010 Superbowl and diverted funds to supporting grants that would allow people to “refresh” their communities, for example, more public votes were cast for projects than had been cast in the 2008 election. Pepsi got buzz, and the company‘s in-house competition also offering a seed grant boosted employee morale.

Could this altruistic happiness principle be applied to one of our most disputed spheres — paying taxes? As it turns out, countries with more equal distributions of income also tend to be happier. And people in countries with more progressive taxation (such as Sweden and Japan) are more content than those in countries where taxes are less progressive (such as Italy and Singapore). One study indicated that people would be happier about paying taxes if they had more choice as to where their money went. Dunn and Norton thus suggest that if taxes were made to feel more like charitable contributions, people might be less resentful having to pay them.

The researchers persuasively suggest that the proclivity to derive joy from investing in others may well be just a fundamental component of human nature. Thus the typical ratio we all tend to fall into of spending on self versus others — ten to one — may need a shift. Giving generously to charities, friends, and coworkers — and even your country — may well be a productive means of increasing well-being and improving our lives.

Research selected by Francis Flynn, Paul E. Holden Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

For media inquiries, visit the Newsroom .

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Greater Good Science Center • Magazine • In Action • In Education

How Does Valuing Money Affect Your Happiness?

It may seem that money is a sure path to prestige and happiness. After all, many of our most well-paid citizens are held up as role models of success, leading seemingly perfect, enviable lives. Still, some people embrace the opposite idea: Money can’t buy you happiness. So, which of these is right?

In recent studies, scientists have found that the connection between wealth and well-being is not clear-cut. While some studies seem to tie wealth to well-being, others show that, after a certain point, a higher income will not bring more happiness or life satisfaction.

Now two new studies shed further light on the relationship between wealth and happiness. Their findings suggest that money doesn’t fulfill basic psychological needs, like belonging and competence. That’s why making more of it will not increase your happiness, even if you value money above other things. In fact, it may do the opposite.

What money can and can’t do for you

In one study , University of Buffalo researcher Lora Park and her colleagues investigated what happens when people tie their self-worth to financial success, scoring high on the “Financial Contingency of Self-Worth” scale, or FCWS. The researchers found that doing so made people engage in more social comparisons, experience more stress and anxiety, and feel less autonomy than those who didn’t tie their self-worth to income, regardless of their actual economic status.

“People in this society are often focused on pursuing money, and they don’t think there is anything bad about that,” says Park. “But in terms of your psychological well-being, there are all kinds of negative consequences.”

It also might affect your problem-solving ability. Park and her colleagues randomly assigned participants to write about their dissatisfaction with either an aspect of their financial situation—like not having enough money to pay rent—or their academic performance, like getting a bad test grade. Afterwards, they reported on what coping strategies they would use in response to the situation.

Research assistants analyzed the essays and found that participants who scored high in FCSW used more emotionally negative words and reported more disengagement strategies—like giving up or avoiding solutions—when writing about a financial stressor versus an academic stressor than people scoring low in FCSW. None of the results were affected by the actual income of the students.

People who are facing a problem should, logically, be focused on figuring out ways to solve it, says Park. “But what we found is that high financial contingency of self-worth somehow blocks that response.”

Why would this be?

Park believes that when people feel their self-concept is threatened in some way, they will become more self-protective so as not to experience low self-esteem. So, if your self-esteem is tied to money, a financial stressor will cause a lot more stress than it would for someone who doesn’t feel that way. Some support for her argument comes from another part of her experiment, where having participants high in FCSW remind themselves of their character strengths—like their intelligence or sense of humor—seemed to negate these avoidance effects.

Affirming Important Values

When your self-image takes a hit, reflect on what matters

“When people take a step back and have a broader perspective on their sense of self, that’s often enough to take them out of the self-esteem rumination/narrow focus they otherwise have,” says Park.

As prior research suggests, it can also be the case that people simply want money to do something that it cannot. “Self-esteem, like happiness, is a byproduct of meeting psychological needs—like meaning or purpose, feeling competent, having close relationships, or having a sense of autonomy—and basing your self-worth on financial success actually detracts from fulfilling those needs,” says Park.

Why community beats money

Park’s findings mirror other recent findings from the University of San Francisco’s Matthew Monnot, who studied financial success and well-being in China.

In his study , Monnot notes that, as China’s economy has grown, its citizens seem to be facing some of the same issues that Americans have faced. A growing number of people equate individual success with making more money and valuing money—an extrinsic reward—over other, more intrinsic rewards, like relationships or community. To see how this trend has affected well-being, he conducted a series of studies involving thousands of participants from several cities in China.

In one experiment, Monnot showed that job satisfaction did not rise in tandem with income. In fact, as with prior studies, wealth beyond a certain point tended to make Chinese workers no more satisfied with their jobs or their incomes, suggesting that money has only so much power to increase our life satisfaction.

“Our findings are pretty aligned with prior research,” says Monnot. “The correlation between income and job satisfaction is really small, to the extent that it predicts about five percent of job satisfaction.”

More on Money & Happiness

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Learn six ways to get more happiness for your money .

To tease out why, Monnot looked at how individual values shape the relationship between money and income satisfaction. He asked participants to pick the five factors they thought were most important for well-being from a list of 25 possible choices—including income—and then measured how satisfied they were with their income as it rose. Though one might expect people valuing income to be happier as they made more money, Monnot found the opposite: People who picked income as an important value were significantly less satisfied, even at higher levels.

“If income is important to you, then income is actually less satisfying as income goes up than if income is not important to you,” he says.

Though this seems paradoxical, Monnot says it makes some sense, when you understand how intrinsic versus extrinsic values affect our happiness.

