The Truth about Wealth and Happiness

[Winston]

Check out these great points about true wealth and happiness.

http://postmasculine.com/minimalism

Happiness studies consistently bring back a couple of findings: 1) that we derive far more happiness from experiences than we do from possessions, and 2) that we’re better off investing our energy in our relationships than the things we own.

Getting rid of unnecessary possessions can therefore indirectly improve our quality of life through the following ways:

1. Frees up more time and money to spend on experiences and with people.
2. Forces one to invest more of their identity in their behavior and attitude and less in objects around them.
3. Removes the stress of loss aversion and trying to hold on to what one already has.
4. Saves money (always a stress reducer).

http://postmasculine.com/wealth

Psychological studies on happiness in the past couple decades has supported this. Research shows that money correlates with happiness up until a middle-class income and after that, there’s no correlation between money and happiness. Happiness flatlines.

Money buys happiness only when it is spent on experiences and earned without costing too much time. This is why I find it less useful to define wealth in terms of money, and define it instead in terms of the quality of life experiences.

Wealth is having the freedom to maximize one’s life experiences.

Money is a requisite for wealth, but so is time and so is efficient use of that time and money. Money gives one opportunities for more experiences. But one must also have the time to pursue those experiences. Having the money to travel to Australia isn’t worth anything if you can’t ever take time off work to go there.

Your fundamental needs take precedence: health, food, shelter. If these three needs are not met, then nothing else is going to make you happy and not having them is going to make you miserable. But assuming you have those needs met, then research indicates that the experiences which create the most happiness are:

1. New and unique activities.
2. Shared experiences with others and building relationships.
3. Passion activities.

[robincolorado]

Winston,

Thanks for that article and information on getting rid of stuff.

Here I sit in a bedroom (boxes of stuff all around me) living at my nephew's apartment, 2 storage units full of stuff (one on each side of the state) and making plans to move abroad in the near future. I needed to read this at this moment in time. Thanks again for this article at just the right time I needed to read it. Funny how the Universe works that way! I am committed to getting rid of "stuff" and converting to a minimalist lifestyle with less than 100 things that I own. I am back in the Phils in December if you are around.

Rob

[Dragon]

Psychological studies on happiness in the past couple decades has supported this. Research shows that money correlates with happiness up until a middle-class income and after that, there’s no correlation between money and happiness. Happiness flatlines.

This is important to note. Remember that money does matter to a certain extent. If you're homeless and starving, you're probably never going to be happy. The message is to use money as a means (a tool), instead of as the goal itself. You only live once (probably) and you can't take that BMW or fancy house that you've been saving all your life to get with you.

[noog]

[Ginger]

[Renata]

When I was working in the UK I made good money but worked long hours & my expenses were a lot; rent, food, transport & utility bills. I also had less time for myself & leisure. I also felt a bit 'owned' by my employers.
Here in Turkey I worked less hours & for a lower salary but my expenses were way lower than before and I saved about the same amount as before & Here I have more time of my own.

So sometimes it's not how much you make $ but how much you save.
A man making 10,000 may have more expenses than a man making 7,000. so the man with the lower salary can be saving more & spending less due to his cost of living; this was me recently.

[abcdavid01]

Renata, if more people knew what you just said society would just collapse. Nevertheless, for those who do know it, that's a great wealth building strategy. More money to invest. I hope to live like that in coming years.

[Renata]

travelling does that to you. It's an education in itself.

[lavezzi]

all things money can buy are just junk youve been programmed to place value in, everyone knows this. however, as for the motivating factors behind your vunerability to such presuasions, not many can comprehend this. it is this comprehention which will bring about true lasting happiness, not simply a switch of your monetary purchusing to persuing immaterial experiences and the like which are no less motivated by egotism, this gets you nowhere. the ego needs to be dismantled. know the adversaries in your actions, mental and physical. understand them and you shall acheive dismantlement and gain everlasting peace.

[Winston]

Irish philosopher Darryl Sloan in his new video here talks about why he is taking steps toward a minimalist life and selling his house to live in an apartment. He explains why having more possessions makes one less happy.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpv7JhGlfqs[/youtube]

[Moretorque]

Irish philosopher Darryl Sloan in his new video here talks about why he is taking steps toward a minimalist life and selling his house to live in an apartment. He explains why having more possessions makes one less happy.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpv7JhGlfqs[/youtube]

It's not such a problem if the state doesn't tax you on every aspect of owning property, of course Mr. Wu would not understand this since he is probably riding the communist gravy train ?

[mand38]

Absolutely agree with those 4 statements.

[Contrarian Expatriate]

In March, I gave away or threw away all of my possessions other than to suitcases of clothes, a laptop bag and my car. I took up minimalism and it was a new lease on life.

I now am free to travel the world at will and when I come back to the USA (which I have not done yet), I can get my car out of storage and travel around the country at will.

This is complete freedom so long as I retain my health. It was to the point where my possessions were owning me instead of me owning them. I don't buy much now even though I could. My life is now more about purchasing experiences as mentioned above.

I highly recommend minimalism which, if nothing else, is a smack to the face of hype-consumer culture that unjustly enriches corporations that want you addicted to the junk they peddle.

[Winston]

Here are some things I learned about happiness:

People are happy temporarily. But it isn't sustainable or permanent. You can buy temporary happiness with a bottle of wine even. But in the end its really a state of mind.

