Ali AlShamsi

Wealth is like a fuel to a car. The more you have, the further you can go in a short time rather than stopping at gas stations of life.

Image Credit: turner.com

Fuel doesn’t give you happiness; it gives you the freedom of traveling. Money is the same; it doesn’t give you happiness, it allows you more freedom in life choices, which may or may not lead to happiness.

Gordon Miller

No. When I met my wife in March of 1998, I had a mattress on the floor, a sofa and a plastic table and 4 chairs I got from Walmart and that was it. We were very happy. A month later, I landed our first 5 year, $4M contract and started on the path we have been on ever since. Don’t get me wrong, 19 years and 3 kids and $100M later, I am still very happy, but I was also very happy back then too. Being rich doesn’t make you happy, choosing to be happy makes you happy.

Benjamin Davis

I am not rich, but my current net worth is around a quarter of a million dollars.

I am sure that money is not directly connected to happiness. However, money is connected to a few things that make you happier, including comfort, security and freedom. That is what it really boils down to.

I personally want to retire from my day job by 33–36, and work on projects that truly make me happy, including my blog, my companies, reading, hiking and being into nature, and buying my dream home.

Image Credit: Benjamin Davis, Quora

Just so that I can enjoy mornings at a table like this, under a nice tree, in Portugal.

Only money can buy this. That’s the cold, hard truth.

Kale Panoho

Being rich does make you happy.

If you’ve ever been on the bones of your arse you will know having money will make you happier.

I came from a poor family with hand me down clothes and sometimes a very aggressive parent who preferred spending money on alcohol over food.

Money could have made my situation a lot better.

I have since grown up and now earn more then enough money. I have found though that it will only increase your happiness to a certain point.

I’m now in the top 0.1% of earners in the world. That figure though isn’t as impressive as it sounds.

The chances are if you’re reading this you’re probably in the top 1% of earners in the world and you are rich.

You only have to earn $32,400 USD to be richer then 7,425,000,000 people.

If that’s not enough you can reach the top 0.1% by earning only another $50,000 a year. Approximately $80,000 a year.

You’re now joining a very illustrious club of 750,000 other people globally.

So let’s take a look at this question again.

Does being rich bring you happiness?

Absolutely.

But to be rich you don’t have to earn as much as you think.

If you’re in a developed nation and you’re thinking:

This doesn’t apply to me! I wan’t to be earning at least a million dollars a year!

I have some more sobering facts for you.

Two professors from Princeton claim that once you earn over $75,000 a year you do not gain any significant leaps in happiness.

That $75,000 that makes you the very close to the top 0.1% of earners in the world only makes people feel more stable.

The study found that lower income did not cause sadness itself but made people distressed by the problems they had, that could be solved by money.

The study as an example found that if you’re divorced, about 51% who made less than $1,000 a month reported feeling sad or stressed the previous day, while only 24% of those earning over $3,000 a month reported similar feelings.

The key thing to take away is that having an abundance of money doesn’t equate to having an abundance of happiness.

The chances are you already rich you just didn’t realise it.

You’re just probably focusing on the wrong things.

You should practice gratitude for what you already have.

There is almost 7.4 billion other people out there who would swap positions with you right now.

You’re rich beyond measure you just haven’t realised it yet.

I’m extremely grateful for what I have today and you should be too.

Via Quora