“Not all goals are equal in terms of producing well-being, productivity, job satisfaction, or life satisfaction,” says Monnot. “If you say income is something really important to you, because income is an extrinsic reward and not part of your intrinsic needs, if you focus on it, it won’t make you happy.”

In other words, look inside of yourself, not your wallet, for happiness.

Monnot was curious to see how living in different cities in China might affect the relationship between valuing income and well-being. After all, if the government is developing policies to increase income in certain areas of the country, it would be good to know the impact this is having on happiness.

Again, he had people pick out five things they valued; but this time he separated people into different groups depending on whether they placed high value on materialistic things, like income and status, and placed low value on relationships and community, or vice versa. When he compared these two groups, people who valued relationships or community versus materialistic things had greater job satisfaction and overall life satisfaction. This was true regardless of their city’s per-capita income.

“The big idea is that higher GDP or people having more money is all great—especially at a societal level. You want your economy to be more productive and to have more resources and money available,” says Monnot. “Well, maybe that’s not necessarily in and of itself something that’s going to produce a happier population.”

Both Monnot and Park hope that their research might lead people to think a bit differently about the supposed benefits of striving for more money. Though neither would deny that we need money to survive, valuing it too highly or tying it to your self-worth is clearly a mistake.

Monnot hopes his research might help individuals—and business leaders and policymakers—to realize that fulfilling psychological needs is more important to happiness than making a lot of money.


“Autonomy, developing a skill set to be good at what you do, being affiliative with others, having a sense of connection to your community—these are all things that we as researchers are fairly convinced are innate, evolved human tendencies that bring happiness,” he says.

“If you can get people to focus on fulfilling those needs, they’ll become happier. The research is strongly in favor of that.”

About the Author

Jill Suttie

Jill Suttie, Psy.D. , is Greater Good ’s former book review editor and now serves as a staff writer and contributing editor for the magazine. She received her doctorate of psychology from the University of San Francisco in 1998 and was a psychologist in private practice before coming to Greater Good .

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Can money buy happiness, three psychological principles to consider before you make your next purchase.

By Sarah Gervais, Associate Professor of Psychology, Social and Cognitive Program and Law-Psychology Program

11 Nov 2015

We’re all familiar with the idea that money can’t buy happiness. Yet, the reality is that we all spend money and for most of us it is a limited resource. How can we spend our hard earned dough in ways that will maximize our happiness? Psychological research offers some useful insights about the connections between money and happiness to consider before you make your next purchase.

• Being Rich Isn’t Necessarily the Path to Happiness. Money is important to happiness. Ask anyone who doesn’t have it. Having a higher income, for example, can give us access to homes in safer neighborhoods, better health care and nutrition, fulfilling work, and more leisure time. However, this only works up to a certain point. Once our income reaches a certain level and our basic needs for food, health care, safety, and shelter are met, the positive effects of money—such as buying your dream home—are often offset by the negative effects—such as working longer hours, or in more stressful jobs, to maintain that income.
• Doing Makes us Happier than Having. Most people assume that “things” will lead to more happiness than “experiences.” Physical objects—such as the latest iPhone, handbag, or car—last longer than say going to a concert, taking a cooking class, or going on vacation. Buying things does make us happy, at least in the short term. In the long-term, however, we habituate to new things and even though they may have made us excited and happy at first, eventually the item becomes the new normal and fades into the background. The happiness that comes from purchasing experiences, however, tends to increase over time. One reason is that we often share experiential purchases with other people. Even when you’ve driven that new car into the ground, you’ll still be telling stories with your family and friends about that time when you went on vacation to Colorado and you’ll even be chuckling about when the car broke down and you had to spend the night in the shady motel
• Consider Spending Money on Others. Most people think that spending money on themselves will make them happier than spending it on other people. Yet, when researchers assess happiness before and after people spend an annual bonus, people report greater happiness when they spend the bonus money on others or donate it to charity than when they spend it on themselves. This occurs regardless of how big the bonus was. One reason for this phenomenon is that giving to others makes us feel good about ourselves

So, before you pull out your wallet or click to order online, think about whether this purchase will really make you happy. If it will jeopardize your basic needs, think twice. If you have some disposable income, considering planning a trip or taking a class to learn a new skill. Finally, in this season of giving, know that if you spend your money on others or donate it to good causes, you may feel better than if you spend it on yourself.

Note: This article presents some basic principles for money and happiness. Individuals differ in their financial situation and psychological well-being. Consult a financial expert or behavioral health professional for guidance about finances and happiness.

Here’s How Money Really Can Buy You Happiness

The following story is excerpted from TIME’s special edition, The Science of Happiness , which is available at Amazon .

“Whoever said money can’t buy happiness isn’t spending it right.” You may remember those Lexus ads from years back, which hijacked this bumper-sticker-ready twist on the conventional wisdom to sell a car so fancy that no one would ever dream of affixing a bumper sticker to it.

What made the ads so intriguing, but also so infuriating, was that they seemed to offer a simple—if rather expensive—solution to a common question: How can you transform the money you work so hard to earn into something approaching the good life? You know that there must be some connection between money and happiness. If there weren’t, you’d be less likely to stay late at work (or even go in at all) or struggle to save money and invest it profitably. But then, why aren’t your lucrative promotion, five-bedroom house and fat 401(k) cheering you up? The relationship between money and happiness, it would appear, is more complicated than you can possibly imagine.

Fortunately, you don’t have to do the untangling yourself. Over the past quarter-century, economists and psychologists have banded together to sort out the hows, whys and why-nots of money and mood. Especially the why-nots. Why is it that the more money you have, the more you want? Why doesn’t buying the car, condo or cellphone of your dreams bring you more than momentary joy?

