That’s a question that many have previously pondered upon and each one of us will feel differently about it. There’s no black or white answer…
Personally, I think money buys pleasures… but many of us often confuse pleasures and happiness. The main difference is that pleasures are short-lived and come from an outside source, whereas happiness is more of a state of mind, a state of being and it’s achieved from within. Pleasures are based on “Having” whereas Happiness is based on “Being”, just simple Being , regardless if we are living in a 500 sq ft studio or 10,000 sq ft mansion, regardless if we drive a Porsche to work or if we take the bus !
Of course you need a certain amount of money to fulfill your basic needs (food, clothing, roof over your head), but once these basic needs are covered, you will most probably be using your money for WANTS rather than NEEDS. The challenge with most people is they often confuse WANTS and NEEDS. Do you really NEED that vacation or you WANT it? Do you really NEED that extra pair of shoes or you WANT it? Are you really going to be a happier person if you get it? If you ask yourself these questions and answer them truthfully, 99% of the time you will find that you don’t need it and it WON’T make you happier. You might feel an increase in your joyfulness for a few minutes after you acquire it, but the feeling is very short-lived and it will definitely not alter your state of mind on the long-term.
But the constant bombardment from marketing geniuses doesn’t make it easier on us! All retailers and consumer products manufacturers spend billions of dollars on advertisement to make you believe that you NEED this “stuff” to be happy, to be beautiful, to be cool, to be in, to be young,.. They want you to believe that your self-worth is dependent on what you have! It’s in their interest because that’s how they’ll get you to buy all the things they are producing! But what if you stopped listening to what marketers are telling you and started asking yourself what would make you genuinely happy (which doesn’t involve having or spending money!) ?
I’ll leave you with a quote that sums it all up: “ Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body”
