Do You Need to Be a Millionaire to be Happy?

Ankh | Posted on May 23, 2023 |

My mother always used to ask, “Why do we hanker for more and more? Why can’t we be content with what we have?” She was a simple woman who loved to sing her favorite Rabindra Sangeet songs even when she didn’t keep well. While she is no more, her words ring in my ears incessantly. Maybe now I realize but it’s too late, otherwise I could have spent more time with her during her last moments. So in this post lets discuss do you need to be a millionaire to be happy?

We are three siblings and we went to far-flung places to work and make a living. But she wanted us to stay closer to her and live a simple life. “Why do we need to run after money constantly?” she used to say. After a while, my two brothers returned to our home city, Kolkata. But I went the furthest, to live the American dream. There are some things we learn with time. That’s absolutely true for me. Probably I learned it too late and at a cost. My mother’s life. She kept on saying to come visit her when she was not keeping well, but when I went, she had little time left. Something that is going to a heartsore for me until the day I die. Because later you can only repent on the choices you made.

“It is good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good too, to check up once in a while and make sure you haven’t lost the things money can’t buy.”

~ George Horace Lorimer

Contents

1 Related Posts on Do You Need to be a Millionaire to be Happy?
2 What is Happiness?
3 Do You Need to be a Millionaire to be Happy?
4 What Do You Need to Be Happy?
5 Conclusion on Do You Need to be a Millionaire to be Happy

What is Happiness?

More so the question is what does happiness mean to you? To me, it is the small things in life. For example, the time I spent with my mother when she traveled to China with me. I used to work there, lived in Chengdu, a southwestern city of China. She had an immense love for singing Ranbindra sangeet. She sang to her heart’s content. At the time of her departure, she was dealing with chronic kidney disease. Despite that, she wanted to travel the world with me. The long flight was tough on her. Her feet got swollen like a balloon during the travel. This is something that happens due to water accumulation when the leg stays upright for a prolonged time.

In two years from then, my mother passed away. To this day, I repent for not spending enough time with her while she was there. She wanted to travel the city, but I restrained her. I should have recorded her singing, which was the happiest moment of her life. She was happy being with me there. I should have captured the moments in everyway possible. Because I thought she will live long enough and I will get the opportunity again.

So what makes you happy? Is it the sporadic state of happiness that you cherish or something that is long lasting? Something that stems from a greater purpose and provides more meaning to why we should feel happy about.

Do You Need to be a Millionaire to be Happy?

Absolutely not. Money helps. It helps meets our basic needs but after a point it has diminishing marginal impact on happiness. Being a millionaire helps in having the financial security. It also helps us assure us we don’t need to trade hours for money if we don’t want to. We are absolutely free to do what we love doing, even if the pay is less. Because then we are no more enslaved.

Repeated studies show any incremental household income above $75,000 in the United States doesn’t make us more happy. But a million dollars in our investment accounts does provide a great sense of security. Happiness stems from small bursts of moments that we cherish.

What Do You Need to Be Happy?

Live a Simple Life

Did you ever try to live a simple life with minimal stuffs? A life where you possess few things which are just enough to live with? Because to live a simple life, the question we need to answer is, can material possessions give us long-lasting happiness? If it doesn’t, then can we try living an austere life even if we have all the money in the world to buy a lot of stuffs. Sometimes it begs the question: is it moral to splurge when there are millions of people in our world we don’t have enough means to feed for even one meal a day? Then what impact do we have on the environment by incessantly consuming scarce natural resources? Is it not selfish to consume as much as we can in our lifetime and not leave back enough for our next generations or other living beings on our planet?

It might sound philosophical, but don’t we have a responsibility being a responsible living being on our planet? Could it be a cause we live for and strive to make a difference?

Because life is simple and often we choose it to be complicated. There is so much less stress if we live simpler lives. That’s not only for us but also for our entire planet. Is that not an immense source of happiness? Doesn’t it give us the sense of feeling that we have done our part in the world? Not to discount the fact it only reduces our financial stress because we need much less money to live a simpler life.

Live Close to Your Parents and Family

For work or in search of greener pastures, have you gotten dissociated from your parents and extended family? If so, how does it feel? In time, even if you achieved a lot in terms of success, does it feel fulfilling? Is there a void you feel even if you seem to have everything that you yearned for? Was it worth it? Because for me it was not. If something I could go back and change in the life, I would change some choices I made. I should have spent more time with my mother in India while she was alive, especially during her last years. That is the time when I moved to the US. For the millions of immigrants from all around the world, what do you think? Those of you who have moved to other countries for work leaving behind your parents and extended family.