In attempting to answer these seemingly depressing questions, the new scholars of happiness have arrived at some insights that are, well, downright cheery. Money can help you find more happiness, so long as you know just what you can and can’t expect from it. And no, you don’t have to buy a Lexus to be happy. Much of the research suggests that seeking the good life at a store is an expensive exercise in futility. Before you can pursue happiness the right way, you need to recognize what you’ve been doing wrong.

Money misery

The new science of happiness starts with a simple insight: we’re never satisfied. “We always think if we just had a little bit more money, we’d be happier,” says Catherine Sanderson, a psychology professor at Amherst College, “but when we get there, we’re not.” Indeed, the more you make, the more you want. The more you have, the less effective it is at bringing you joy, and that seeming paradox has long bedeviled economists. “Once you get basic human needs met, a lot more money doesn’t make a lot more happiness,” notes Dan Gilbert, a psychology professor at Harvard University and the author of Stumbling on Happiness . Some research shows that going from earning less than $20,000 a year to making more than $50,000 makes you twice as likely to be happy, yet the payoff for then surpassing $90,000 is slight. And while the rich are happier than the poor, the enormous rise in living standards over the past 50 years hasn’t made Americans happier. Why? Three reasons:

You overestimate how much pleasure you’ll get from having more. Humans are adaptable creatures, which has been a plus during assorted ice ages, plagues and wars. But that’s also why you’re never all that satisfied for long when good fortune comes your way. While earning more makes you happy in the short term, you quickly adjust to your new wealth—and everything it buys you. Yes, you get a thrill at first from shiny new cars and TV screens the size of Picasso’s Guernica . But you soon get used to them, a state of running in place that economists call the “hedonic treadmill” or “hedonic adaptation.”

Even though stuff seldom brings you the satisfaction you expect, you keep returning to the mall and the car dealership in search of more. “When you imagine how much you’re going to enjoy a Porsche, what you’re imagining is the day you get it,” says Gilbert. When your new car loses its ability to make your heart go pitter-patter, he says, you tend to draw the wrong conclusions. Instead of questioning the notion that you can buy happiness on the car lot, you begin to question your choice of car. So you pin your hopes on a new BMW, only to be disappointed again.

More money can also lead to more stress. The big salary you pull in from your high-paying job may not buy you much in the way of happiness. But it can buy you a spacious house in the suburbs. Trouble is, that also means a long trip to and from work, and study after study confirms what you sense daily: even if you love your job, the little slice of everyday hell you call the commute can wear you down. You can adjust to most anything, but a stop-and-go drive or an overstuffed subway car will make you unhappy whether it’s your first day on the job or your last.

You endlessly compare yourself with the family next door. H.L. Mencken once quipped that the happy man is one who earns $100 more than his wife’s sister’s husband. He was right. Happiness scholars have found that how you stand relative to others makes a much bigger difference in your sense of well-being than how much you make in an absolute sense.

You may feel a touch of envy when you read about the glamorous lives of the absurdly wealthy, but the group you likely compare yourself with are folks Dartmouth economist Erzo Luttmer calls “similar others”—the people you work with, people you grew up with, old friends and old classmates. “You have to think, ‘I could have been that person,’ ” Luttmer says.

Matching census data on earnings with data on self-reported happiness from a national survey, Luttmer found that, sure enough, your happiness can depend a great deal on your neighbors’ paychecks. “If you compare two people with the same income, with one living in a richer area than the other,” Luttmer says, “the person in the richer area reports being less happy.”

Your penchant for comparing yourself with the guy next door, like your tendency to grow bored with the things that you acquire, seems to be a deeply rooted human trait. An inability to stay satisfied is arguably one of the key reasons prehistoric man moved out of his drafty cave and began building the civilization you now inhabit. But you’re not living in a cave, and you likely don’t have to worry about mere survival. You can afford to step off the hedonic treadmill. The question is, how do you do it?

Money bliss

If you want to know how to use the money you have to become happier, you need to understand just what it is that brings you happiness in the first place. And that’s where the newest happiness research comes in.

Friends and family are a mighty elixir. One secret of happiness? People. Innumerable studies suggest that having friends matters a great deal. Large-scale surveys by the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center (NORC), for example, have found that those with five or more close friends are 50% more likely to describe themselves as “very happy” than those with smaller social circles. Compared with the happiness-increasing powers of human connection, the power of money looks feeble indeed. So throw a party, set up regular lunch dates—whatever it takes to invest in your friendships.

Even more important to your happiness is your relationship with your aptly named “significant other.” People in happy, stable, committed relationships tend to be far happier than those who aren’t. Among those surveyed by NORC from the 1970s through the 1990s, some 40% of married couples said they were “very happy”; among the never-married, only about a quarter were quite so exuberant. But there is good reason to choose wisely. Divorce brings misery to everyone involved, though those who stick it out in a terrible marriage are the unhappiest of all.

While a healthy marriage is a clear happiness booster, the kids who tend to follow are more of a mixed blessing. Studies of kids and happiness have come up with little more than a mess of conflicting data. “When you take moment-by-moment readouts of how people feel when they’re taking care of the kids, they actually aren’t very happy,” notes Cornell University psychologist Tom Gilovich. “But if you ask them, they say that having kids is one of the most enjoyable things they do with their lives.”

Doing things can bring us more joy than having things. Our preoccupation with stuff obscures an important truth: the things that don’t last create the most lasting happiness. That’s what Gilovich and Leaf Van Boven of the University of Colorado found when they asked students to compare the pleasure they got from the most recent things they bought with the experiences (a night out, a vacation) they spent money on.

