Happy Facts is all of behavioral economics. There is so much written about happiness and so much concern about happiness, that an entire cottage industry has risen on how to make people happy. Searching for happiness has taken the road of searching for the true God, sort of. But meet an ailing person, and the only happiness that they long for, is death, for a happy ending. No one likes to suffer, period, even in days before dying.
There is much evidence to show that Money won't buy happiness. Most of the unhappiest people on earth are the rich and famous. If you ask people what will make them happy, the answer could be surely "more money."
Of course not having enough money to live on can be a miserable thing in life. Poverty is terrible. Poor neighborhoods breed crime and deny ordinary people a success in life and basic necessities of life. However, if you have enough money to live on, the odds that more money will make you more happy is a rather dim wish, often proved incorrect.
You can read scores of books on happiness or what makes people unhappy. However, the underlying fact is that no matter how much money you have, you got to understand the limits of what it can do for you and the power you can exert over it with self-control. When people acquire too many things (big houses, many cars, yachts, etc) they must spend much time to also manage these tangible assets. Of course, the rich and famous hire many people to manage their tangible assets. Nevertheless, for the average Joe and Jane, this means using much of family time to instead work harder and longer hours with little time left for vacations, hobbies, religion or spending memorable times with family and friends. People who go through this rat race have a lot to lose. Why?
Jack was a very successful person having a well-balanced life, happily married with wife and two children. Jack was offered a lucrative position with another company for more salary, almost double his current levels. Jack took the offer.
With the new job Jack changed locations to a posher neighborhood. Jack soon found himself working 15 hour work days with many hours on weekends as well. Jack had no time for the family, friends, or for himself. Jack also gained much weight has he had no time for exercise or recreation. Jack's wife was experiencing much stress from dealing with the demands of higher social living. In all Jack and his family was unhappier and unhealthier than before. More money did not bring any benefit to Jack and his family. There are thousands upon thousands of similar stories, where job success has brought upon unhappiness to individuals.
I have seen many a Jack and Jane almost give their life to UNICEF, only to be dovetailed just a few years before their retirement. On the other hand, I've seen some who worked so hard for UNICEF that when they finally retired they had an empty life as UNICEF was their only life. However, those with good developmental skills were able to carry those skills forward into other areas of post-UNICEF life. UNICEF staff may want to guard against an unhappy ending to their work life.
I have a good doctor friend in my neighborhood with a very lucrative practice. Over the last couple of months I found Jeff having much free time on his hands, enough time to join us for an after-swim coffee many times a week. When I inquired I found that Jeff had suddenly decided to retire full time. As the good doctor saw his patients aging and become less mobile and less able to enjoy life, Jeff knew that if he retired before aging too much, at least he may be able to enjoy life a whole lot better. Many of us know that retirement is not easy either, especially if a person becomes fixated with title and status. However, as I see it, Jeff cares less of what he did before. In fact, he does not even mention that he is a doctor or was one with a lucrative practice.
One might even wonder still further, that why must some CEO's who make millions in salary and bonuses must still rob the company in spite of much wealth. Unfortunately, many people become thirsty for more money the more wealth they accumulate. They extend to nefarious activity to acquire that second, and then third (fourth and on and on) glass of wealth to satisfy the thirst for more wealth.
One of the strangest places I would ever find something said on happiness was in reading the book on probability titled Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Nassim found a great link between uncertainty and happiness. One of his examples I have also experienced many times while working for UNICEF in New York.
Some staff who worked late or joined me for dinner during late Executive Board meetings were merrier than others depending on how they got home. The ones who took the subway were less stressed out than those who took the metro-north trains. The subway runs several times and at some random minutes-intervals rather than with a fixed schedule. On the other hand, those who depended on the train were always looking at the clock and stressed out not to miss the next train. Missing one train meant waiting for another one extra hour for the next train, that apparent delay even brought upon more stress to the individual. This brief example, shows that a rather random schedule can bring greater happiness than a fixed or rigid schedule.
