Thursday, April 26, 2012

Michael Norton: How to buy happiness

You may have noticed that I like to feature pieces on happiness.  What makes people happy, why people are happy while others are not, and how people become happy. the whole who, what, when, where, and how analysis.

Why do I focus so much on happiness because it is completely inter-related to money.  As Mr. Norton points out in this TED video that adage that money cannot but happiness is not spending money in the right way.  His analysis beams a headlight on the fact that people feel more happy when they help other people than if they buy something for themselves.

Think about how you feel when you buy something new and after a while that new car smell fades away.  But then think about a time when you gave money to a charity that you support.  I would bet there are two distinct feelings between spending money on one vs. the other.

Having money is not bad which is how I feel that people of wealth or those who have money are being portrayed in the media, the infamous 1%.  It's what you do with your money that counts.  I'm not suggesting that the only way to be happy is to just give it all away but building wealth is something that I believe we all can strive for which would be for not only ourselves but the communities that we live in and help support.

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