One reason may be that experiences tend to blossom as you recall them, not diminish. “In your memory, you’re free to embellish and elaborate,” says Gilovich. Your trip to Mexico may have been an endless parade of hassles punctuated by a few exquisite moments. But looking back on it, your brain can edit out the surly cabdrivers, remembering only the glorious sunsets. So next time you think that arranging a vacation is more trouble than it’s worth—or a cost you’d rather not shoulder—factor in the delayed impact.

Of course, a lot of what you spend money on could be considered a thing, an experience or a bit of both. A book that sits unread on a bookshelf is a thing; a book you plunge into with gusto, savoring every plot twist, is an experience. Gilovich says that people define what is and isn’t an experience differently. Maybe that’s the key. He suspects that the people who are happiest are those who are best at wringing experiences out of everything they spend money on, whether it’s dancing lessons or hiking boots.

Applying yourself to something hard makes you happy. We’re addicted to challenges, and we’re often far happier while working toward a goal than after we reach it. Challenges help you attain what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls a state of “flow”: total absorption in something that stretches you to the limits of your abilities, mental or physical. Buy the $1,000 golf clubs; pay for the $50-an-hour music lessons.

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Flow takes work.

After all, you have to learn to play scales on a guitar before you can lose yourself in a Van Halen–esque solo—but the satisfaction you get in the end is greater than what you can get out of more passive pursuits. When people are asked what makes them happy on a moment-to-moment basis, watching TV ranks pretty high. But people who watch a lot of TV tend to be less happy than those who don’t. Settling down on the couch with the remote can help you recharge, but to be truly happy, you need more in your life than passive pleasures.

You need to find activities that help you get into the state of flow. You can find flow at work if you have a job that interests and challenges you and that gives you ample control over your daily assignments. Indeed, one study by two University of British Columbia researchers suggests that workers would be happy to forgo as much as a 20% raise if it meant having a job with more variety.

Not long ago, most researchers thought you had a happiness set point that you were largely stuck with for life. One famous paper said that “trying to be happier” may be “as futile as trying to be taller.” The author of those words has since recanted, and experts are increasingly coming to view happiness as a talent, not an inborn trait. Exceptionally happy people seem to have a set of skills—ones that you too can learn.

Sonja Lyubomirsky, a psychology professor at the University of California, Riverside, has found that happy people don’t waste time dwelling on unpleasant things. They tend to interpret ambiguous events in positive ways. And perhaps most tellingly, they aren’t bothered by the successes of others. Lyubomirsky says that when she asked less-happy people whom they compared themselves with, “they went on and on.” She adds, “The happy people didn’t know what we were talking about.” They dare not to compare, thus short-circuiting invidious social comparisons.

That’s not the only way to get yourself to spend less and appreciate what you have more. Try counting your blessings. Literally. In a series of studies, psychologists Robert Emmons of the University of California, Davis, and Michael McCullough of the University of Miami found that those who did exercises to cultivate feelings of gratitude, such as keeping weekly journals, ended up feeling happier, healthier, more energetic and more optimistic than those who didn’t.

And if you can’t change how you think, you can at least learn to resist. The act of shopping unleashes primal hunter-gatherer urges. When you’re in that hot state, you tend to be an extremely poor judge of what you’ll think of a product when you cool down later. Before giving in to your lust, give yourself a time-out. Over the next month, keep track of how many times you tell yourself: I wish I had a camera! If in the course of your life you almost never find yourself wanting a camera, forget about it and move on, happily.

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When and How Money Buys Happiness

A new study investigates the effects of money-making motives on mental health..

Posted January 22, 2022 | Reviewed by Devon Frye

• The relationship between money and happiness is complicated and may depend on a person’s financial situation and how the money is used.
• Money buys happiness for people who are unable to meet their basic needs (e.g., for food, shelter, clothing).
• Beyond meeting basic needs, more money increases happiness only if used to satisfy psychological needs (e.g., autonomy, competence, relatedness).

Does money buy happiness ? It depends. If you are poor and unable to afford basic necessities (e.g., food, shelter, clothes), then yes. But if you already have millions of dollars in the bank, whether more money will make you happier depends on how the additional money is spent.

For instance, materialists often end up spending money in ways that do not increase their happiness. Materialism refers to a value or belief system that gives greater importance to worldly ambitions and owning possessions. Using money to acquire material possessions for their own sake , however, is less likely to increase happiness than spending money to satisfy psychological needs — increasing one’s autonomy , building strong social bonds, learning new things, using one’s skills, etc.

So to understand the relationship between money and happiness, it's important to understand the reasons or motives for desiring wealth (i.e. I want more money to spend on... what ?) Building on previous research, a recent study uses self-determination theory to explore money-making motives, the impact of motives on well-being and mental health, and whether it is possible to promote “healthy reasons” for making money. This investigation, by researchers Manganelli and Forest, is to be published in the February 2022 issue of Applied Research in Quality of Life .

Investigating the Link Between Money and Happiness

Sample: 633 (66 percent women); average age of 34 years old.

Measures: Motives for Making Money Scale, which measures ten motives for making money. These motives are listed below (with sample items in parentheses):

• Charity (To donate money to those who need it.)
• Family support (To take care of the college education of my children.)
• Freedom (To direct my own life with no interference from anyone else.)
• Impulse (To spend money on impulse.)
• Leisure (To spend time and money on my hobbies.)
• Market worth (To get just compensation for my work.)
• Overcoming self-doubt (To prove that I am not as dumb as some people assumed.)
• Pride (To feel proud of myself.)
• Security (To maintain a reasonable bank balance for emergencies.)
• Social comparison (To have a house and cars that are better than those of my neighbors.)

