“Money can buy a shitload of happiness — just nothing you can’t ever live without.”
― Quentin R. Bufogle
I started to realize the importance of money when I was young. The days when I woke up at night worrying about money were still vivid in my memory. The older I become, I know money can buy a shitload of things that make you happy but soon I realize all this happiness won’t last very long.
Pursuit of Materialism
When I was still little, I lived in a tiny village house in Bukit Tambun, my childhood was pretty simple, I played with whatever I had. Friends and neighbours gave me their old toy cars. I was very happy the first few days after getting this tiny toy car and played with it almost the whole day. But deep down inside, my happiness waned day after day unless a new toy car ( new to me but all these cars were old and given by others) arrived again.
I remembered well when my sister gave me her first car when I was still a medical student, I was having many sleepless nights and euphoric for days. As I grow older, I soon realize the happiness from pursuits of possessions won’t last long, It is like the evanescence of a sweet dream.
” Do you still remember how do you feel when you bought your first, second or even third cars or houses?” Sometimes I remember but sometimes I don’t. The more you do it, the magnitude of your initial excitement becomes smaller compared to the previous ones.
Giving is a better option
In a 2008 study, subjects were asked to rate their happiness and given an envelope containing either $5 or $20. The participants were randomly assigned to either spend the money on themselves or on someone else by the end of the day.
Those who spent the money on someone else reported happier moods than those who spent the money on themselves. And it didn’t matter whether they spent $5 or $20.
So we might be missing the whole point all this while, perhaps we’re meant to give and not to consume. By giving to others instead of fulfilling our own desires might be the best way for us to feel happier!
The same is true for our time. Volunteering at a charity will do wonders for your emotional well-being.
If your ultimate aim of making more money is fulfilling your never-ending desire to own things, you will never be happy. Benjamin Franklin once said, “Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one.”
But if we give instead of owning and buying things, it might give us pleasure we don’t easily forget.
Help others during this trying time
I am not some successful businessman who makes millions of dollars every year. For years I worked hard and earned money to buy stuff I wanted. But the pursuit of bigger house and car did not add happiness to my life. I was no longer enamored with the life I’d created.
For the last few years of life, I started to look at things differently. I suddenly felt a yearning that seems bigger than my actual body, besides helping sick patients in my hospital, I could help other needy people in my community too.
During this Covid-19 pandemic period, it might be your best opportunity to help needy neighbours and friends in your town. Plenty of people are struggling, by giving them shelter, foods or even words of comfort, you make them happy. And the research suggests it elates your mood too.
Years later, when you’re old and on your deathbed ,reflecting on your life, what stories will you tell your grandchildren? What moments will you remember?
I bet it is certainly not the moment you bought your iPhone 20 or BMW 5-series year 2050 version but rather the moments you managed to change other people lives!
Conclusion
The most fulfilling life is not defined by how much stuff and money you own , but rather by the way you spend them.
You soon will realize that the rewards of living a purposeful life are rich and rewarding. I learned that one should enjoy the simple things in life.
Happiness comes from contentment rather than acquisition.
A beautiful heart can bring things to your life that all the money in the world couldn’t obtain.
Garth Brooks once said,” You aren’t wealthy until you have something money can’t buy!”
