How Much Money Do You Need To Be Happy?

Wealth to most people means money.  

When I used to think about wealth I would think about wealthy people.

The kind of people you see speeding past you in their Bentleys or those people who owned a much bigger house than me with six bedrooms and secure gated entry.

To buy all these things you need money of course and lots of it.

Even to be a millionaire these days is not such a big thing as it once was. The people we look up to as wealthy now are more likely to be billionaires than millionaires.

But most, if not all of the wealthy people I have met in life say the same thing. Money is not the most important thing in their life.

The most important thing for them is happiness. Everyone needs happiness.

The Pursuit Of Happyness is one of my favourite films of recent years not because it was a rags to riches tale of a salesman down on his luck who eventually becomes a very wealthy stockbroker.

The reason I liked this movie was because it said something about what’s inside all of us.

They spelt ‘happiness’ wrong in the title because the Y stands for you.        

Wealth isn’t just about money. You can have a wealth of knowledge, a wealth of family and friends or property. Or you can have a wealth of health which you really can’t put any price on.

Apparently all you need to be happy (and I’m not making this up) is a salary of $50,000. The strange thing was those who made more than this felt no noticeable difference in their happiness.

We might imagine being happier owning that Bentley, or that big house and think that money is then the most important thing. But I can tell you it isn’t.

Because what you imagine is yourself being happy with all those things – not the money.

The pursuit of happiness, as one famous old philosopher called John Locke came up with way back in the 18th Century, is about having the chance not only to be wealthy and have lots of properties but also freedom to enjoy the best life has to offer.

So wealth isn’t about money, you can be just as happy sitting on a park bench and listening to the birds sing. Happiness comes from knowing you have the chance to be wealthy if you try hard enough.

via:http://www.colordarcy.com/wordpress/much-money-need-happy/4750/