Sample: 464 (55 percent women); average age of 31 years old.

Measures: Motives for Making Money Scale and five other measures, as described below.

• Need satisfaction: The needs for autonomy (“I feel my choices express my true self”), competence (“I feel I can successfully complete difficult tasks”), and relatedness (“I feel close and connected with other people who are important to me”) were measured using the Balanced Measure of Psychological Needs Scale.
• Need frustration: The frustration of the needs for autonomy (“I feel prevented from making choices with regard to the way I do things”), competence (“There are situations in which I am made to feel inadequate”), and relatedness (“I feel other people dislike me”) were evaluated using the Psychological Need Thwarting Scale.
• Well-being: Positive affect (the frequency of experiencing positive emotions) was assessed using the short form of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS-SF). General well-being was assessed with the Measure of Psychological Well-being (level of agreement with seven items such as “My life has meaning and purpose”).
• Ill-being: The negative affect subscale of PANAS-SF assessed the frequency of experiencing negative emotions. In addition, symptoms of depression (e.g., fatigue, insomnia , poor appetite ) were measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale short form.
• Materialism: Assessed with the Materialistic Values Scale (level of agreement with nine items such as “I admire people who own expensive homes, cars, and clothes”).

The experimental group: 19 (15 women); average age of 41 years old.

The control group: 21 (12 women); average age of 24 years old.

Measures: Motives for Making Money Scale; in addition, a manipulation check was conducted to determine if the intervention (a workshop on motives for making money) had the expected effect. Specifically, participants in the experimental group were asked if the workshop had helped them identify their motives for making money, affected their spending habits, and changed their perception of money.

Healthy and Unhealthy Motives to Make Money

The research examined what motivates us to make money, the impact of these motives on mental health, and the possibility of encouraging people to adopt healthy motives for making money.

The first investigation concluded that money-making motives can be divided into three:

• Self-integrated (including charity, freedom, market worth, pride, and leisure)
• Non-integrated (including impulse, overcoming self-doubt, and social comparison)
• Financial stability (including security and family support)

The second investigation found that self-integrated reasons for desiring money are associated with great satisfaction of psychological need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness—and thus with greater well-being. Amassing wealth for non-integrated reasons , in contrast, is associated with the frustration of psychological needs and greater ill-being.

The motive of financial stability was also linked with higher need satisfaction and well-being. Why? Perhaps because money spent to satisfy basic needs (for oneself and one’s family) often increases the sense of autonomy and competence and strengthens relationships, thus improving well-being.

Analysis of data indicated that need frustration explained the negative effects of materialism on mental health; however, these effects were “fully accounted for by the non-integrated motives for making money.” Specifically, materialism’s adverse effects on mental health occur because materialistic individuals tend to “spend money impulsively, especially to compensate for feelings of self-doubt as well as to appear better than others.”

Finally, findings from Study 3 suggest it may be possible to help people become more aware of their money motives and to discourage “non-integrated motives.” Study 3 had several limitations (e.g., small sample size), so the results await replication.

Money can buy happiness. This is true for two groups:

• Those who cannot afford life’s basic necessities and want money to satisfy their physiological and safety needs (e.g., food, shelter, clothes).
• Those who aim to use the money to satisfy their basic psychological needs—the need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness (e.g., to run their own business, master a skill, help a stranger).

Arash Emamzadeh attended the University of British Columbia in Canada, where he studied genetics and psychology. He has also done graduate work in clinical psychology and neuropsychology in U.S.

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One More Time, Does Money Buy Happiness?

• Published: 19 September 2023
• Volume 18 , pages 3089–3110, ( 2023 )

Cite this article

• James Fisher   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9201-4204 1 &
• Michael Frechette   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8193-6796 2  

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This paper integrates multiple positions on the relationship between money and well-being, commonly referred to as happiness. An aggregation of prior work appears to suggest that money does buy happiness, but not directly. Although many personal and situational characteristics do influence the relationship between money and happiness, most are moderating factors, which would not necessarily rule out a direct link. Here, we discuss the cognitive and affective elements within the formation of happiness, which we propose play a series of mediating roles, first cognition, then affect, between money and happiness. The paper concludes with a discussion about how this proposal influences academic research and society as a whole.

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Materials and/or code availability.

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This conceptual study collected no original data. Citations are given to the original sources when referencing data or results from prior studies.

“As far as I am aware, in every representative national survey ever done a significant positive bivariate relationship between happiness and income has been found.” (Easterlin 2001 , 468). Easterlin supports this assertion with references to Andrews 1996 , xi; Argyle 1999 , 356–57; and Diener 1984 , 553.

A simple correlation of 0.2 is an oft-cited benchmark (cf. Easterlin 2001 , who labels it “highly significant”). At the same time, many researchers qualify the relationship, saying that income ultimately explains relatively little of the variance in self-reports of happiness: e.g., Ahuvia ( 2017 , 18) generalizes that “typically studies in developed economies indicate that income explains only about 3% of the difference in happiness.” Some twenty years prior to Ahuvia’s assessment, Frank ( 1997 ) offered a similar conclusion: the relationship between income and happiness is closer at lower levels of income than for middle- or upper-income households, where "variations in income explain less than 2% of variations in reported satisfaction levels” (citing Diener and Diener 1995 on 1835). Diener and Biswas-Diener ( 2002 , 123) summarize over a dozen correlations between income and subjective well-being, most ranging between 0.15 and 0.25. Kahneman and Deaton ( 2010 ) recommend that efforts to estimate the relationship between that subjective well-being and income should rely on a logarithmic transformation of income, providing a rationale based on Weber’s Law, having to do with the perception of change reflecting the percentage change and not the absolute change.

