Can money make you happy? Deep question! This is a thought provoking guest post on money & happiness by Justina Rosu. 

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‘Money can’t buy happiness’ is one of those sayings that I find really frustrating and I have often thought “yeah well you obviously don’t know what it’s like to not have money!”

But, of course, then I chastise myself because the spirit of the saying is far deeper than that.

As I observe my children jumping on their bikes for the journey to school and I pass the downs syndrome homes along the way I’m reminded of the battles I have never had to face.

The Question This Raises Is: ‘What is Happiness?’

If happiness came packaged up with a price tag on it, I’m sure we’d all be finding a way to get the money together to buy that item! Wouldn’t we?

Do unhappy millionaires exist?  I think we would all agree they do, there are people who appear to ‘have it all’ and yet they destroy their lives with drug or alcohol abuse, or they even take their own lives.

Research proves that when you receive a windfall, a lottery win even, or when you experience a tragic loss eventually your life tends to return to the same levels of happiness as before.  Having experienced a tragic loss myself I can say that on a day to day basis yes I do experience the same levels of happiness as before, although the sadness is always there – you just learn to cope with it.

From the many books I have read on the subject there seems to be two main camps on what makes you happy and guess what – you can have both today.  There are two ways to dealing with being happy – we either spend time and energy moving away from what makes us unhappy or we can spend time and energy moving towards the things that make us happy.

Comparing What You Have With What Your Neighbour Has

‘The grass is greener on the other side’ syndrome also known as ‘keeping up with the Jones’s’.  I once read that a group of women in America were asked to attend a study where they would fill in a questionnaire about how happy they were feeling.

In the waiting room they had magazines about amazing lifestyles.  The outcome of the test showed a great deal of dissatisfaction with their lives.  On another occasion when the same women came in for the same study a few days later magazines about poverty and misfortune were available in the waiting room – and as you can guess the outcome of that day’s study was that the same women were considerably happier with their lives.

Spreading the happiness.  Did you know that when you are feeling happy you are more likely to show kindness to others?  If you are feeling glum and you make your body and face behave as if you were happy your body will influence your state of mind.

We’ve all heard of the power of laugher and how there have been documented cases of laughter curing illness – well we should use this every day to create our own happy state of mind.

Life Transition and Uncertainty

The transitions we face through life is the other area where happiness is often cast away and replaced with fear and worry.  The older we get the higher the consequences a transition can be, or so that is how we perceive it.

It is the ‘the fear of the unknown’ which stresses us the most as working mums with responsibilities.  What will happen if I don’t meet the payments on the credit card, what will happen if I miss the mortgage repayment?  What will I do if bailiffs turn up?

If for example you knew that in three weeks you would be unable to live where you are living right now.  You absolutely knew it and there was nothing you could do to change it.  And let’s keep going, if you absolutely knew that you would be living in a different house, yes smaller, maybe in a different area, but you knew you and your family were actually going to LOVE it there.  But not only that, you knew with total certainty that in that house you would be free from debt, that you would be living within your means.  Would you still be stressed about losing the house you’re in now??

You may feel some lose but in a nostalgic way, not a painful way.

I was reminded recently of a saying that we should use as our mantra every morning.

 “If money can solve my problem, then, I really don’t have a problem”

Now, I know what it’s like to have debt and to dream about how perfect life would be without that debt.  I totally get how horrible not knowing where the money will come from to pay the electricity, or that terms swimming bill.

But it is within us all to take action to clear our debts-  it is a choice, it is YOUR CHOICE on HOW YOU WILL DEAL WITH THIS.  The question is what are YOU willing to change.

Let me leave you with one other thought:

If you knew that next month you would not be paid

WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY TODAY?

I have had severe debt and I have recovered. I want to share with you how you can become debt free in record time.  I offer three awesome approaches. Details of ALL are on my website. If you want to ease your way into healthier spending habits then my Manage Your Money FREE club would be ideal for you. Details can be found on my website.

Justina Rosu is the founder of Her Money Matters.  Starting from July 10^th she will be running a ‘Six-week Money Makeover’ programme, for the woman/mum who is serious about turning her personal finances around and getting out of debt. Click the link for more details.