Can Money Alone Make You Happy?

The recent death of Mr VG Siddhartha has shaken the country. He was a billionaire and founded Café Coffee Day (CCD), a top coffee chain patronised by the young & hip. Why did he choose such a path? It also raises several questions on what makes people happy. Money, fame, position, passion, family? This question has been bedeviling the human beings since millennia with no conclusive answer.

How much money do you really need to be happy? Unfortunately, there are no definitive answers to that inane question as well.

We all desire luxuries and material things to meet our basic needs and boost our ego. We work hard to earn fat salaries, but we see relationships crumbling everywhere. We see high stress and poor health. People have psychological problems. There is hardly any ’me’ time with people anymore because of vagaries of the modern life.

But once your basic needs are met, more money doesn’t necessarily lead to more happiness.

Happiness is elusive if you are poor. But above the poverty level, things get complicated. But once your basic needs are met, more money doesn’t necessarily lead to more happiness.

A recent seminal Harvard Business School study reveals that our relationships and how happy we are in our relationships has a powerful impact on our health. More money doesn’t necessarily mean more happiness.

Mr VG Siddhartha typifies fragility of life and its transience. Money and fame are transient. Failures are part of success. Good health, strong relationships make us happy not just the material things alone.

Mr VG Siddhartha typifies fragility of life and its transience. Money and fame are transient. Failures are part of success. Good health, strong relationships make us happy not just the material things alone. We need to develop a philosophical bend of mind. Not everything will go right or as planned but that’s not the end of life.

Stress runs deep for entrepreneurs. Initial days in business are tough and risks huge. One of the reasons is that the failure rates in start-ups are more than 90%.

Stress runs deep for entrepreneurs. Initial days in business are tough and risks huge. One of the reasons is that the failure rates in start-ups are more than 90%. So, the pressure to succeed is very high. Many partnerships fall apart due to internal squabbling. If you have high fixed costs and your revenues are not adding up, it would complicate things even further. RBI has tightened the lending norms with a slew of provisions in favour of the lending institutions in case of a default, credit history is very important. These are not the best of times for easy loans or for that matter defaulters. With huge NPAs piling up, govt has made it difficult to run away with loan defaults. Days of crony capitalism seem to be finally coming to an end, hopefully though!

As also, it’s equally not easy to avoid the taxman in this digital age when all your transactions can be monitored in the real time frame. So, it’s better to be law abiding and tax paying citizen than to look out for easy money. Ethical people enjoy life more as they live without any feeling of guilt or fear.  

At times, things will go wrong and this may affect your mental health. It is not wrong to ask for help of the specialists who can guide you out of a mental quagmire and bring you internal peace. Hara-kiri is not the answer ever, although temptation may be high in view of mounting depression and worsening financial woes.

Everybody’s journey in life is different. Happiness means different things to different people.

Everybody’s journey in life is different. Happiness means different things to different people. Comparisons are odious - trying to keep up with the Joneses will again lead to avoidable unhappiness. Stop accumulating wealth for your progeny, it only makes them lazy. Your responsibility gets over with good education, don’t make them lifelong dependent.

Develop deeper relationships to live a longer, healthier and meaningful life.

There is a village in Greece which has the world highest number of centenarians. In addition to good food & nutrition, it is the strong social bonds that sustains people. If a spouse dies, the social bonds and support system is so strong that they carry him/ her along with a productive life. Develop deeper relationships to live a longer, healthier and meaningful life.

Those in the rat race do not achieve much. At the end of it all you’re just a rat only after all.

Your ultimate destination is six feet under. Those in the rat race do not achieve much. At the end of it all you’re just a rat only after all.

Be ethical, embrace failures, stop comparing, expect less, be happy, make merry like there is no tomorrow!