Valuetainment - July 27, 2021


Does Money REALLY Buy Happiness？


Episode Stats

Length

12 minutes

Words per Minute

188.49875

Word Count

2,312

Sentence Count

170


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Does money buy happiness? If you agree, smash thumbs up. If you say absolutely not, smash
00:00:04.180 thumbs down. And if you like today's episode, subscribe to the channel. So let's get right
00:00:07.920 into it. There's a few things we're going to look at. One, the correlation between the income you
00:00:11.860 make and the level of happiness that you have. Two, we will look at a study that Harvard did.
00:00:16.980 It's like a 100-year study that they did tracking 268 people from 19, I think, 38. It's an 80-year
00:00:24.560 study. From 1938, one of them was a president, John F. Kennedy, and every year they followed
00:00:29.520 up with them to see if they were happy and what made them happy. And at the end, they
00:00:33.400 figured out what was the most important thing that made these people happy. Some of them
00:00:38.040 became schizophrenic. Some of them became alcoholics. Some of them committed suicide. Some of them
00:00:41.980 became lawyers, doctors, attorneys, millionaires, billionaires, and obviously one of them presidents.
00:00:46.260 It'll be interesting to see what you think brings happiness. Now, let's first take a look at income
00:00:51.960 if money buys happiness. This is a great article written here by Visual Capitalist. I highly
00:00:58.940 recommend you go visit their website. And I wrote it here, does money buy happiness? And
00:01:05.120 the number shows that at around $75,000 to $80,000, it used to be $75,000 where you went
00:01:12.600 to the happier side. Now it's $80,000. And it just shows. If you make $15,000 a year, your
00:01:19.440 standard deviation from mean response is you're about 0.34 less likely to be happy at $15,000.
00:01:28.180 Then it goes a little bit happier as you go up. If you notice this thing here, until you get to
00:01:33.360 $80,000. At about $80,000, your expenses are covered for the most part. You are having an
00:01:38.080 okay life. You're not stressed out. You don't have a lot of things you're worried about. You're doing
00:01:42.040 okay for yourself. But then guess what happens? When you get to six figure, uh-oh, you're a little
00:01:45.860 bit happier. When you get to $175,000, $17,000 happier, $400,000, $0.35,000, $625,000, $0.38,000. And
00:01:54.780 you can kind of get the idea. And there's three things they talk about on the bottom
00:01:58.100 here. Why does money buy happiness? The report warns that any theories behind our happiness
00:02:02.760 increase with income are purely speculative. However, it does list a few possibilities.
00:02:07.860 Increased comfort. As someone earns more, they may have the ability to purchase things that
00:02:12.040 reduce suffering. This is particularly true when comparing low to moderate incomes. Larger
00:02:17.100 incomes below $80,000, you know, show, uh, still showed a strong association with reduced
00:02:21.980 negative feelings, more control. You get to kind of choose what you want to do. So essentially money
00:02:27.760 matters. That's what they're talking about in this article. Now over here, this is the study we're
00:02:33.880 talking about with Harvard. Here's what the study looks like. Scientists began tracking the health of
00:02:39.820 268 Harvard sophomores in 1938 during the great depression. They hope the longitudinal study would
00:02:47.500 reveal clues to leading healthy and happy lives. So every year they would follow up with them. And
00:02:53.900 this has been going on now for 83 years. And it kind of gives you an idea what some of these folks
00:02:58.760 are. And by the way, to get into a little bit more of the original Harvard core recruited as part of the
00:03:03.320 grand study, only 19 are still alive. They're all in their mid nineties. Among the original recruits
00:03:09.180 were eventual president, John F. Kennedy, longtime Washington Post editor, Ben Bradley. Women weren't in the
00:03:15.300 original study because the college was still all male in 1938. Eventually, in addition to that,
00:03:22.040 the scientists expanded their search to include the men's offspring who now number 1300 and are in
00:03:28.740 their 50s, 60s to find out how early life experiences affect health and aging over time. Some participants
00:03:34.460 went on to become successful businessmen, doctors, lawyers, and others ended up being schizophrenics,
00:03:39.220 alcoholics, but not on inevitable tracks. So this is what they came up with at the end of it.
00:03:44.840 When they went through it. The surprising finding is that our relationships and how happy we are
00:03:53.320 in our relationships has powerful influence on our health. This is Robert Waldinger, director of the