This literature review reflects the authors’ point-of-view that in answering the question of “how” money buys happiness economists have offered the highest-level, abstract answer (i.e., through a process of utility-maximization); psychologists and researchers into subjective well-being have sought a more precise accounting of what money buys vis-à-vis individual dispositions (e.g., personality) and motivations (e.g., materialism) as well as cultural or national determinants (e.g., individualism versus collectivism); and marketers and consumer researchers have inquired in the most detailed way as to how money delivers particular experiences and effects throughout the continuum of pre-purchase processes, the experience of consumption and post-purchase satisfaction.

Happiness data are a relative late-comers to economic analyses of this sort: “[T]he approach departs from a long tradition in economics that shies away from using what people say about their feelings. Instead, economists have built their trade by analyzing what people do and, from these observations and some theoretical assumptions about the structure of welfare, deducing the implied changes in happiness” (Di Tella and MacCulloch 2006 , 43). Kahneman and Krueger ( 2006 , 3) express a similar opinion: “[E]conomists have had a long-standing preference for studying peoples’ revealed preferences; that is, looking at individuals’ actual choices and decisions rather than their stated intentions or subjective reports of likes and dislikes.”.

An assertion strenuously challenged by Diener and Oishi 2000 and more modestly objected to by Frank ( 1997 , 1820), who interprets the data to say that there “is only slight evidence … that greater economic prosperity leads to more well-being in a nation.”.

Cummins ( 2000 ), in his review of personal income and subjective well-being, constructs a couple of straw men that reflect his estimation of how researchers into quality of life may view income ambivalently. At the outset of the review article, his abstract announces, "Conventional wisdom holds that money has little relevance to happiness." Later in the same review article, he identifies a bias "that can quite commonly be found within the QOL literature" (p. 139) that the rich are not as satisfied with their lot as commonly imagined. Chambers ( 1997 ) provides him with a suitable proof text in which "the link between wealth and well-being is weak or even negative" and therefore, "amassing wealth does not assure well-being and may diminish it” (at 1728 in Chambers). Cummins himself disavows this disciplinary tendency, ultimately labeling it “fanciful.”.

When it comes to terms like subjective well-being, life satisfaction, and happiness, there is some variation in the precision of the terminology. Thus, Kahneman and Krueger ( 2006 ) use life satisfaction and happiness as roughly synonymous in discussing the measurement of well-being and in emphasizing the measurement of emotional states. On the other hand, Diener may commonly use the term happiness as a convenient and widely used construct but will employ more precision in measuring or analyzing "types of well-being.".

E.g., basic needs met, psychological needs met, and satisfaction with living standards in Diener, Ng, Harter and Arora ( 2010 , 56).

E.g., pleasant affect, unpleasant affect, life satisfaction, and domain satisfaction in Diener, Suh, Lucas and Smith ( 1999 , 277).

Dunn et al. ( 2011 ) stake out this position with their article’s title “If money doesn’t make you happy, then you probably aren’t spending it right.”.

Thus, Scitovsky’s title, The Joyless Economy .

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Can Money Buy You Happiness? Essay

I believe that money can buy a person happiness due to several reasons related to the costs of comfortable and healthy living. These costs include housing, medicine, and meaningful experience, which improve the quality of life. Despite the fact that luxury is often seen as an attractive point in favor of happiness via increased budget or spending, it is not necessary for well-being. Some researchers propose that happiness is dependent on the living standards and the perception of living circumstances, this is a theory of comparison (Muresan et al.). On the other hand, it is also possible to perceive happiness as the satisfaction of personal needs (Muresan et al.). Nevertheless, multiple factors are crucial to form a happy life which need to be reviewed in detail.

First of all, given that happiness is related to the satisfaction of personal needs, there is also a need to consider the essential need of human life such as housing, medicine, and food. These expenditures are continuous throughout human life. In order to be healthy, one needs medication and medical expertise to ensure long life without illnesses. Electricity and water bills need to be paid to ensure comfortable life at home, which includes cleanness, cooking, and entertainment in the form of TV programs or the Internet. Moreover, technological development led to the digitalization of numerous jobs and created the opportunity to interact with anyone despite the distance. This is essential because, without a job, there’s no source of income to pay the described bills, and connection with family and friends is known to improve life satisfaction and address humans’ social needs.

Other personal needs are often related to the purchase of things and meaningful or memorable experiences. It is well-known that a good experience may improve a person’s mood, resulting in satisfaction with life (Mogilner et al.). These experiences vary due to human individuality but are often connected to romance, socialization, personal development. Romance refers to the maintenance of a romantic relationship with a loved person. This indirectly incurs additional costs such as future marriage organization, dates, and small gifts, which contribute to the improvement of the mood. It is widely accepted that personal development leads to satisfaction with one-self. Personal development is related to the acquisition of new skills and broadening of one’s horizon or accumulation of knowledge. The services of trainers and teachers coupled with the purchase of books are not free and considered as spending outside of basic living needs. Furthermore, buying time or expenditures to free oneself from daily chores or unmeaningful but necessary tasks contribute to personal well-being (Mogilner et al.). Numerous researchers found that money spent on buying time alleviates time stress, and people who utilize these services feel happier (Mogilner et al.).