However, if you cultivate happiness as a state of mind rather than as something dependent on favorable results and circumstances, then it can be longer lasting though. See the movie "Hector and the Search for Happiness". It illustrates this nicely. There's a popular saying in spiritual books that goes like this:

"There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way."

Now that may sound a bit hokey and new ageish at first. But the more you think and reflect on it, the more sense it makes. Especially if you believe that consciousness can manifest your reality to some extent.

Personally, I think it's more important to have meaning or purpose in life than mere happiness. Every great book and film has meaning in it. If you think about it, your favorite films and books are your favorites because they are the most meaningful, not the most happy. Deep seated meaning is longer lasting and touches your soul, more so than temporary happiness or pleasure does.

Having interesting new experiences is very important too. They produce both happiness and meaning, and exercise and stimulate your mind too, thus keeping your brain active, young and healthy.

What typical Americans and Taiwanese don't understand is that being in a safe, sterile, structured environment all the time (e.g. like in middle class American suburbs and Taiwanese environments) will kill the soul. You see, without obstacles, challenges, risks and new experiences, the soul cannot grow or evolve. Life and human existence were not meant to be completely safe, sterile and artificial.

One can be a goldfish in a fishbowl and live completely safe with free food in a sterile environment. You could say thats not a bad life too. However such a life would be meaningless and boring and kill your soul. There would be no new meaningful experiences or special memories. Nothing to grow or evolve your soul. I know thats an extreme example but you get the metaphorical point.

Nature does not evolve in such environments. Such environments do not create special memories or meaningful experiences either. They only result in boring routines that kill the soul and make one lifeless, which you can see in the faces of people there. Yet thats the kind of environment that America, Taiwan and Japan attempt to create.

Thats why people in less developed and less modern countries (e.g. Russia, China, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Mexico, Cuba, India, Southeast Asia, former Soviet republics) usually seem happier, freer and more open, relaxed and carefree. Not so serious, stern, rigid and uptight as Americans and Taiwanese are. And they are more soulful and authentic as well.

Furthermore, their environment has a much more positive and freer vibe as well, one that allows you to really have fun and "let loose", laugh a lot, joke a lot and laugh loudly too, all of which are considered inappropriate in repressed American and Taiwanese cultures.

In short, such cultures allow you the freedom to BE YOURSELF, which is the ultimate freedom, even if you don't get to vote in any elections. Being yourself is far more relevant to freedom than any democratic system can offer, which is mostly an illusion anyway, as we all know. Also they allow you the freedom to connect with others and form true meaningful friendships and relationships with others as well, unlike the superficial friendships and acquaintances that you usually get in the USA and Taiwan, which don't last and were fake to begin with.

This is because people in such freer, less developed cultures do not live in sterile environments that are overly safe, rigid and repressed with too many rules and standards. They live in chaos and have learned to accept and celebrate it. Once you embrace the chaos around you and not try to control everything, you become more free, liberated, carefree, relaxed and less uptight. Only then can one be truly free to be oneself. This is something most Americans and Taiwanese do not grasp unless they are seasoned travelers with good observation skills and introspection skills, which are especially lacking in young people.

You can see all this as you travel to more countries that are not first world. Thats why me and my friends feel much more freedom outside of America and Taiwan. Once you experience all this and see what I mean, you will understand and see the light. However, once you see the light, you cannot unsee the light or get accustomed again to the darkness and repression of America and Taiwan again. As Einstein said, "experience is the greatest knowledge and teacher, not books."

Anyway, those are my lessons, observations and experiences. Hope they are meaningful to you all.

[HouseMD]

Check out these great points about true wealth and happiness.

http://postmasculine.com/minimalism

Happiness studies consistently bring back a couple of findings: 1) that we derive far more happiness from experiences than we do from possessions, and 2) that we’re better off investing our energy in our relationships than the things we own.

Getting rid of unnecessary possessions can therefore indirectly improve our quality of life through the following ways:

1. Frees up more time and money to spend on experiences and with people.
2. Forces one to invest more of their identity in their behavior and attitude and less in objects around them.
3. Removes the stress of loss aversion and trying to hold on to what one already has.
4. Saves money (always a stress reducer).

http://postmasculine.com/wealth

Psychological studies on happiness in the past couple decades has supported this. Research shows that money correlates with happiness up until a middle-class income and after that, there’s no correlation between money and happiness. Happiness flatlines.

Money buys happiness only when it is spent on experiences and earned without costing too much time. This is why I find it less useful to define wealth in terms of money, and define it instead in terms of the quality of life experiences.

Wealth is having the freedom to maximize one’s life experiences.

Money is a requisite for wealth, but so is time and so is efficient use of that time and money. Money gives one opportunities for more experiences. But one must also have the time to pursue those experiences. Having the money to travel to Australia isn’t worth anything if you can’t ever take time off work to go there.

Your fundamental needs take precedence: health, food, shelter. If these three needs are not met, then nothing else is going to make you happy and not having them is going to make you miserable. But assuming you have those needs met, then research indicates that the experiences which create the most happiness are:

1. New and unique activities.
2. Shared experiences with others and building relationships.
3. Passion activities.

More money actually does continue to cause more happiness, but the returns are diminishing- the same rush you get from going from 35k to 70k, you'll have to go from 70k to 140k to gain again. It's an exponential and unsustainable desire, hence why I just choose to live a minimalist lifestyle. Buddhism and Christianity have the right ideas, grounded in minimalism and the joy of experience.