RULE 15

Money and happiness – understand their relationship

There are lots of things that will make us miserable – losing a partner, being made redundant, getting sick. And loads more. There are quite a few related to money and gaining or spending thereof.

Remember:

• too little money can make you miserable
• too much money can make you miserable
• too much stuff can make you miserable
• not having enough stuff can make you miserable

I think what we have to grasp pretty well from Day 1 is that money and happiness are not necessarily the same thing. Money doesn’t buy happiness. This is a common mistake people make. It isn’t going to be one you make. You can be poor and happy. You can be rich and happy. You can also be either poor or rich and miserable.

If you are looking to wealth to make you happy, you’ll be disappointed. If you are looking to money to make you powerful/ younger/sexier/more vital/more interesting/better looking/whatever, you’re going to be disappointed. Sorry but money doesn’t do any of that. In your head it might. In other people’s heads it might. But it doesn’t in reality. You can be all those things with money, it is true. It isn’t money that does it. The switch is thrown in your head first. Money is a placebo, not a cure.

We’ve all seen the lottery winners who buy the big house and feel miserable because they’ve left all their friends behind. Or the tycoons who lose the lot and top themselves because they felt their life was over just because they were skint.

But we won’t make any of these mistakes because we shall practise this Rule diligently and understand the relationship between money and happiness. Ah, but I hear you ask, what exactly is this Rule? What do I have to do? Answer: nothing except not expect too much from money and don’t buy stuff in the hope it will make you happy – it won’t. When they build that brand new Beemer or whatever it is you covet, they don’t build in any happiness. So when you first sit in it or buy it and you feel fantastic – and I’m not denying people do feel great buying stuff – that feeling isn’t in the thing you buy. That feeling was inside you anyway. All this said, what money can do is buy away a lot of unhappiness. It just can’t go any further than that.