Money can bring happiness

While reading comments on a post at Money, Matter, and More Musings, I thought of an article I read a few months back. There is a common thought that money can not buy happiness. Money itself will not buy your happiness, but do you really think that money isn't part of the equation? Without money, you can not do many of the things you want to do, or have things that will help with your happiness. Golfing may make you happy, but if you don't have the money to buy the clubs and pay the course fees, then you miss out on one thing that makes you happy.

This article on CNN Money (from Money Magazine) makes it pretty clear that money has an affect on happiness. There is not a correlation between the amount of money and your happiness, but rather there is a threshold that if you're on one side you're more happy than if you're on the other. This makes sense to me. At some point, no matter how much money you have, you won't be more happy. If you have just the right amount to do what you want and not worry about money and finances, then it's great.

"...going from earning less than $20,000 a year to making more than $50,000 makes you twice as likely to be happy, yet the payoff for then surpassing $90,000 is slight."

If you have just the right amount to do what you want and not worry about money and finances, then you have more of an ability to be happy.