MONEY DOESN’T BUY HAPPINESS. DOES IT?

There are phrases we repeat so often that, at some point, we stop wondering whether they actually make sense.

“Money doesn’t buy happiness.”

Doesn’t it?

I think it can.

It doesn’t buy health.

It doesn’t buy true love.

It doesn’t buy time.

It can’t stop someone we love from dying.

It can’t cure an illness just because we have a healthy bank balance.

But there is an enormous distance between that and saying that money doesn’t bring happiness.

Money buys a trip.

And tell me there isn’t happiness in that moment when we find ourselves somewhere we have dreamed of visiting for years, looking at a landscape that, until then, had only existed on a screen.

Money pays for dinner with people we love.

It buys the plane ticket that allows us to hug someone who lives far away.

It pays for a comfortable home.

It allows us to give our parents an experience, take our children out into the world, or simply walk into a supermarket without mentally calculating the price of everything we put in the trolley.

And there is happiness in that.

Of course there is.

Perhaps the problem is that we confuse two completely different statements:

“Money isn’t enough to make you happy.”

and

“Money doesn’t bring happiness.”

They are not the same thing.

Someone can have millions and be profoundly unhappy. Obviously.

But someone can also have love, family, friends and health and still live with constant anxiety because they don’t know whether they will be able to pay the rent at the end of the month.

Interestingly, whenever someone says that money brings happiness, there is always someone who replies:

“But rich people get depressed too.”

Yes.

And poor people get depressed too.

The difference is that one of them can be depressed without also having a letter from the bank sitting on the table.

Money doesn’t eliminate life’s problems.

It eliminates some of them.

And that counts too.

There is another contradiction we rarely talk about.

We say that “the best things in life are free.”

A hug is free.

A conversation is free.

A sunset is free.

That’s true.

But having the time to sit peacefully and watch that sunset may not be.

Because freedom also has a financial dimension.

Being able to work less.

Being able to leave a job that is destroying us.

Being able to say, “I don’t need to put up with this.”

Being able to choose where to live.

Being able to rest.

Being able to help someone.

Being able to walk away when staying is no longer healthy.

All of that is freedom.

And money buys a considerable part of it.

Perhaps admitting this feels uncomfortable because we grew up associating money with greed, superficiality or materialism.

As though wanting financial stability automatically meant valuing things more than people.

It doesn’t.

I can deeply believe that a human relationship is worth more than any object and, at the same time, acknowledge that I would rather cry inside a warm home than cry without knowing where I am going to sleep tomorrow.

One does not cancel out the other.

And perhaps this is the greatest contradiction of all:

Many of the people who say that money doesn’t matter spend a large part of their lives working to earn it.

They want pay rises.

They want a better home.

They want to travel.

They want to give their children opportunities.

They want to reach retirement without financial worries.

And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Perhaps we should simply stop pretending that none of it has anything to do with happiness.

Money doesn’t buy everything.

Thankfully.

There are things no credit card should ever be able to buy.

But it buys comfort.

It buys experiences.

It buys possibilities.

It buys security.

It buys freedom.

And, very often, it buys peace of mind.

And all of those things can create profoundly happy moments.

So, no.

I don’t believe money is happiness.

But I don’t believe the pretty saying that money doesn’t bring happiness either.

Perhaps the truth, once again, depends on where we are standing.

Because money doesn’t buy life.

But it can radically change the way we are able to live it.