📌 The Quick Hit
Does money buy happiness? Yes, but indirectly.
Money isn’t happiness. It’s a tool that can fund experiences, health, comfort, and freedom.
The payoff (or “happiness dividend”) depends entirely on what you pursue and how you use money.
Money complicates life, but it doesn’t define it - you do.
True happiness dividends come when your spending benefits not just you, but others.
Tip: Flip the script. Instead of chasing money, let money chase you - by making it serve your values, your pursuits, and your life.
✋ Wait! Doesn’t Everyone Say Money Can’t Buy Happiness?
We’ve all heard the cliché: “money doesn’t buy happiness.”
Cute saying. But let’s be real - most of us spend much of our waking life earning it, saving it, worrying about it, or trying to grow it. Clearly, we treat money as a key ingredient in our happiness recipe.
So, let’s explore this differently. Let’s suppose money does buy happiness. The catch? It never buys it directly.
Instead, money delivers happiness dividends - the indirect payoffs when it helps us solve problems, create freedom, or fuel pursuits that actually matter.
😁 What We Mean by “Happiness”
For our purposes:
Happiness = a sense of well-being, comfort, safety, pleasure, or freedom.
Notice none of those are dollar bills. They’re states of being → outcomes that money can sometimes enable, but never embody.
Think of it like this:
👉 You have a bad knee. Money lets you pay for therapy. But the happiness doesn’t come from the payment. It comes when the knee gets stronger, when pain goes away, when you can walk without worry again. That’s the dividend.
If the therapy fails? Same money spent. No dividend. No happiness.
👀 The Issue: Our Relationship with Money
Here’s where it gets tricky.
Money isn’t neutral. It behaves like that needy friend who always wants to be the center of attention. Unless you define the terms of the relationship, money starts to rule you instead of the other way around.
Here are five truths about money’s role in happiness:
Money wants to be the star. It constantly tries to make you chase it. Instead, chase happiness - and put money in a supporting role.
Money doesn’t care about your happiness. That’s your job to define.
Money’s power depends on you. It only produces dividends if you use it wisely.
Money complicates. It can buy comfort now, but often adds complexity later.
Money fakes freedom. It dangles independence but can just as easily keep you chained.
🪤 The Trap: Money Wants Your Love
Money thrives on your attention. The more you chase it, the more it convinces you it’s the key to happiness.
But here’s the truth: money doesn’t love you back. It doesn’t hate you either…it just doesn’t care.
That’s why the healthiest move is to flip the script: make money work for you. Investing is a good example: money generates more money while you’re off doing something else.
When you stop “loving” money, you regain power.
🏃🏾♂️ What You Pursue Matters More
Morgan Housel puts it beautifully: don’t chase money, chase happiness.
The things worth pursuing usually don’t need money at all: wonder, connection, purpose, awe. Like catching a sunrise or noticing a perfect cloud formation.
Big takeaway: Anything that can only be bought with money probably isn’t worth the chase.
Lasting influence, meaning, and joy usually come from what you give, create, or contribute, not what you buy.
🥊 Money’s Rival: Life Itself
Here’s the twist: money doesn’t actually buy happiness because happiness can’t be “bought.” It’s generated - inside us, from being alive, from experiences with others.
That’s why life itself is money’s rival. Life provides happiness dividends far beyond money’s reach.
After all life itself is a gift. We don’t “get” born, we are born, through no effort or expense of our own.
💡How to Manage the Relationship
So what do we do? Here are some rules of thumb:
Don’t treat money as an equal. It’s just a thing, a placeholder of value. Nothing more.
Give it away. The best way to break money’s grip is to practice generosity. When you give, money loses its power over you.
Redefine purchases as “giving.” Buying for yourself feels good—until it doesn’t. But giving to others or funding things with lasting impact (health, education, shared experiences) pays happiness dividends again and again.
🎯 The Real Answer
So…does money buy happiness?
Yes. But only in dividends - when it funds health, freedom, and connection, and especially when it benefits not just you, but others.
The danger is letting money trick you into thinking it’s the source of happiness. It’s not. It’s just stored value. A middleman.
Happiness is always the real aim. Money is just one (imperfect) courier delivering it - sometimes on time, sometimes late, and sometimes not at all.
✨ Closing Thought
Money is like salt. Sprinkle it on the right things, and life tastes better. Dump it everywhere, and you ruin the meal.
So the challenge isn’t getting more money….it’s learning to season wisely. 🧂✨
This publication is for brains, not bets. The Other Side of Obvious shares ideas, stories, and general financial information—not personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. Investing comes with risk (including losing money). Talk to a pro before you act. Please take time to read these important disclosures before you get started.