Don't Indulge.....Be Happy

HOW much money do you need to be happy? Think about it……………What’s your number?

This was from an article I’d read a long while ago, actually in the NY times ( so please bear with the dollar bench marks, which I’m actually happy with, as it enables each of us to think of our own number in our own currency)

People come in all types, right? You’ll find those who say, it’s all about money, and then you’ll find the others who say I don’t care about money, and then there’s a whole lot of us who fall somewhere in between.

Like everything else in life, it’s about finding our own balance. How many of us have really put a number to it? I’ve tried it, and trust me, it’s hugely enabling, and liberating.

Liberating because once you’ve gotten to that number, you’re automatically liberated from having to put your energies behind getting to that normally vague and elusive (because it’s not fixed) goal; you don’t need to focus on growing it anymore.

Enabling because a logical followthrough is that it allows you to focus energies and time on what matters to you more.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs

Maslow’s triangle (1954), is a hierarchy of five motivational needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid.

The motivation at each level is each of those needs yet unmet. Also, the need to fulfill such needs will become stronger the longer the duration they are denied. For example, the longer a person goes without food the more hungry they will become.

Every person is capable and has the desire to move up the hierarchy toward a level of self-actualization. Unfortunately, progress is often disrupted by failure to meet lower level needs. Maslow noted only one in a hundred people become fully self-actualized because our society rewards motivation primarily based on esteem, love and other social needs.

Think about it....... how many of those levels are money dependent? This can actually help you fix that number.

Excerpts from that article by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton, as it's extensive research and data which could help think and clarify:

Additional income doesn’t buy us any additional happiness on a typical day once we reach that comfortable standard. The magic number that defines this “comfortable standard” varies across individuals and countries, but in the United States, it seems to fall somewhere around $75,000 pa. Using Gallup data collected from almost half a million Americans, researchers at Princeton found that higher household incomes were associated with better moods on a daily basis — but the beneficial effects of money tapered off entirely after the $75,000 mark.

Why, then, do so many of us bother to work so hard long after we have reached an income level sufficient to make most of us happy? One reason is that our ideas about the relationship between money and happiness are misguided. In research we conducted with a national sample of Americans, people thought that their life satisfaction would double if they made $55,000 instead of $25,000: more than twice as much money, twice as much happiness. But our data showed that people who earned $55,000 were just 9 percent more satisfied than those making $25,000. Nine percent beats zero percent, but it’s still kind of a letdown when you were expecting a 100 percent return.

Indulgence is often closely trailed by its sidekick, overindulgence. While the concept of overindulgence is probably all too familiar, the word “underindulgence” doesn’t exist. (Type it into Dictionary.com, and you’ll be asked, “Did you mean counter intelligence?”) But research shows that underindulgence — indulging a little less than you usually do — holds one key to getting more happiness for your money.

USING your money to promote underindulgence requires a shift in behavior, for sure. But another scientifically validated means of increasing the happiness you get from your money is even more radical: not using it on yourself at all. 

Surely worth thinking about, huh?