Living standards vary from country to country due to the differences in economic conditions. Consequently, higher living standards refer to higher costs for basic needs. The theory of comparison suggests that an increase in a personal income would not lead to a significant increase in happiness, given that the income of others would similarly increase. Nevertheless, studies identified that a certain threshold exists after which the effect of income on happiness is significantly reduced. For example, in the US, it is equal to 75 000$ (Mogilner et al.), while in Europe, it is close to 35 000$ (Muresan et al.). This demonstrates that an excessive increase in income is not necessary for well-being. Simultaneously, it points to the fact that below this threshold, people are not as satisfied with life and happy as they could have been.

In conclusion, money can buy happiness but only if spent correctly. The correct spending of money involves improvement and maintenance of life via memorable experiences, meaningful things, and satisfaction of basic needs. Moreover, it is not necessary to have an excessive amount of money certain threshold exists, which demonstrates that money cannot amount to complete happiness but attributes to its significant portion.

Works Cited

Mogilner, C., Whillans, A., & Norton, M. I. “Time, money, and subjective well-being.” Handbook of well-being. Edited by E. Diener, S. Oishi, & L. Tay, DEF Publishers, 2018.

Muresan, Gabriela Mihaela, et al. “Can Money Buy Happiness? Evidence for European Countries.” Applied Research in Quality of Life , vol. 15, no. 4, 2019, pp. 953–970. Web.

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Ielts exam preparation for a higher band score., ielts essay: money is an important source of happiness.

IELTS Essay Topic:

Some people like to save money because they consider it is an important source of happiness. Others believe that money should be spent as it is the way to fulfill our dreams.

Discuss both the views and give your opinion.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Sample Answer: Money is an important factor to achieve happiness. Different people use money in different ways. There has been a considerable debate on the issue whether we should save money or spend all on our needs.

On one hand, it is believed that money should be spent on things and on our needs, because it is a major source of getting happiness in life, if we do not have money, we cannot survive in this modern world anymore. So, it is rightly said that life is like an ice-cream, so we should enjoy it before it melts. In other words, we should take benefits from each and every moment of the life. For instance, with the help of money people can easily uplift their status in the society, because every individual wants to develop his or her living standard, which in turn helps them to raise their personality in the world.

On the other hand, it is considered that, people should save money in order to secure their future. Mostly people save money for their children, because the savings will help them in their further life for their better education and basic needs, which are necessary and play a significant role in one’s life. Money is a valuable thing, because nowadays without money, it is very difficult to stand in the society. So that is why people should save money for the rainy days, because everyone goes through the ups and downs in life and who knows when we need some extra savings.

In conclusion, both aspects have their own values and that is why we should spend money within a limit- for important and basic needs, because if we spend all the money we earn, there will be no money for the better future.

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Argumentative Essay about Money and Happiness

A common assumption in the media and everywhere else is that being rich means that one is happy. The debate on money and happiness has been going on for a while. There is a belief that the more money one has, the more comfortable he/she becomes. With money, one can buy the basic needs. Though money can satisfy our physical needs, we need to understand that happiness is not material. Instead, satisfaction is a more profound natural feeling that comes out of a person and is not necessarily dependent on money. What we need to understand, therefore, is that money does not bring happiness as many people would imagine.

For long, people have not understood that money can only help a person in making individual choices. Having large amounts of money does not necessarily lead to happiness. The belief that being rich is having a lot of money is often misconstrued (Badiou 75). Given a chance, it is evident that most people are likely to choose riches. However, we should ask ourselves if money can make others to love us. The desire of human beings is the need to love and be loved in return. It is the feeling that we possess that should be of importance compared to the financial status of an individual. Regardless of the amount of money that one possesses, happiness cannot be bought. Cases of pretense to get monetary gains from other people have been on the rise. People have shown superficial love to others to satisfy their selfish interest. In most cases, relationships of this kind do not end up in the best way. Therefore, the perception that riches bring happiness in a relationship should not be taken seriously.

Riches cannot be considered to be a source of happiness. Riches can enable a person to have access to more resources and luxuries in life. However, the excitement that is brought about by monetary gains temporary. In some instances, you might find people with riches indulging in precarious activities as a way of self-fulfillment. It explains that wealth only helps us to focus on wants instead of needs. Happiness is one of the requirements in n life which can only be fulfilled if one has peace of mind (Badiou 90). The misconception we have that money is the source of happiness ought to change if we are to experience the real meaning of happiness. Contrary to the popular belief that money can offer us happiness, the contrary has proven to be true. People with less money do not have many luxuries in life as rich.

In relationships, riches cannot guarantee a person the happiness they need. It is the personality of a person that matters. A person may be wealthy, but if his/her character is terrible, people may not want to be associated with them. A person with a better personality is likely to attract friends or lovers, who can, in turn, offer them the gratification that they may need thus leading to happiness. People with evil personalities, on the other hand, are likely to be shunned by other people. Few individuals can wish to be around a person with a lousy personality. Even when the person has money, the few friends who hang around them are likely to be there because of money.

Similar sentiments are evident when it comes to love (Pischke 120). Money cannot buy happiness or make people love you. Buying the feelings of another person is impossible. It is not strange to married people who do not love each other. They might be in the marriage because of monetary gains. In most cases, these marriages are likely to end up in catastrophe. In many relationships, it is the valuable time that a person spends with his/ her family that brings about happiness. Money can be a fuelling factor in the strengthening of a relationship but it ought not to be seen as the source of happiness. In all situations, the family has to be put in the front. The time an individual spends with his/her family is crucial I comparison to the amount of money that a person has. Though rich people think that money is a source of happiness, this notion is often misconstrued. For instance, a person can use the money to buy gifts and other presents for another but what matters in a relationship is the time and affection that people share. It is the time spent together in a relationship that gives people a sense of identity and selfhood.

