Money, is it everything?
 

People who say 'money isn't everything' are usually people who have some. If you don't have any, you sleep in the street, haven't heard a street sleeper say recently that money isn't everything.

Thoughts on money. Is it everything and all that matters? Can you be happy with zero dollars and no hope? Would you tell a guy sleeping in the gutter 'hey, money isn't everything as long as you have happiness?'

Money can't buy you happiness, but it can you all the other crap that will make you happy.

The trouble with having beyond survival means in a capitalistic system, is that those who have largess invite what is known as the "invidious comparison". There is also the jealousy factor that this person is getting up on everyone else (me)....and I deserve it too!...

Communistic social models would have us all be ragamuffins and there would be a certain pride in being a ragamuffin similar to the pride in being a citizen or comrade....

There is a large segment of world's population (the have-nots) that are very unhappy with the status quo and desire to be numbered among the moneyed ones due to the pervasive nature of capitalistic marketing and and now social media...

...Largely, money is the means to provide for our material ends, and sadly is monopolized in a political fashion for social control purposes...money has replaced religion in this sense...and the world is now full of believers in its power.

Money is how you keep score.

To me there are only two ways to describe money.

1. Enough
2. Not enough

I am not married, have no children, and have little taste for luxury which makes it easy for me to reach the 'enough' category. A very handy thing for a professional gambler.

People who often have been heard to say, "money isn't everything" are now on the other side of the grass. All of their money couldn't buy them a winning battle against cancer, or keep a diseased heart from failing.

Steve Jobs is one of the most prominent examples.

Money can buy us things, it can buy us friends, it can get us anywhere we choose, doing whatever we choose. The same goes for our children. Yet, their health means more to us than even our own. Money means nothing when one's child is sick.

Good health is the great equalizer.

It cannot be bought. Not ever.

Everybody dies broke.

The key to happiness is wanting what you have rather than having what you want.

after paceadvantage post count and vcash i'd say money is at least pretty high on the list..... :)

What money gives you is freedom to live as you want. It cant make you happy or healthy - you can get better health care if your Rich. But which is better Rich and sick or just enough and healthy.

If you want happiness, you are better off persuing social connections (real, not internet).

We are hard wired to be in groups.

Once basic needs like food, shelter, and security are covered money really isn't going to make you any happier. Giving away any overages on those basics to benefit others actually will.

One of your best posts ever! :ThmbUp:

But if you have it, why would you be wanting for it?

Money improves your bargaining position in life. It helps you obtain better health care if you are sick and many other things in life that may result in a better outcome.
Being broke and with little hope for the future, is not a position you want to be in young or old.

Aristotle's Politics discussed the nature of self-interest in Book II, Part V.[5]

"Again, how immeasurably greater is the pleasure, when a man feels a thing to be his own; for surely the love of self is a feeling implanted by nature and not given in vain, although selfishness is rightly censured; this, however, is not the mere love of self, but the love of self in excess, like the miser's love of money; for all, or almost all, men love money and other such objects in a measure. And further, there is the greatest pleasure in doing a kindness or service to friends or guests or companions, which can only be rendered when a man has private property."

Such a great post!!! I agree, money doesn't make you any happier. It may make life easier, but that doesn't equate to ultimate happiness. There is no greater feeling than freely giving to others whom you know, beyond any doubt, can never help themselves in a way that you are able to help them. Nothing comes close. <3

Money isn't everything.

Just never run out.

"ROOT OF ALL EVIL"

Speak for yourself. :p If a person isn't happier with a lot more money then they need to check themselves into a mental institution and find out what is wrong with them.

That's great.

The only reason I would want a real lot of money is so I wouldn't have to worry about money. Bills, basics etc. Truth is I don't have a lot but I must have enough because I don't worry about it too much.

Mae West or Marlene Dietrich (or someone) said,

"I've been rich and I've been poor. Rich is better"

When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.

"Money can't buy happiness but the rich suffer in comfort." - I think Eric Sevareid said that.

"The last check you write should be to the undertaker and it should bounce." - Stephen M. Pollan

http://www.amazon.com/Die-Broke-Radi...sap_bc?ie=UTF8

Money doesn't necessarily make you happy but it's amazing how many old rich guys have young wives or girlfriends. The 50 or 60 year old state government worker never has a 25 or 30 year old girlfriend.

I'd be mad if I didn't.

John Bogle on Money
 

For his new book "Money: Master The Game," Tony Robbins asked the investing legend what money means to him. The famously thrifty Bogle, who is 85 and still works every day, had the perfect response.

"I look at money not as an end but as a means to an end," Bogle said.

To underscore his point, Bogle told a great story about the writers Kurt Vonnegut and Joe Heller.

"They meet at a party on Shelter Island," he said. "Kurt looks at Joe and says, 'That guy, our host over there, he made a billion dollars today. He's made more money in one day than you made on every single copy of 'Catch-22,' [Heller's novel].'"

"And Heller looks at Vonnegut and says, 'That's OK, because I have something he, our host, will never have. Enough."

The investor knows something that many of us forget: Striving for more will never be as satisfying as having enough.

"Money is the root of all evil" is a common misquote. The correct wording is, "Love of money is the root of all evil."

Reminds me of the man whose will read, "Being of sound mind, I spent it all."

Also, the bumper sticker that says, "Spending our children's inheritance".

"Money isn't everything, but it's WAY ahead of whatever's in second place."

When my son got into Harvard Law School, a co-worker said to me, "You know what this means, don't you? Now you'll be staying in a higher class of nursing home!"

Having more money provides more choices in life. It doesn't make you necessarily happier, it just gives you more options to pursue.

Not so! Wealth in and of itself is neither good or bad, but becomes either when we choose what to do with it. Therefore, as the Good Book says, "The love of money is the root of many evils."

Enouth is Perfect!
 

As some other posters have wisely suggested -- Enough in life is the ideal. Solomon understood this well when he penned the proverb in Prov 30:8-9.

I like it when I have some money, I just try to never stockpile enough that I have to be responsible with it.

For most of us, money creates as many problem as it solves. But money in the hands of the right person can be a great tool. Steve Jobs and Walt Disney would be two of my examples.

Really?

Disney's grand niece said he really hated jews. Man if I was that rich I wouldn't hate anyone.

Yes, really. In the larger context of that passage, the rich young ruler thought more of his money than he did of Jesus. Plus, also, see 1Tim 6:10 and Mat 6:24.

I was taught that the eye of a needle, it was an actual place in Jerusalem, a small gate that was difficult to get a camel through.

No. Actually, this would be the Jersey Turnpike, Exit 13, Goethal's Bridge. I-278, east, heading to the Verrazano. Honey, I can spit and hit the car in the next lane. :lol:

Try as I might, I can't imagine this. :)
---------------------------------------------------

The only thing money is actually good for is to spend. You can't eat it, wear it or live in it so it definitely isn't everything.