Can Money Buy You Happiness?

Hello all! Welcome to my personal opinion on if money can buy you happiness. Again this is my point of view on the topic, so it is going to be biased perspective, but a little insight on why this is a topic I wanted to discuss this topic. I am a finance major, so money is something I will fairly consistently deal with through out my professional career, I am also very interested in psychology, as I am getting my minor in managerial psychology, and I am also a human in 2023, so I spend money everyday of my life.

Recently I decided to make the investment and buy a vacuum. I live on campus at NDSU, so normally you just check one out form the front desk at your residence hall when you need to vacuum, which I did, but they are very poor vacuums, so on impulse I bought a four-hundred dollar vacuum marked down to two-hundred-fifty dollars form best buy. Through this whole process one of my roommates was experiencing it first hand, he thought that it was ridiculous that I would buy a brand new vacuum when I could get a used on for much cheaper. The day carried on regularly from that point, but once I got into bed I started really analyzing why my first though was too buy a brand new vacuum, where as my roommate would have settled for an old used one, and this history of me spending more money has been a repeated occurrence since we've lived together. So why is that?

In my time on I have found that it is worth it to spend a little more money for the item of higher quality. Not only because they last longer, but because items that are a little bit nicer tend to make me happier. If someone was to make you rate how happy you were on a scale of one to ten every time you vacuumed the normal response would likely be around a four or five, vacuuming is not a very fun task so it won't have the highest ratings. Now if you were told to do the same thing, but with an old used vacuum your experience is probably going to be around a two or three, because an old vacuum is going to have some issues, and not get the greatest of jobs done. If you use a brand new vacuum though your vacuuming experience is likely going to be closer to a six or seven. Now if you were able to apply that same concept to every purchase you made in your life, in general you are going to be a happier person.

There are many other factors in life that play into happiness though, money is not at the root of happiness, it simply just helps boost your mood in some ways. A majority of happiness comes from your experiences and those around you, money is just a partial contributor. The reality is that you need to do what makes you happy in this life so you can feel proud of what you did, and built throughout this life. For some people achieving that happiness is more so through money, others find more happiness in their experience, but everyone has different balance of where they get their happiness.

Buying the most expensive item in every aspect of your life is not the right thing to do though. Your financial position plays into this idea in a big way. You need to find the right balance of what is too much to spend and what you could be spending a little more on to increase your satisfaction. My advice is to be willing to slightly push the limits on what you think your budget is when your buying everyday items that we don't think very deeply about using. Spending a couple extra dollars here and there is not a bad thing, I think it is necessary to enjoy what you are given, but knowing your line between fun and excessive is important. Thank you for coming back again, I hope you have a good week and accomplish something new! Be ready for my next post in the next couple days.