Can Money Buy Happiness?
You know the old saying “Money can’t buy you happiness.”? I’ve never bought into it, and now there’s a big fancy Princeton study to prove me right. See, I’ve always felt that most people’s number one source of stress in their lives was money. I’ve always felt that if there wasn’t that stress of figuring out how to pay the bills there could generally be a heightened level of happiness. Not that it was money that was making you happy, but it was the lack of stress that was allowing you to be happy. Make sense?
Now, I guess to be fair, this study doesn’t completely prove me right, because according to Princeton, it only works if you make $75,000 a year. Any less and you’re stressed you aren’t making enough. Any more and you’re stressed about losing it all. It also states that the more you make it doesn’t show an increased level of happiness. Fair enough right?
See I’ve never been on the “other side” of the money scale and I’m guessing neither have a lot of you. But I’m curious. Any validity to this study? Have you seen an increase in happiness the more you’ve made? Or a decrease the less?
Maintenance.
There are few things I hate more than vehicle maintenance. Maybe that makes me less ‘man’. Maybe it’s irrational to think that I wouldn’t have to deal with vehicle maintenance, but I don’t care. I hate it. I hate dealing with cars. I hate when they break. I hate that it’s ridiculously expensive to fix anything on cars. I hate that every time I go to fix some ridiculously expensive thing, the guy at the car place somehow talks me into spending three times that amount because if I don’t my wife and kids will die in a ball of fire on the side of the road. And then I believe him and hand over my debit card. I hate even getting gas. Everything car maintenance…. I hate.
In the past two weeks we have replaced the battery, had the oil changed and replaced all four tires. Sure, it doesn’t sound like a lot, but who budgets in spending an extra $1000 or so on car crap? No one. That’s who. So, almost $1000 later of unexpected expense on something I hate is how I started my day today. Neat huh?
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful that my wife and kids aren’t dying on a ball of fire on the side of the road and I’d pay far more than $1000 for that to not happen, but I don’t think there’s something that puts me in a bad mood faster than spending money on broken cars.
Anyone else with me on that? If not, what’s the top thing you hate spending money on?
Where Does The Money Go?
What do you think? Accurate? I know it’s a little hard to read but Eric found me a bigger image so click on the picture if you want to see it up close. This chart is assuming that everyone makes $50,000 a year, which I know isn’t necessarily true, but I wonder if the ratios are close. So what do you think? I think it looks pretty close to what we spend, but then again Kristin handles all the money since I travel so much, so I really have no idea.
This might be the lamest blog post ever!
Would You Take It?
Okay, I’ve asked this before but there are lots of new peeps here, so here goes. If someone offered to give you fifty million dollars but you could not leave your property for the rest of your life once you had it, would you take it? You can choose where the property is, but once you choose it you can never leave.
Why or why not?
