I believe that money can’t buy you happiness. Sure, having a lot of money is a great thing and gets rid of the stress of financial insecurity. But real happiness can’t be bought by money. Thinking about life has led me to think about this popular belief and realize it’s completely true. Although being financially secure is one of the best things in the world, it won’t necessarily bring you happiness.


Many people dream of being rich. They think of all the things they can buy with money such as big houses, fancy cars, and long vacations. People make it their goal to get into a good college to get a good job and make a lot of money. With financial security, people think they have more time to spend relaxing and being happy. There are so many success stories of people going from “rags to riches” and people try to follow their footsteps and do the same thing. Basically, we all get this idea that being rich is a great thing and it will guarantee happiness, but is it true?


Having money is one of the most important things in life, but happiness is even more important. While money can result in happiness, the process of gaining it hinders your relationships with others. You can also buy things with money and those objects will bring you temporary happiness, but eventually you will get bored of the object and the happiness of having it will go away. The American Dream is basically attained by getting a good education and then a high-paying job. But is it really worth going through all of that to hopefully be financially secure? By trying to reach that goal, people spend a lot of their time doing work. Lots of homework, projects, and essays in college, and then lots of overtime work when they get their job (workaholics). This usually results in having less time to spend with those who care about you. Unlike materialistic items, happiness from having strong relationships with others last longer. Basically, having a lot of money is great, but if you don’t earn it the right way (balancing working time with spending time with friends and family); you won’t be happy because you won’t have anyone to care for you and that will result in loneliness.


I spent a lot of time thinking about this belief, and I realize that it is true and that I won’t base my life off working too hard for money. Don’t get me wrong, I will still work hard, but I won’t do so much work that I won’t have enough time to bond with my friends and family. I compared the 2 sides of my family: my father’s side, and my mother’s side. My mother’s side isn’t that financially secure but the family gatherings are so much more fun than the gatherings I have with my father’s side. On the other hand, my father’s side is very financially secure but the family gatherings are boring and awkward. My reasoning for this is that my father’s side spends too much time trying to earn money that their relationships with family and friends have crumbled while my mother’s side learned to balance money and relationships so that they have enough money to get by, and also strong ties with their family and friends. In conclusion, you have to sacrifice some time that could be spent making money to build strong relationships with your family and friends.


Although being financially secure is one of the best things in the world, it won’t necessarily bring you happiness. Money is an important component of happiness, but money alone won’t suffice in bringing you the highest level of happiness possible. You also need to have good, solid relationships with your friends and family to maximize your level of happiness. All in all, money alone won’t bring you happiness, but if you can effectively manage your time and balance the amount of time you spend making money, and the amount of time you spend with your friends and family, that will bring you happiness.