They say money can’t buy happiness, but let’s be honest, they say a lot of things ? and they’re not always right. Experts say that happiness does increase with wealth, but the correlation peaks at certain amount of earning per year, but no matter how much more than that people make, they don’t report any greater degree of happiness.
You must have heard a common saying ?Money Can?t Buy Everything?. There are many things that no amount of money can buy and you can think of it this way-
- Money can buy medicine, but not health.
- Money can buy a house, but not a home.
- Money can buy companionship, but not friends.
- Money can buy food, but not an appetite.
- Money can buy a bed, but not sleep.
- Money can buy the good life, but not eternal life.
The above logic is absolutely true. But just think a while?What happens if at first you can?t able to buy medicine, a house, companionship, food, bed, good life and so on?
Therefore a certain amount of money is a basic minimum necessity to achieve happy existence.
In the real world there certainly is a relationship between salary/income and happiness; people who earn a good living are often happier than people who live in poverty. Having extra money can certainly enhance our lives with materialistic needs such as, food, objects and creature comforts in our homes and importantly it gives a certain level of security to our life that keeps us mentally satisfied.
The issue then arises why we work so hard after we have reached an income level that is able to make us happy. Beyond a strong work ethic engrained by family values, or the desire to excel and compete with others, it appears that our ideas about money and happiness have gone awry. After a level of earning, money can?t give you the same increase in happiness and some time it also negatively correlated, with rise in income you tend to shift towards a life that takes you away from basic happiness that you had enjoyed while you were earning less. Therefore, there actually is an ideal yearly amount we can earn to feel emotionally content and satisfied ? and believe it or not, if you have too much money, you may actually start creeping back into unhappy territory.
The important question now is what can be that ideal amount of money which can make your life happier throughout. It depends?
It can vary person to person, situation to situation. It depends on your geographical location, family values and traditions, social environment, your aspirations and many more. In India per capita income is at Rs 1,11,782 in FY 2017-18. Tough there is higher income inequality in India, as India’s top 1% bag 73% of the country’s wealth. If you are the only earning person in your family assuming a four members in your family, to maintain the per capita income you have to earn nearly 4.5 lakhs per annum. Does this money is enough to maintain a comfortable life for four members of your family? Certainly not, considering the todays cost of living if you are living in a metro or tier II cities also. So how much earning do you really need? Considering various factors, your family income must be in a comfortable zone where you can at least able to meet basic expenses of your family, and thus annual income of at least 7 to 10 lakhs is a basic necessity. Now if someone is able to meet a basic needs, he is mentally free to think other life events and also remain happy if he wants to be happy.
The real story actually begins after you able to achieve a basic earning and now it?s actually your aspiration, your greed, and your thoughts towards your life and society that make you happy. If you earn more from this point, it really can?t buy you happiness unless you do not know how to live happily.
If you have already earned or are currently earning sufficient money but you are still unhappy with your life, than its time to think about your attitude towards your life, family and society. At this this point you can?t buy happiness with more earning without changing your viewpoint as happiness, of ?subjective well-being?, is a state of mind ? how we feel about our self and our life. If you start thinking that you have got all the necessity to remain happy you will really become happy.
To summarize, money and happiness can be explained to some extent by applying the theory of “Decreasing marginal utility”. If you are famished and are offered a large pizza barring the first few slices the satisfaction with each addition slice of pizza diminishes and after a while additional slices make you cringe. The same can be applied to money after a while additional accumulation of money or materialistic things does not really add to happiness; the key highlight here is that the quantum of money required for happiness varies for each individual.