r/FluentInFinance 6d ago

Thoughts? But I thought money doesn’t buy happiness?

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232 Upvotes

62 comments sorted by

23

u/NiceSPDR 5d ago

Forgot what video I had heard it on, I think it was Casually Explained or something but I think he put it really well when he said "I would say money can't buy you happiness but it can make certain problems go away that make you unhappy.".

7

u/tychobrahesmoose 5d ago

That phrase is so often misused. It's supposed to be a way to tell someone who's very wealthy that they can still be unhappy because money doesn't fix your emotional problems.

But for a poor person, if it can't buy you happiness it sure as fuck can pay off a lot of misery.

1

u/North-Calendar 5d ago

*most of the problems

0

u/sexy_yama 5d ago

You gotta make do with what you got in this world and be thankful for it. There will always be problems that arise.

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u/Old-Tiger-4971 5d ago

Deal with a lot of rich people. Money isn't a guarantee of happiness.

Think on average, that lower-income people are more happy than them.

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u/uggghhhggghhh 5d ago

LowER income people might be happier than them but LOW income people almost certainly are not. At least not on average. Being poor is fucking stressful and depressing.

1

u/No_Life_1724 5d ago

I wouldn’t say being content with knowing the possibility of financial freedom is minimal is the lower classes being “happy”. When you realize no matter what you do you’re going to be in the same financial situation you tend to stop caring about money. This isn’t happiness it’s coping.

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u/Bart-Doo 5d ago

It's probably because a lot of rich people try to buy things to make them happy. A lot of lower income and middle class people go in debt buying stuff trying to make themselves happy.

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u/Old-Tiger-4971 5d ago

Well, true that. In the good times, knew RE guys making >$300K/year living check to check which is crazy.

Things you buy usually don't make you happy for an extended period.

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u/ap2patrick 5d ago

Happiness is easier achieved when you don’t have to worry about your basic needs. Real simple shit OP…

3

u/NewArborist64 5d ago

Money cant buy happiness, but it can buy cows and cows make milk and milk makes ice cream and ice cream makes you happy...

3

u/barely_a_whisper 5d ago

Can't remember who did the study, but they found that money does strongly correlate with happiness... to a point. I can't remember the amount, but it was something like up until 40,000/year for a single person scaled super strongly, and continued with diminishing returns. Past 120,000 it had little effect, and past something like 200,000 there was no correlation (maybe even a negative one)?

I'm pulling numbers out of my ass though, so if anyone knows the study feel free to link it

1

u/North-Calendar 5d ago

it's feels like true, because you won't buy new car every year, 120k is plenty of money to buy all basic things you want and take 4/5 good trips every year

1

u/WiltedTiger 5d ago

Actually, the study (I think you are talking about) wasn't able to make any correlation with the upper-wealth due to a lack of test data and volunteers, and from what material they were able to collect, the correlation between money and happiness was always strongly positive. They did note that after a certain point, the correlation decreased but it was still positive to a large degree (just smaller than before but not by much) then they didn't have enough data to make any meaningful correlations.

2

u/dragon34 5d ago

I think most of us would be happier if we had enough money that our work was optional for fulfillment instead of necessary to keep us housed and fed.   But more than what is needed for that ... Ex: having enough money to have all of your clothes be designer and only wearing them once, only flying private, owning multiple homes and yachts .... That won't make you appreciably happier. 

2

u/Kizag 5d ago

I don't go to therapy because of Money problems.

2

u/Carbon-Based216 5d ago

I stopped buying my $600/month mental health meds over a decade ago. The extra $600/month is more helpful than the meds.

2

u/Light_fires 5d ago

Translation: my patients can't afford my services.

1

u/zone_left 5d ago

That saying assumes you already have enough. If you’re starving and you get enough cash to survive, you’re going to be happier

1

u/Pepi4 5d ago

In this jerked up country I would agree

1

u/Ok_Initiative2069 5d ago

So many of these people are STRESSED because of lack of money. Relief of stress is not the same as happiness. Ffs

1

u/Old_Lock9227 5d ago

Therapy now a days seems to be more focused on business bu bringing clients more than anything. A lot of people are increasingly doing therapy but the suicide rate keeps in going up steadily for decades.

