Does money make you happy?

Now here’s a new angle on what makes us happy that I hadn’t read before.

An opinion piece in The Christian Science Monitor titled, “Does money make you happy?” by Arthur Brooks, claims that feeling successful is more closely related to happiness than having lots of money.

One can have a wad of cash, but if they don’t feel successful in their work, they’re less likely to be happy than someone who has little wealth but feels very successful in what they do, Brooks contends.

Of course, I thought, this explains why so many people who have modest wealth, still live a very happy satisfied life.

It’s not about the money. It’s about a feeling of completeness, wholeness, spiritual worth and value lived and demonstrated. We feel good when we are successful at our work, assuming the work is something we love to do in the first place.

Brooks points out that we should not compromise the work we do for money, because we’re probably sacrificing happiness too. Money gained cannot measure the success we feel when we build a strong family, grow spiritually, and nurture friendships. Money is a poor measure of true success, and should not be confused as such.

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the article. You might too.