Happiness is not Solely About How Much You Make

It doesn’t take a lot of effort to have negative thought and be depressed when one thinks about money. Consider the following thoughts:

• “I couldn’t find a job yet and I’m almost done with college. How am I going to make money?”
• “I have two jobs and still doesn’t pay me enough to support myself and my family!”
• “Look at all these Youtubers driving Ferraris and Lamboghinis! How can people like them get so filthy rich?  It’s not fair! “
• or even, “I have all the money in the world! How come no one likes me?” (Yes, they exist)

Slowly, these thoughts of inferiority eat away our positivity of living to the fullest. What’s worse, they are recurring, over and over, and there is little one can do to stop it. I say to myself sometimes, “GET THIS OUT OF MY HEAD!”

So how do we counter these thoughts? The answer lies in the relationship between income and happiness.

Income is just part of the overall wealth equation

First is the issue of income. Too much focus was spent on comparing others’ income generation. It affects how people perceive the socioeconomic standards that exist in our culture and may possibly cause a domino effect on our emotions. What I mean is that a person may compare about the other person’s superior income level, and may become sad and depressed as a result.

Maybe, just maybe, we believe that people make more, so they can spend more. It’s true to an extent, but it does not make that person rich. It just means that person has a high income level. This distinction is extremely important when determining one’s wealth.

What if we do this instead:

“I make some money, but I choose to save and invest rather than spending it all.”

I read about this from Harv Eker’s book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. He describes that rich people always think in net worth, rather than income level. If one makes a lot of money and spends a lot of it away, then the net worth is insignificant. Thus, equally important to our wealth is saving money, which is to earn less than what we can spend.

From another classic book The Millionaire Next Door, it categorizes people with the following habits about their wealth:

• Under Accumulator of Wealth (UAW) – We spend more than we earn.
• Average Accumulator of Wealth (AAW) – We spend, but managed to save a little bit.
• Prodigious Accumulators of Wealth (PAW) – We save a lot of more of our earnings than we spend.

In another article, I’ll explain in detail as to why saving, rather than how much we make, is the real key to accumulate wealth.

Finding Happiness – The Common Denominator of All Income Levels

Second is the issue of happiness. Do you really think that making lots of money will make you happier?

I was going to write something about ‘attorneys are the unhappiest people,’ but this is even more fascinating: I Googled ‘rich and sad,’ and this came up:

 

 

I mean, what is this? A song about being rich and sad. I think that’s enough research. Thank you, Post Malone. It’s quite catchy.

We hear people say they will be happy once they have lots and lots of money. Hence, they buy lotteries hoping for the big win. What’s fascinating, however, is that those lottery winners do not recklessly spend their newfound fortune. Rather, they give back to churches, their children, and – wait for it – they continue to work for as long the work brings them joy.

Income is an independent value to happiness. Meaning, we can be poor and be happy. We can be middle class and be happy. We can be rich and be happy. Everyone can be happy! So, find out what makes us happy, and it’s definitely not just the income.

As we grow older, we want nicer things that the world offers. That’s okay – we need to reward ourselves sometimes. It’s ok to drink Starbucks or Jamba Juice once in a while. Just don’t overspend it to a point that we lose all of our savings. It is ok to let the Joneses do their thing, and we do ours. We can pursue happiness without going broke.

 

 

~Sam