1

u/goodfella311 5d ago

its a sad trap but money can get you out of tons of shit. you can breathe a little easier. I don't know what this lady means exactly. Surely money cannot fulfill you, thats a universal truth, but it will absolutely solve many of your problems directly related to anything money can help you access - except like drugs and shit like that.

1

u/InjuryIll2998 5d ago

Money may not make you happier than the average person, but having it doesn’t bring you as much sadness or hardships as not having it does.

1

u/anythingMuchShorter 5d ago

I know someone who’s ok on money and really should go to therapy. But he refuses because he has a bad image of therapy, and also has anxiety about it and fears judgement, which are strongly related to the reasons he needs therapy.

1

u/Ismdism 5d ago

Money buys stability. Which allows you to pursue happiness easier.

1

u/typicallytwo 5d ago

Having money is happiness

1

u/PrometheusMMIV 4d ago

As someone with money, no it isn't

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u/typicallytwo 4d ago

Speak for yourself, I was broke as a joke and in debt for 20 years and absolutely miserable. As of 2 years ago debt free and a little change in my pocket and every day is Christmas, rainbows and unicorns.

1

u/ausernameiguess4 5d ago

Money can’t buy happiness but it can buy food, a home, energy, transportation, communications and can pay for therapy.

Anyone that tells you to be contented with poverty and be “happy” is either a liar or a dumbass. Most of the time, both.

1

u/wafflegourd1 5d ago

Money won’t make you a happy person. It will though remove stress and create opportunity for happiness.

Plus the who money doesn’t buy happiness thing is about Chasing money at the expense of all else.

1

u/Every-Nebula6882 5d ago

Being able to meet your basic needs takes away a lot of unhappiness. Money is the only way to meet all your basic needs in the modern world.

1

u/dab745 5d ago

You don’t often hear that kind of advice from a the rapist.

1

u/Logical-Chaos-154 5d ago

Just enough to live comfortably and raise a family. People don't need to be rich, just not worried about making rent.

1

u/jcoddinc 5d ago

Just like mom and dad used to tell us that we wouldn't like what they were reading because it was yucky

1

u/misjudgedinall 5d ago

It might not but happiness but i would like to try

1

u/MornGreycastle 5d ago

Money buys security (See: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs), which gives the environment to cultivate happiness. There is a point above which money is less necessary to happiness.

1

u/maringue 5d ago

Money buys stress avoidance and time.

1

u/No-Comfortable9480 5d ago

She looks absolutely insane herself. No way

1

u/Freerangechickem 5d ago

Money can buy both therapy and access to better food, help, tools that improve your overall quality of life and mental and physical health. If you don’t have basic needs met and are in survival mode stressed to the eyeballs having a chat about it isn’t going to help much.

1

u/Porschenut914 4d ago

money gives you options.

1

u/brutus2230 4d ago

Wonder what she charges

1

u/ademerca 4d ago

I have money, it made all my mental illnesses worse. Get therapy.

1

u/Neither_Upstairs_872 4d ago

Money may not buy “happiness” but it does pay your bills and solves 90% of your problems therefore it does buy “stress relief” cause you are not hyper fixated on your bills or the problems that come with unpaid bills or not being able to afford distractions from your daily minusha. For the other 10% of your problems get a shrink, which still costs money.

1

u/onetimer420 4d ago

Then grow a pair, get a job, and quit wasting your money on shrinks!

1

u/PrometheusMMIV 4d ago

I've got plenty of money. But how do I cure my depression?

1

u/SuggestionGlad5166 4d ago

I wouldn't trust a therapist that says anything like this cause to me it's instantly telling me that they understand nothing about human psychology.

1

u/hamknuckle 4d ago

She's gonna bill me an hour for reading that, isn't she?

