Do unnecessary expenses make us happy?

Rodolfo Resines
2 min readJun 19, 2022

We’ve heard ad nauseam the phrase that says that “money doesn’t buy happiness” but I don’t know Rick…

The reality is that there’s no “yes or no” answer, that’s why we started by asking Saint Google and after five articles, several reliable sources and some scientific studies, we’ve drawn our own conclusions:

Money is important, money does bring us happiness and it’s also needed.
The trick is that once the basics are taken care of (food, leisure, material goods), the impact of “having more money” no longer brings more happiness.

Do unnecessary expenses make us happy?

Of course they make us happy but we have to pay attention to them because they come with traps included.

Here an example:

Suppose you have a lot of money and you don’t know what to do with it, then it seems like a great idea to sell your current car to buy a much better one with a sunroof and 230 horsepower.

You go to the agency and you buy it.

You feel happy and very powerful because your car is very cool and stuff but suddenly you realize that your co-worker has just bought a much better convertible than yours. This is how your happiness leaves to give way to frustration for “NOT having what the other does”.

This feeling is very common and it becomes like a spiral that never ends because no matter what you buy, it’ll never be enough for you.

We fall into this trap of seeking our happiness through improving our social status and relative position by acquiring more material goods, Entrepreneur Mx.

We have to be happy based on our own standards.

This is what it takes to be happy:

1- Be what you want to be

2- Be with who you want to be

3- Have what you want to have

Being happy is not a goal, happiness is built and money is linked to our life decisions, therefore it can sink or raise us as much as we allow it.

THE KEY TO SUCCESS: If we only have one life, then we must do what we want to do and with that we’re not telling you: “go crazy and abandon everything”. We mean that what you do makes you feel one step closer to what you want.

Don’t think about it too much, you already know the answer.

And finally, your budget has to be balanced and you have to have money left over to buy what you want based on realistic and achievable goals.

Life’s Rules

  • Earning more money just “for earning more money” doesn’t give you more happiness: this is law.
  • Don’t grab the pleasure of buying just for buying, but for the pleasure of having.
  • If you have a lot of money, don’t get lost along the way.
  • Money doesn’t have to make you feel stressed.
  • Be more saver than consumer.
  • To each their own, stop seeing the neighbor’s garden.
  • Enjoy the simplicity of life, happiness is so obvious that we complicate it.
  • Be more rational than compulsive.

To each their own, stop seeing the neighbor’s garden.

--

--

Rodolfo Resines

I am dedicated to helping people and organizations achieve their financial goals so they can invest in their talents & passions, in people, and on their purpose