Why Dreaming to Be Rich is Not The Way to Live

It’s no secret that many of us live our lives dreaming to get rich someday. Moreover, most of us act with all our capacity to realize this goal. We spend our working time tirelessly to earn more. No matter what it takes, we’ll do it if we think it will serve this purpose.

Whatever happens, we certainly won’t give up on this particular aspiration. We think wealth will bring us happiness. So no matter how much we earn now, it’s never enough.

We’ve all been told that money can’t buy us happiness. But nobody seems to believe that. We are envious of people who can afford the stuff that we have no means of acquiring. We compare how we live with our neighbors or anyone who has more wealth than us and conclude we need to work harder.

Money Has Its Use

Of course money is important. There’s no denying that fact to people who suffer from lack. We need money to buy food to eat. We need it to make sure we will have a good place to live in or enough clothes to wear.

Money is needed when we require medical attention. We also need money to do the stuff that makes us happy such as traveling or watching movies.

You see, money is a tool. It is a means to an end. We use money to enable us to do the things that we need to do and the things that we love to do.

But for most people, working to earn more is just not a happy way to spend their time on. Happiness is not found in how much wealth a person has acquired. The formula for happiness is much more complicated than acquiring wealth.

Money and Happiness

We’ve all heard of stories about rich folks with miserable lives. It seems that these people have no satisfaction. In place of money, they want something else. Something that money can’t buy them.

There’s actually a study conducted by smart guys in the US to determine the connection between happiness and the level of wealth. The result indicates that, indeed, money affects your happiness up to a certain extent and no more.

Think of people who get up every day worrying about money for their basic needs. Having more money will definitely increase the level of happiness they will experience. Money will solve a basic problem that they face daily. It is logical therefore to conclude that for them, an increase in income will translate to more happiness.

But for those whose needs are already met by their current income, more money does not mean more happiness. Most of them belong to the middle class and up.

Short-Term Happiness

I’m not a wealthy person myself to say for sure that rich people aren’t happier than ordinary folks. But I have learned from experience what it’s like to get happiness through material things.

I’ve been happy for short periods of time because of my new gadgets, my new car or any other new objects that I have acquired. But this type of happiness does not seem to last. After a couple of days my excitement dies down and I end up wishing for something else that I think would surely make me happier.

If I continue to live like that in order to be happy, I’ll end up with so much stuff (if I can afford it) or I will surely die deep in debt. The materialism that has perpetrated our society gave us this wrong idea that to be fulfilled we need trophies to show it. That’s even if those very objects just bring fleeting happiness at the cost of us spending (or wasting) most of our time working for money to afford them.

Avoid Dying With Too Much Regrets - Be Happy!

I believe that to live a happy life, we need to always bear in mind that the journey is more important than the destination. That’s because we can never be too certain of what the future holds but we feel how our present is being spent.

If we’re happy with what we are doing no matter how much the reward we’re getting, it will make our lives more satisfying and meaningful.