What Dr. Taleb brought out in the penultimate chapters of his book "Fooled by Randomness" is of maximizers and satisfiers. Some folks may take six months of searching to purchase a small coffee table and once they purchased it then they yet worry whether it was the wrong choice. Such people are maximizers. On the other hand, those who would sample a few choices, make a pick and do not think of it thereafter, are the satisfiers. Satisfiers are more content with the decisions they make and look more at purpose of use rather than boastful aesthetics. Thus you can see that too much money can improve the choices and then create maximizers of people. No doubt, purchases must be made with care and value for money. However, greater happiness will not come if satisfaction is lacking after a closed transaction.
If you look at evolutionary fitness the Art De Vany way, people were meant to live with up-time and also downtime for meditating between the calls for action. What happens to a child when the parents squeeze too many activities into their programs, like singing lessons, music lessons, sports of all sorts, and in the weekends the poor child has no time to play as kids were meant to play or adults have no time to relax as adults were meant to relax. Too much scheduling of activities and a fixed agenda put untold pressures on the family and bring on much unhappiness in spite of much more money. In fact it is the extra money that leads to the greater purchases of wants that erode free time. In the book: Your Money & Your Brain, Jason Zweig puts it so eloquently in his chapter on happiness on those unhappy people who suddenly became rich (inheritance or lottery):
People who actually win the lottery are often shocked by the aftermath of their lucky draw. There are plenty of thrills from suddenly making a fortune, just as the winners expected. But there are less predictable consequences too. The phone rings off the hook with calls from crooks and desperately friendly acquaintances. Ensconced in your new mansion, you no longer see your old neighbors as often; instead, you are besieged by long-lost relatives who should have stayed lost. Everyone you rubbed the wrong way files a lawsuit against you. Quit your job, and you miss your friends and go crazy with boredom; keep it, and your co-workers all see to hate you or hit you for the money. It becomes hard to tell who your real friends are, so you spend more time alone. At home you bicker constantly with your spouse over what to do with the money.
Your sudden wealth may end up feeling like a mocking reminder of all the things that money can't buy: youth, time, self-control, self-respect, friendship, love. That frustration, in turn, may make you spend like mad on all the things money can buy. By one estimate, 70% of the people who earn a sudden windfall squander it all. No wonder the typical lottery winner, is barely happier than before - and many are miserable. New York State Lottery winner Curtis Sharp Jr. voiced a remarkable common sentiment when he said: "The lottery brought me false joy. If you abuse it like I did, when it's over, you ain't going to have nothing."
So happy together - as they say, two is company three is a crowd. How satisfied you are with your life depends how connected you are with the rest of the world. Happy people have friends who are not after your money (real friends) and spend less time alone.
Unfortunately for us, life is not permanent. Also, there is something that comes along in life, illness and disability. So don't count on being up-and-about until your dying day. Some people get ill and disabled earlier than expected and those lucky ones that stay healthy do have good genes and are lucky to escape accidents, and they may just get a little immobile when they reach old-age. What is the use of money, if you do not have the energy and health to enjoy it? When doing some live self-motivated research (at a senior citizen center some years ago) I asked of some older people about happiness vs their wealth status. There was no apparent correlation between their happiness and wealth. Also, some of those who were infirm, regretted much of some things they did not do at an earlier day, and lamented: "I have the money, but do not have the good health or energy to enjoy those things or activities now, although I have it (money)."
Apparently then, acquiring a lot of stuff that we cannot afford and then working hard to pay for it, is a hopeless choice to make in life. People who live within their means are a whole lot happier than those who don't. And doing what you like to do in life before becoming too infirm to do it, can also bring a happy ending on your dying day. I have heard more than once an older person say: "I have enjoyed the love of my family and friends so much; I have been able to do all the things that I love so much - I will die a happy person with a smile on my face."
We all like happy endings, whether it is in the ending of a successful project, retirement, a long bicycle ride, etc. So why be sad of the inevitable death, when it comes. Of course, dying too early, or dying under trying circumstances (starvation, lack of basic necessities, war) is certainly an unhappy ending.
Further reading: Enjoy Before it is to Late; Economics takes on Happiness;Retirement Past-times - Part 1; Retirement Past-times - Part 2; Aging Up - Stick to your guns and jolly up!; Retirement - Another State of Life; Out of Retirement.
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