Money is an essential part of our everyday lives. Food, clothing, and shelter are basic necessities everyone needs to survive and we need money to purchase them. Even though we know that money serves an important role in society, sometimes it gets a bad rep. Movies and music both unhealthily glorify and demonize money leaving many to have distorted views of it.Our society’s apprehension towards money is reflected in some of our most notable proverbs. Examples of these proverbs are “More money more problems”, “Money is the root of all evil’ , and “Money can’t buy happiness”. 

We can be sure that when The Notorious B.I.G made the song “Mo Money Mo Problem” he wasn’t intending on trading in his wealth for less problems. If riches was such a bothersome issue, why isn’t wealthy people giving away their money? Managing money is a big responsibility and the more of it there are the greater the responsibility. This is true about anything, not just money. The more kids you have the more responsibility accompanies them. 

It’s a skewed mindset to see money as problems and not responsibilities. “Money is the root of all evil” is a misunderstanding and the original passage from the bible is “For the love of money is the root of all evil”. Many would say what’s the difference? They both have money and they both have evil. Yes, but the misquotation is taken out of context with the goal of demonizing money while the actual quotation warns of an unhealthy obsession with money.

The stigma surrounding money is understandable. Many people around the world are living in poverty and money is the difference between life and death. We see movies that glamorize wealth, that makes many of us that are fortunate but not rich feel inadequate about our normal lives. This can lead people to believe that money can solve all their problems. You hear this sentiment when a person says “if I only had money then all my problems would be solved” but is that true. It is easy to discern why money would be linked to happiness and sadness. Which brings us to our question of can money buy happiness? First we must ask what is happiness?

Webster’s dictionary defines happy as a “feeling of pleasure and enjoyment because of your life, situation, etc.” In other words a state of well being that can be caused by anything. With this definition happiness is subjective and can be brought on by anything. It is fair to deduct that not only can money buy happiness, so can anything else a person chooses. The person who says money can’t buy happiness is really saying money can’t buy happiness for them. That is a clear distinction between the two. 

Many people have an unrealistic understanding of happiness and an unrealistic expectation of what can make them happy. Happiness is like hearing a joke that you find funny. The joke is the thing that causes laughter, the feeling of pleasure in other words happiness. With time the laughter we get from a joke wears off. Many people are disappointed because the thing they are pursuing for happiness, when they get it, the joyful feeling of bliss doesn’t last forever. As a result they resent the thing that they have been pursuing for many years, due to its momentary joy. Which brings us to our next point: money should not be used to elicit happiness. The state of joy and pleasure can be experienced with minimal effort. Taking the time to be grateful for the things we have in our lives is an efficient way to elicit happiness. Depriving ourselves of appreciating what we have and solely focusing on the joy we will achieve when pursuing a goal or thing is similar to drug addicts chasing their first high. 

We should only use and view money as a tool. Tools are used to enhance our ability. Everyone is capable of learning how to build a house, sew their own clothes, and learn how to grow their own food, but think how long that would take for an individual to do. Money speeds up that process. Now we buy houses, clothes, and food. Think about how long it would take a carpenter to make a cabinet with an electric saw? A hand saw can get the job done but an electric saw is much faster. Before hand saws there were other cutting tools that took twice as long to get the job done. Tools save time and make our lives easier. A carpenter and a plumber are not pursuing the tools of their trade for the purpose of happiness. We understand they may feel happiness due to receiving a new tool because of the benefits it provides, but an emphasis is not placed on the joy that a tool provides.

Money that is solely viewed as a tool and not a means of happiness is meant entirely to be put to work. This does not not mean to spend frivolously and carefreely. Misusing money is no different than misusing a tool. Misusing an electric saw can be dangerous to the operator, the saw itself, and the project that is being worked on. This is also true for money. For example, in our current environment savings accounts provide little to no interest. Having money in a savings account that is not for emergencies is a poor use of money. This misuse of money would be better put to use in an interest growing account. Another example of misusing money, is only making the minimum payment on your credit cards when you can afford to pay more. These bad practices will end up hurting an individual in the long run.

Money should be used balancedly between taking care of our basic needs, and the pursuit of leisure and ambition. Also ,how we use money to achieve these goals is very important. It serves no purpose to spend more on a goal than it is worth. It’s a waste to spend $2 million dollars on a mansion that is only worth $1 million. In order for people to make the best use of money, they must not have an emotional connection to it. This is not to say a person should detach all feelings from money-or if it is even possible to do so-but a person must know and understand when they are having an emotional reaction due to a financial decision.

Financial decisions should be made with a rational mind and if this is difficult then a person must be able to identify when they are making an emotional decision. A carpenter does not have an emotional attachment to a hammer even though there may be a sentimental value attached to his/her tools. These sentiments may be based on how hard they had to work to acquire their tools but if something should happen to any of their tools they wouldn’t be so emotionally distraught that they could not continue as a carpenter. If a carpenter builds an unbalanced table he/she would find the problem and correct it. This is how we must approach financial decisions.

Unhealthy emotional connection to money has many consequences. It clouds your judgement which leads to irrational decisions. It hinders you from taking financial risks when it is necessary. We hoard money because we believe it provides security but this is due to a past financial hardship that we fear repeating. These are only a few consequences among many. One of the worst results is passing on poor money skills to your kids which creates a never ending cycle of poor financial decisions.

FINAL THOUGHT 

At this point we should be aware that anything can bring us happiness and money is no exception. We also know that we have the power to determine what we want to bring us joy. We can choose material objects, our loved ones, or even our work to bring us happiness. We should also be aware of the danger of solely pursuing long term gratification and not taking the time to appreciate and find happiness in our daily lives. This will sustain us along the journey towards long term goals and reduce the possibility of feeling empty when we finally accomplish what we are working towards.

Money is a tool and should only be used as such. It is no different than a hammer and we are the carpenter. Carpenters must take the time to learn how to use their tools properly, so they can get the most use out of it. We must do the same because the misuse of money can lead to many negative consequences in the long run.