Money Makes Me Happy

Family gatherings, laughing with friends and family, and nightly bike rides after dinner with my family are just a few things that come to mind when I think of things that make me happy. As people can obviously tell, money is not an item on my list. Most people do not put money on their lists when asked what makes them happy, but we often hear people say that they believe money can actually buy their happiness. I personally do not believe that is true. Money can obviously buy people some of the things that they want in life, such as fancy houses or cars and the latest smartphone, but it cannot buy people true happiness for many reasons: the amount of money that people have will never be enough, money cannot strengthen relationships with family

I never realized how happy sitting down and eating dinner with my family, going on bike rides with my family or friends, or even just laughing at silly things with people makes me. Coming from a family that most definitely does not have a lot of money, I have had countless happy moments in my life, most of which have come from our poorest times. A prime example of someone who agrees with me on this statement is a lady from Great Britain who won the lottery. This lady won a significant amount of money in a lottery a little over three years ago, but kept it a secret from everyone in her family until just recently. The lady and her family lived a comfortable middle-class life and she was worried that them knowing about the healthy chunk of change that had come into their possession would have a negative effect on her family members. She figured it would disrupt their lifestyle (Maich 1). This makes complete sense considering that we have been told since before Adam and Eve existed that almost all misery that occurs in humans flows from our preoccupations with wealth. In other words, we are often too worried about our financial status and forget to take the time to sit back, relax, and enjoy the time that we have with the people

In the end, I am almost positive that the average person would say that they valued their happiness over how much money they had in their wallet. Do not get me wrong, having money is nice every once in awhile. We all enjoy going out to eat at our favorite restaurant or stopping at our favorite stores to see what hot item is on the clearance rack now. Most people probably wish that the cost of their happiness was simply laid out on a price tag for each and every one of us, but that sadly is not the case. Each and every one of us has to go through life and individually figure the cost of our own happiness and what we are willing to spend on