How Much Money Do You Need To Make To Be Happy

Money CAN buy Happiness

How spending your money properly can lead to mental and physical happiness.

Everyone loves to say that money can not buy happiness and while this is partly true it has come to my attention in life that the statement is far from absolute fact. Before we get into money buying happiness I want to take a moment and define what it really is. Webster's defines happiness in one breath, but for the sake of this article I will define happiness as the enjoyment of events, activities, loved one, friends, and anything that give you a bubbly feeling inside.

Throughout my entire life my parents drilled the idea into my head that happiness and money are both mutually exclusive, and no matter how much money you had you could never truly and honestly buy happiness. Now that I'm 22, working, and out in the world I've come to realize that the statement is only partially true. The statement shouldn't be that money can't buy happiness, but instead be that alone money can not buy happiness. By this I mean that when used properly money is the tool that can lead to events and situations that make you happy.

Here are five simple yet easy way to better use your money to make you happy both physically and mentally and hopefully eventually lead you to have a less stressed filled life.

Money is a tool like anything else. If you believe that money is meant to just buy things, and you work for your money so that you can pay bills than you are vastly incorrect. When you go to school you learn things that will help you to navigate the world that we live in, and if you take a moment and look at the fact, this is exactly what money does for you! If you use your money as a tool instead of a means to and end you are going to be living a much happier life. Don't think of money as the thing that you use to just pay bills, but instead think of it as something that accomplishes a goal for you in life. That goal can be as simple as being warm at night because you paid the electrical bill. So stop thinking about money as just something that you spend, and start looking at it as a tool that helps you in life.
Money can buy things that make you happy. Happiness is a feeling, like I said before, and money is an object and just as you trade money for warmth you can trade money for happiness. No you sadly can't go into the store and buy happiness at $39.99 a bottle, but you can buy concert tickets to a show that you love. You can buy dinner for a person that makes you smile, or a trip to an exotic land that you've never visited before. Happiness is the result of the things that we do and money can allow you to do thousands of different things a day, so long as you spend it on the things that you love.
LOVE IT or DON'T BUY IT. A thousand stores with a thousand products, ten companies that do the same thing, and an endless list of things to be purchased. So many people think that money can't buy happiness because they are spending it wrong. Instead of just buying anything and everything buy things that you LOVE. Not like, LOVE! If you don't love something don't buy it just to buy it. Happiness is NEVER going to come to you because you have a thousand different things or more stuff than anybody else, but it is going to come to you because you bought things that make you happy. A simple $1.00 poster of a cat hanging on a tree or a $1.00 stick of your favorite childhood gum can invoke the feelings of love and joy in your life the way nothing else could. So don't buy an iPhone because everyone has a new one, but it because you LOVE it and it will bring you some kind of long term feelings.
Don't just save it…Spend it on things that can make you more money. Everyone tells you to save your money until you have an endless mountain of it, but this invokes the psychological feelings that we never are going to have enough. Instead of just stacking the bills in the bank spend them on things that will make you money, and thus end the the endless pain of needing more of it. The idea behind this is that no matter how much you have saved you'll always want more and this will always push you away from being happy. Instead of doing this spend it on things that will produce incomes and watch how the mentality of collecting stops, and a new idea is born in your mind. By doing this you'll no longer NEED to make money to be happy, but realize that you are making money. Psychologically you will become less stressed and happier just knowing it is really growing.
People who deserve your money. The last problem with money not being able to buy happiness is we spend it on people that don't make us happy. Instead of doing this, start working on spending money on those that make you happy. Have a friend that makes you laugh, take him/her out into the world, and stop wasting your time on boring people! Spend your money on those who care about you, produce a smile, and give you a warm and bubbly feeling inside.

Money CAN buy HAPPINESS, if you use it properly. Instead of just wasting your time collecting and waiving it around spend your money on things that make you happy. When someone tells you money can't buy happiness, tell them yes, but money combined with the right mindset and ideas can!

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