HRGuru

I that there is indeed a relationship between money and happiness....but it plateus at a certain point. People that are poor and struggling will definately become happier with more money. Once basic needs are met and the stress of paying bills for the essentials are met...the relationship between money and happiness evaporates!

I firmly believe this. Some of my wealthiest friends are investment bankers and lawyers....they are also the least satisfied with their lives. I think that being true to yourself...pursuing work you love, and making sure you have healthy relationships are the keys to happiness.

Right on the mark.  Money cannot buy happiness.  Me too thinks you need to have a rewarded spirit.  Important to do what you enjoy and in the process you end up helping somebody.  The aid you give makes you happy.  Money to sustain needs - important - but it is what you do internally which puts you on the road to happiness.  What is tough is when you like what you do  but get into a rut.  Money  can be an anwer but you may end up doing something which makes you miserable. 

JaxHockeyFan- you are right on.

klwinsor is correct there is a definite correlation between money and happiness, however it is a curvilinear relationship. Research (please do not ask me to quote the author) has shown that people in the low SES areas are not happy, however people on the high end of the curve tend to be unhappy as well. The happiest people were reported in the middle 68% of the curve.

Here's some food for thought tonight.   Read this brief article from Forbes (see link).

http://www.forbes.com/2006/02/11/money-happiness-consumption_cz_em_money06_0214pursuit_print.html

Now ask yourself, how will the high gas prices, the threat of inflation, the decrease in consumer spending that every business is seeing affect your employees' happiness and what steps from HR will you take to combat the lightning strikes of distress and unhappiness that is likely to blossom like the recent fires in California?

Happiness is a temporal state.  It lasts as long as your endorphins last.

Grattitude for what you have, whether it is much or little, is what breeds internal happiness.  If you look at truly happy people, people who are happy in good times and happy in bad times (yes, they are out there), you will find their inner core is a "grattitude-attitude" and not motivated by personal possessions, power, or money.

I truely agree with everything that everyone has talked about. I do believe that finding true happiness is knowing how to balance your life between family and work, and especially is learn to be satisfied with what you have. Our problem is we always want more, we achieved what we want but when we reached to that level, we urge for more.....Don't you agree?

Absolutely agree that we always want more even though we have achieved balance between work and family/personal.  But wanting to grasp more may be connected to our growth and response to change.  The workplace is constantly changing as does family but the great thing is that we can achieve catch-up which puts things into balance again.  The rebuilding is hard but the results can be inspiring.  It amazes me sometimes when you think keeping the balance is impossible when suddenly something happens and you are in a different place.

Vannati says ...

Studies have shown.... in general, people in poor countries are less satisfied than people in rich countries. One reason is that poor nations are often more subject to violence and uncertainty. "Countries with higher per capita incomes tend to have more stable democracies than poor countries have.... The higher the income, then the more secure human rights are, the better average health is, and the more equal the distribution of income is. Thus, human rights, health and distributional equality may seemingly make happiness rise with income."

Similar conclusions were found in a study by Diener, Diener, and Diener (1995).  Their study sampled student populations from 55 nations (although this does hurt the generalizability of the results).  The researchers gathered info on many variables and found that high income, individualism, human rights, and societal equality correlated with happiness (and also with each other).  This trend resulted even after basic needs were controlled for by the researchers.

As for questions of material possessions, Larrsen and McKibban (2008) tested if having what you want (defined as the possessions the subjects had) and wanting what you have (defined as the possessions the subjects wanted and possessed) would lead to different levels of happiness.  The figures provided in the article explain the definitions of want vs have better than I can in a brief reply.  In any event, the conclusion was that both situations contributed to happiness.

To finish this up, money does seem to bring happiness although some other research suggests that this only occurs as long as the money does not prevent the individual from achieving their personal goals.  Money likely brings happiness as it allows us to meet (most of) our goals.

I would like to see links to the studies mentioned by Vannatti and M Shots.   While I'm sure they will represent what's been summarized I'm interested in seeing what and how they define "happiness."   I agree with Catherine that it is a very personal and relational issue.    I'm curious to see if such a difficult concept to truly give a universal definition to can be surveyed in such a manner as to give any study true acceptability.

For one, I question the concept of higher per capita incomes equating to better distribution of wealth.  And what level of wealth are we really looking at.  Are we using gross dollars in the studies or truly adjusted purchasing power based on some standards.   "Wealth" as a gross dollar indicator has been going up in the U.S. for many years, yet true purchasing power has been decreasing.  Happiness in the U.S. public is suspect in my mind as being in an acceptably happy level.   I'd be very hard pressed right now to find a large number of truly happy people in either my personal or professional lives.   

Sure I'd love to get a copy of it.  Thank you.

Send to sirfrey@earthlink.net and disregard any "spam" notice you get, I'll still get the message and file unless it's larget than 10mb.

Have a great one!

Thanks Jerry!  Got it.   Excellent article.