YOUR CASH COUNTS
Financial Literacy
For Your Future
Happiness is not an easy concept to define or describe. It is a feeling after all and it is personal and maybe more importantly it is relative. Billionaire Warren Buffet supports this notion by saying that success is getting what you want, and happiness is wanting what you get. It is very possible, for example, that what makes one person very happy may make someone else “just happy” or maybe even discontent. This condition suggests that people trying to understand and function “better” with more happiness knowledge need to take the general facts and integrate them into who they are or want to become. In other words, time and thought must take place to gain the benefits of seeking happiness. In addition, it is important to note that the share of Americans who describe themselves as “very happy” is about one-third the total population and only fifty percent of Americans now consider themselves optimists which is a drop from seventy-nine percent as of 2004. With this background in mind, let’s identify and personally process some of the facts in regards to how the pursuit of happiness impacts each of us.
Do you know in general:
The study of the pursuit of happiness should address the
question of “what is happiness anyway?” The previously stated list of facts
regarding happiness should help people create their own definition of happiness
and begin to build their personal pathway to reach the happiness goal. As
mentioned earlier, happiness is a state of mind that most people seek to
achieve. For most people it is a feeling of contentment that is strong enough
to push out pessimistic views in some and even dread in others. Happy people
see more good in people than bad and their daily expectations are more positive
than negative in regards to human interaction and basic events of the day. People
who say they are very happy seem to be able to squeeze the good out of
virtually any event and can be heard saying “what luck” to circumstances that
unhappy people would be upset about. Focusing on the positive is a great way to
fight that unhappy feeling. An example of this extreme happiness is when a
student walks into class, sees that a surprise test has been scheduled, and says
“great, I can show how much I know about the subject”.
Happiness is also connected to a person’s health. Happy
people tend to eat smarter, exercise, have acceptable blood pressure, sleep
better, and don’t take medication for depression. Feeling pessimistic and
unhappy is a slippery slope that is easy to follow into more unhappiness. For many, buying things is an attempt to make
one feel better. “Consumer therapy” is common and most often is short term at
best that leads to debt and more unhappiness. Because feeling happy carries with
it a number of positive benefits, everyone needs to determine where they are on
the happiness continuum and how they can be more productive in their pursuit of
happiness. This procedure should be followed often.
As many people connect happiness to jobs, income,
possessions, and surroundings, the financial connection is important. As
suggested earlier, money does buy happiness for many and ironically that
condition might be the fact that causes so many people to become unhappy. Often
times, people fail to recognize that a generally held belief should not direct
behavior. The real questions that need to influence how we feel and what we do
are the how much views. The
connection between having money, buying things, and being happy should not be
interpreted as buy things at any cost or if buying some things makes people
happy then buying a lot of things should make you happier. The real question that
needs to be addressed is how much I
should buy to make me happy. Common sense should suggest that buying too much
(more than one can afford) will eventually result in unhappy circumstances for
most people particularly in the longer term. In addition, whether a person can
afford a purchase or not, it must be noted that happiness changes with the
number of items bought. For example, a glass of water is very satisfying when
you are thirsty, but the third or fourth glass is not as satisfying as the
first. The first automobile adds a great deal to most people’s happiness, but
the tenth automobile may actually reduce happiness. This situation is called diminishing marginal utility and has
long been employed by those who wish to maximize their happiness. The how much dilemma may be related to jobs
and income, but bad how much decisions have generated unhappiness for some of
the richest people. This condition helps
explain why some very low income people are very happy when some of the highest
income executives or athletes owe far more than they are worth and end their
careers very unhappy.
You are now (maybe long before now) saying…O.K. You have convinced me that the pursuit of happiness is an important part of my life and there is a connection between happiness and financial literacy…so what should I do about it? Good question! Try this for starters:
REVIEW AND REVISE YOUR TRIP OFTEN. BE HAPPY!