Have you ever wanted to do something but have decided against it because you want to save your money for something else? Whether it is for a dream car, deposit on a house or buying groceries from Waitrose instead of Lidl, you will have had to miss out on something because you decided to save your money. When this happens, you can get down from missing out when your friends go out without you and then seeing their posts on social media where they are having a good time. If this keeps happening, you can become very unhappy in the long run.
Not having the abundance of money to do whatever you want whenever you want can limit the fun you have in life because you may be tied to a job you don’t like just because you need to earn money for the essentials to live in our modern society.
On the other hand, when you save up for a long time, you can finally get that sports car you want, or move in with your partner to your new home. You can go karting with your friends at the weekend and then go to Restaurant Gordon Ramsay for an expensive meal when you visit London to then stay at the Shard overnight. The only reason you were able to do this is because of the money you have saved and had to use so it could be argued that money can buy you happiness. It can also look at the smaller joys of life which include buying and eating your favourite foods as opposed to whatever is cheapest or paying for Spotify Premium so you can listen to your music anywhere and get no adverts. Happiness is very different for everyone as when you are a multi-millionaire, it is more likely that you will find that the smaller things in life, like buying higher quality food, will not provide the same happiness as it would to someone who always has to eat discounted food just so they can pay for the rent they have.
In the modern world we live in, where we have to pay for something that someone else provides, money is essential to living with food being an essential good, alongside water and heating in homes. If you do not have these basic goods, it is far more difficult to find happiness as you will be cold, starving and thirsty but cannot pay for it. If you then receive money in any way, you can buy these things and become happier as you are in a more comfortable environment. The problem associated with this happiness is whether it will last in the long run as it is likely that what you now have loses its value.
When money is not spent on anything that brings short or long term happiness to someone, it can be the cause of a lot of problems with people feeling insecure when their co-workers, friends and family have more money than them or something that costs a lot of money, like a Mercedes or Jaguar in the car park when they meet up while they have an old Fiat 500. The number in someone’s bank account undoubtedly causes people to feel inferior to others and feel down about it when it is smaller as it creates conscious and subconscious disputes between people who would usually get along. It also creates the problem of some people paying for more than others when at social gatherings because they have more money and these wealthier people may feel they are being used. This is just one issue that arises from when people are spending money around others.
To conclude, I believe that money does buy you happiness as you can pay for experiences and products that you wouldn’t have had, had you not spent your money as you can enjoy them when you have them. However, they may not bring long lasting happiness when you no longer have the product or you have finished the experience and cannot do it again. Happiness varies greatly between people as some people have their main source of happiness coming from helping others, for example, in the form of volunteering in charity work but even these people will find happiness from buying products that they like. So overall, money buying happiness is definitely correct in the short term as you can pay for a good experience but this will be unlikely to cause long term happiness as you need to maintain a positive outlook on life to stay happy once you have paid for experiences.
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