A recent study counters the age-old saying that money can’t buy happiness. As per the presumed idealistic notion of living, people have been advised to not get completely consumed by the materialistic world as money can’t buy it all
It is also believed that real happiness lies in small gestures, selflessness and simple living
As per a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, for most people money actually means happiness or acts as the means to buy things which can be the source of happiness
Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman and researcher Matthew Killingsworth led this experiment conducted on 33,391 adults aged between 18 and 65, as per which people do get happier as their income level rises
Participants were asked to report their feelings at random intervals in a day via an app developed by Killingsworth called 'Track Your Happiness'
The key finding was that more money made people happier. Most of the respondents experienced a surge in happier emotions after getting a salary raise, bonus, hitting the lottery or getting expensive gifts
Even though a majority of the people were happier after accumulating more wealth, some of the respondents did not find happiness in making more money after some time, precisely after earning around Rs 61 lakh annually. They hit the saturation point and no amount of rise in their disposable income gave them joy or happiness
Some of these “unhappy” people also experienced "negative" miseries which cannot be alleviated by money, such as clinical depression, heartbreak, loss after a close one’s passing and other such instances
Killingsworth cautioned in a statement that money isn't everything - "just one of the many determinants of happiness." He added, "Money is not the secret to happiness, but it can probably help a bit."
While it can be tough to earn wealth, it could be tougher to manage it. Many people reported issues in efficiently managing their wealth. Hence, in spite of earning a substantial amount of money, they were unable to find happiness and instead got caught in managing it properly