Because we live only one life and some things don’t come back again later. So is it worth it?

Be Around True Friends

I always had close friends as I grew up pretty much in all stages of my life. So I miss my childhood and college friends. Sometime it might not be possible to cultivate such friendships later in our lives. Especially in the US, life is so individualistic. But irrespective of countries and cultures, we can always choose to stay close to our friends.

Robert Waldinger, a director of a 75-year-extensive study of adult development, concluded that the most critical contributor to living a fulfilled life is strong relationships. He shared in TED Ideas worth spreading, “What keeps us happy and healthy as we go through life? If you think it’s fame and money, you’re not alone.” It is our family and friends who are the greatest source of happiness and fulfillment in life.

Stay Connected to Your Cultural Roots

I am an immigrant in the United States. Moved here to the states about six years back from India after a short stint of two years in China. Although I am a permanent resident here but often I brood over the thought of moving back to India.

We live in a white majority neighborhood with almost all local Americans and have very well assimilated into the community. But still it seems to me often I don’t belong here. As if my roots beckon me. I wonder why it is so. But there is no good rational answer, as if the heart says to go back and the head tries to argue to stay here. If you are an immigrant, you could understand what I am trying to say. It is truly a dilemma.

But if you can stay connected to your cultural roots in whatever way possible it is a genuine source of happiness and contentment in life.

Be Grateful

There are so many people in this world who are grateful for what they have in life. Something that gives them a genuine sense of happiness. But then why are so many of us hanker for more and more, as if we will never be happy with what we have? Why can’t we, like the millions of under-privileged people, be content with two meals a day and a simple life? Is it because we live in the US where everyone wants a bigger home, a nicer car or a boat? Do we really need all these goodies in our life to get that sense of long-lasting happiness? Absolutely, they provide instantaneous happiness. But then the craving never ends. And we never take the time to be truly grateful for what we have versus yearning for what we don’t.

The question is, can we be grateful for the small things we have in life? Absolutely because life is simple and we usually choose to make it complex. Since often it takes effort to cultivate how to be happy with the little we have. This is a learning process living in a materialistic world. Wherein everyone is trying to influence the other why they are most happy because they have something that others don’t. Moreso, the social media only exacerbates the situation. If only we can have more gratitude for what we have can make a tad bit happier!

Give Back

Apart from supporting monetarily through charity, did you even consider giving back through supporting a cause that is dear to you? Is there any cause that you feel strongly about? So what can you do to enhance your engagement to that cause through which you could make a difference? Because life is short and we don’t have a lot of time to make that difference that we always wanted to do. So take your first step.

Pursue Your Passion

This is one of the greatest questions of all times. Pursue your passion or money? Is your passion and your means for livelihood always the same? As I kid I always wanted to work in industry and run my business one day. We really don’t need millions of dollars to be happy. For instance, if you want to do something full time and if that gives you a sustainable income of the happiness threshold amount of $75,000 per year, what would you do for a living? Mostly, as long as we find what we do for a living satisfying and fulfilling, that is more important than any number.

What is it that gives you the genuine joy, a feeling of fulfillment? Something, when you are in your death beds, you can muse to yourself you have lived your life for what you wanted to do or achieve. Because life is not about only making money, it is about finding the sense of fulfillment. More so, it is about self-actualization or realizing one’s fullest potential, something that we are all born to accomplish. That is your passion or calling in life.

Find Your Purpose in Life

What is the purpose of life? The purpose is the direction of life. Finding purpose in life helps with self-realization. So, without purpose, life can become a rudderless ship. Purpose is one of the 10 drivers for finding fulfillment in life.

Most of us are in the rat race to meet our day-to-day commitments. Sometimes it seems we were born only to meet these daily commitments in personal or professional lives. And there is nothing bigger than these chores on the journey of life! Sometimes we miss slowing down and seeing something that we missed seeing during the daily drill. Then it’s like a catch-22 situation where we cannot break the cycle to spend time to find our purpose in life. As a result, it engrosses us to meet our physiological and biological needs and doesn’t find time to move up the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. And the topmost hierarchy of needs is self actualization and self realization, which means finding the true purpose of our lives.

Conclusion on Do You Need to be a Millionaire to be Happy

So what do you think do you need to be a millionaire to be happy? Certainly, if you are a millionaire, it takes a lot of stress for the need for money? But does money compensate for the contentment that you yearn for in your solitude? Does it help you sleep well at night? If not, there is something else that gives us true happiness. Since we live only one life, it’s worth spending the time thinking, do you need to be a millionaire to be happy? It might sound like a million dollar question. Because in our materialistic world, it absolutely is.

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