Money is crucial since it enables people to cater for their primary needs. However, money should not form the basic underlying principle for our source of happiness. It is the reason why I believe that contrary to the belief by many people that money brings joy, happiness is not long lasting and can only be for a temporary period (Burke 100). Until we realize that money is just a source of temporary happiness, then we are likely to suffer heartbreaks. True happiness can only come from within a person. People who idolize money are likely to be frustrated in the long run. They are likely to focus more on looking for money and forget that their loved ones expect to be shown love. Money can be a cause of stress and frustrations in any relationship. People who have money often think that their money can buy them any form of happiness. However, in most cases, they end up with frustrations especially when they are rejected. Instead of using the money to gain happiness in a relationship, a person can try to adopt other means. For instance, developing hobbies that bring fun and relaxation can be a way of bringing happiness.

We often torture ourselves looking for happiness in the wrong places, yet there are better ways of creating our happiness. For instance, having time to relax is the best solution for a healthy life. We ought to learn therefore that though money is necessary, it should not be the definition of happiness in our lives. Wealthy people put emphasis more on their luxuries compared to the attention they give to their necessities. However, this perception ought to change since material things are likely to fade off over time. People also tend to look for other things that can get them occupied. In life, we should focus more on better ways of gaining happiness which is a primary need for every person.

Money has also been associated more with misery more than bringing happiness. While searching for more money, people are likely to compete against each other (Burke 150). As a result, they may end up looking for options of making more money and lose interest in the things that satisfy them. When a person is focused on searching for money he/she rarely finds time to do other things that can make them happy. It is because they usually spend all their time working and rarely have time to relax. Good health symbolizes happiness. However, most of us think that having more money is a guarantee that one can cover their health schemes. Though money can cater to good medical covers and pay for proper medical services, it is not a guarantee of happiness and good health for an individual.

It is clear that even if a person has money, the money cannot be a cure for certain terminal illnesses. Health is more important than money. One might have a lot of money, but if he or she is not healthy, then happiness remains an illusion. Therefore, good health is better than having lots of money in the banks. It is high time that people realize that money is not a source of happiness and look for other ways of finding happiness.

It is essential to notice that money can only contribute to the happiness of meeting the basic needs. A person’s level of income does not directly determine his/ her level of happiness. It is the way that the individual can channel the earnings to purposes that can probably bring satisfaction and happiness. People who have a lot of money have been known to get their comfort and happiness by giving to charity. There are satisfaction and gratuity in the act of giving. Having vast amounts of money does not guarantee happiness, but it is the deeds of an individual that matter.

Findings have shown that having large quantities of money does not guarantee happiness. Having vast social networks can be a better source of satisfaction. Strong social networks are likely to develop mutual affection among people compared to what money can do (Berk 78). Earning a lot of money can be significant. Equally essential however is having people who care and whose company one can enjoy. The satisfaction that is brought through bonding has longer lasting effects than what money can do for a person.

There have been cases of people who have a lot of money but lack happiness. When searching for money, most of us forget that we have people who love and care for us. The focus is normally on how to gain more money which in the end makes people to even lose their families. In some instances, rich people have committed suicide after missing people who are ready to bond with them (Burke 85). It is therefore important to realize that even though money is an essential part of our lives, it cannot give us all the satisfaction and happiness that we need.

Works Cited Badiou, Alain et al. Happiness. Bloomsbury Academic, 2019. Burke, Elaine A. “What is the Key to Happiness? Love or Money?” Psyccritiques, vol. 59, no. 25, 2014. Portico, doi: 10.1037/a0037105. Berk, Kiki. “Does Money Make Us Happy? The Prospects and Problems of Happiness Research in Economics”. Journal of Happiness Studies, vol. 19, no. 4, 2017, pp. 1241-1245. Springer Nature, doi: 10.1007/s10902-017-9857-y. Pischke, Jörn-Steffen. Money and Happiness. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2011.

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Most People Agree That Money Cannot Bring Happiness | Band 9 IELTS Essay Sample

by Manjusha Nambiar · Published October 18, 2021 · Updated April 16, 2024

Sample essay

Money certainly cannot buy happiness. If it could, then the richest people would be the happiest people on earth. The reality, however, is different. In fact, many of the rich and famous are totally unhappy with their lives. This clearly shows that money is not the key to happiness. Nor is fame or power.

Happiness cannot be defined easily for the simple reason that it is relative. The things that make someone happy need not necessarily make another person happy. For example, kids are happy when they get toys or toffees. An adult, however, is unlikely to find much happiness in receiving these objects. Likewise, a poor person will be happy to win a jackpot but a rich person will not find much happiness in it. For someone diagnosed with a serious illness, regaining health is the biggest happiness in life. Healthy people, on the other hand, almost never appreciate their health. They are unhappy in spite of being healthy because they want other things in life.

Evidently, happiness means different things to different people. You can be rich, famous, good looking and healthy and still you can be unhappy with your life. At the same time, there are lots of people who lead perfectly happy lives in spite of having very few things going for them. This clearly indicates that happiness is a byproduct of contentment. The happiest people are those who are satisfied with their lives.

Finding happiness is not all that hard. It requires one to be satisfied with what one has. Generally speaking, wanting things that one does not have is the main cause of unhappiness. The moment we learn to count our blessings, we automatically find happiness. Setting realistic goals may also help because it allows us to have a purpose in life.

To sum up, it is evident that happiness is difficult to define because it is a relative concept. However, happiness can be achieved by being satisfied with one’s life and setting realistic goals.

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