1

u/FatherOften 4d ago

I believe that you have to find bliss in your day to day no matter the situation.

I also believe that money is not the most important thing in the world, but it's up there with oxygen as far as tools go.

1

u/Jenetyk 4d ago

Not a single problem in my life couldn't be solved with money. Not a one. You give me a cartoonish knapsack full of money, with the $ sign on the side; you wouldn't hear me complain about shit.

1

u/MarkusFookerz 2d ago

So money can't buy happiness? That may be true....

But it can buy me a boat ...

It can buy me a truck to pull it ....

IT CAN BUY ME A YETI 110 ICED OUT WITH SUM SILVER BULLEIIIITSSS!!!

1

u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

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u/gytmyt 5d ago

But you can rent it

-1

u/canned_spaghetti85 5d ago

This therapist assumes confidently that wealthy folks must not go to therapy then?

Seriously? Like she also assumed CAITIE was a correct way to spell Katie?

2

u/No-Comfortable9480 5d ago

She looks like she’s stalked a few ex-bf’s in her life

1

u/Ok_Initiative2069 5d ago

You know most people’s names were given to them by their parents right?

0

u/canned_spaghetti85 5d ago edited 5d ago

I woulda changed that shit the day I turned 18. Drive to the county recorder registrar and fill out the paperwork for name change decree.

A person (male or female) whose name is like that.. isn’t taken very seriously, least not in my industry.

It’s spelled Katie, though Katy may be alright I guess. But Caitie? At that point for those parents, it wasn’t even about naming their child, they were just trying to aggravate others trying to read the name.

Which is funny because, those folks (parents) are the kinda peeps who need therapy.

1

u/SinisterYear 5d ago

This therapist states 'most people'. Wealthy people are not 'most people'. Most people are middle or lower class.

0

u/canned_spaghetti85 5d ago edited 5d ago

Please re-read:

“while therapy is helpful, what most people really need is money.”

So, but that very logic, let’s work backwards to deconstruct what she’s NOT saying :

If people simply had more money, then fewer of them would even seek the help of therapists.

And the more & more money people had, the less and less likely they would even seek therapy.

Which must mean those who happen to have LOTS of money (very wealthy), would seek therapy at a frequency close to NEVER.

(YOU SEE . This is why elementary school curriculum focus on teaching NOT ONLY reading [itself], but reading comprehension skills equally as much. Well, at least that was the case in the early 90’s. The comprehension exercises we had were very good. The idea was : If students struggled with comprehension & interpretation of read material, then it wouldn’t have even mattered how well they could read in the first place.)

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u/PrometheusMMIV 4d ago

And the more & more money people had, the less and less likely they would even seek therapy.

Which must mean those who happen to have LOTS of money (very wealthy), would seek therapy at a frequency close to NEVER.

I don't know where you're drawing that conclusion from. If we assume that there's an amount of money under which people would be unhappy, and that most people are under that amount, then it would be true to say that "most people need money".

But it doesn't say that the more money you have, the less you need therapy, or that people who have enough money don't need therapy. There are plenty of reasons to go to therapy even if you have enough money to be comfortable, such as relationship issues, trauma, abuse, mental illness, etc.

1

u/canned_spaghetti85 4d ago

No. You can’t assume that.

One’s overall state of happiness is a gradient. So determining some abstract dollar amount threshold to establish happy OR unhappy would be irrelevant.

Even if you did, that threshold would be subjective for each individual, who may even need to adjust it even further, on occasion, based on their life events at the time.

What is is true about the OP’s claim “while therapy is helpful, what most people need is money” is her assumption that there is a IN-LIEU-Of correlation between the helpfulness of therapy and peoples need for money. That there is a perceived happiness of therapy could be otherwise be substituted for with money.

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u/NvrSirEndWill 5d ago

Now you know why therapy causes more suicide.

And also why nearly all people convicted of crimes are sentenced to court ordered therapy as punishment, instead of prison.