Do you think having a ton of money or income will make you happier? At what level of income will you be happier? Or at what level does happiness taper off? Do you remember “the law of diminishing returns” from economics class in college? The kindergarten version is this: the first piece of pizza that you eat is delicious, because you’re starving. Your stomach gets a little full and the 2nd piece is good but not quite as good. After 3 bites……well ok 4 bites the third piece just doesn’t seem that delicious at all. That is your basic law of diminishing returns. Throughout my life I have tried to defy the law of deminishing returns with case after case. But in almost 99% of the time it applies and works flawlessly as described. The 1% exception is a great topic for a future article so let’s stay focused now on the topic at hand. One of my best recommendations for you is to prepare a bucket list. Describe in detail the 20-50 things you must do, must see, or must make happen before you pass. Stay very focused on biting off just a little of your bucket list each year and savoring every moment of it. Let’s be realistic, if we all had twenty million dollars just lying around at our disposal…..we would check our bucket list off in about 6 months to a year and then what?
Would we want a bigger airplane or yacht to make us happier? Think about this carefully….It is not the money that makes you happy in the first place. As Machiavelli says….”The money is the means to an end” it just makes things happen. What you give and get out of life is what makes you truly happy. Your belief system, your God, Your love, your spouse, your friends, what you enjoy and lastly maybe your career. Is a certain level of financial abundance necessary for you to be happy vs. not happy? Let’s say you can not pay your rent because you lost your job….now let’s compare that moment in time to you just winning a million dollars in the lottery. Is a certain level of abundance necessary for happiness? Statistics say that after you after you make $75,000(USD) dollars a year in income any incremental dollar there after (Just doesn’t matter). You can be happier, or not happier. I say if you make $575,000 a year and your not happy then maybe you just don’t know where to shop. According to author Aaron Potts “True happiness is completely internal, and is something that you should be able to experience regardless of your outer circumstances.”