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Money Can Make You Happy. If You Follow This 5M Framework
Don’t make these 2 mistakes searching for happiness
There are two approaches to money and happiness. Both are wrong.
I wonder which you mistakenly follow?
1. Happiness = becoming rich & buying a lot of stuff. Money is central.
I got an Accountancy degree because that meant I could earn a lot of money. With the money, I could buy a lot of stuff and that would make me happy.
But I noticed something strange happening. I would look at job adverts and fantasise about my future salary. Each week my expectation of what is a good salary would gradually rise. 80K was now not enough, I saw an ad for 90k last week.
This is hedonic adaptation and discredits the idea that more money will make us happy. Positive psychology has repeatedly shown any boost in happiness from buying stuff is only temporary. More and more is required for the same effect.
This is why we look at a rich celebrity buying their 9th Ferrari and imagine we would happy with only one. But if we had one we would soon be looking for the next.
A quick glance in any direction will reveal this is the most common approach. Even if in polite…