00:04:01.380 study, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of psychiatry at Harvard
00:04:06.820 Medical School said, taking care of your body is important, but tending to your relationship is a form
00:04:14.500 of form of self-care too. That, I think, is the revelation. Look what he continues to say. Over here,
00:04:22.600 the speaker, when he gave this TED Talk, this video, I think, has got 20 million views. You have to see it.
00:04:27.520 He says, when we gathered together everything we knew about them about at age 50, it wasn't their
00:04:33.420 middle-aged cholesterol level that predicted how they were going to get to grow old. It was how
00:04:38.020 satisfied they were in their relationship. The people who were the most satisfied in their
00:04:42.980 relationships at the age 50 were the healthiest at age 80. Is that not interesting, by the way?
00:04:50.040 How healthy relationships are at 50 determine how healthy you would be in your 80s. And he has a line
00:04:56.700 that it says, Robert, this doctor here, loneliness kills. It's as powerful as smoking or alcoholism.
00:05:05.080 What a powerful quote to say in regards to loneliness. When the study began, nobody cared
00:05:12.060 about empathy or attachment. But the key to healthy aging is relationships, relationships, and more
00:05:19.580 relationships. And on the bottom here, it says something very interesting. It's easy to get isolated,
00:05:24.200 to get caught up in work, and not remembering, oh, I haven't seen these friends in a long time,
00:05:28.740 so I try to pay more attention to my relationships than I used to. What an interesting thing to say.
00:05:35.060 So far, we know two different things. We know, one, on one end, money can buy happiness when you make
00:05:39.860 over a certain amount of income. And number two is, we know what people value and live longer,
00:05:45.060 healthier, happier lives, the stronger the relationships. By the way, when you look at money,
00:05:49.040 the margin for happiness gets thinner, the more you make. Meaning, you live a different life when
00:05:55.600 you have $1,000 in a bank versus you have $100,000 in a bank, right? Because $1,000 in a bank,
00:06:00.860 you're living paycheck to paycheck. Oh my gosh, I don't know how to pay the rent. I don't know what
00:06:03.980 I'm going to do. I got to make the car payment, family, school, all this stuff. It's stressful.
00:06:07.700 You got $100,000 in a bank, and you got a stream of income coming, you're making 80, 100 grand a year,
00:06:11.640 $200,000 a year. You're not really that stressed out. There's a big difference between 100 grand
00:06:15.820 and a million dollars. A million dollars, you can do other investments. You can be patient. You can
00:06:20.140 have the power of saying no. But the difference between a million, 2 million, not that big of a
00:06:25.120 difference. A million, 10 million, big difference. 10 million, 100 million, big difference. 100 billion,
00:06:29.860 a billion, big difference. A billion, 3 billion, probably not that big of a difference. 10 billion
00:06:35.060 against 28 billion, probably not that big of a difference. The margin gets thinner. If you're a
00:06:39.860 billionaire, everybody that's worth a billion, you can afford to go to the highest, most expensive
00:06:45.300 restaurant, go to the highest, most exclusive club, Hotel Four Seasons, travel the world, jet,
00:06:52.500 cars, house, $50 million home, jewelry, collection, artwork. You can have all of that stuff. Can you
00:06:59.260 afford a sports team where you're a majority owner at a billion dollars today? Basketball? Probably not.
00:07:03.880 Five billion? Probably yes. Those are some of the differentiators, but the margin for happiness is
00:07:08.960 very thin. Now, there's a couple other things I have. For me, I think a part of happiness has to do
00:07:13.680 with culture and where you come from. Currency for happiness is different. This is Forbes article
00:07:19.380 from 2020. The article is from March 2020, March 20 of 2020, top 20 happiest countries,
00:07:25.740 filling at the top, then Denmark, Switzerland, ISA, Norway, Netherlands, Sweden, New Zealand,
00:07:30.720 Austria, Luxembourg, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Israel, Costa Rica, Ireland, Germany,
00:07:35.660 U.S. at 18 spot, Czech Republic, Belgium, the 10 unhappiest places, Afghanistan, number one,
00:07:42.580 South Sudan, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Central African Republic, Tanzania, Botswana, Yemen, Malawi,
00:07:48.660 India, right? Now, so if you go to the happiest, what is the currency in some of these countries?
00:07:53.520 Is it competition? Is it winning? What is it? So imagine the family you're raised in. Whatever
00:07:59.420 values and principles your parents set for being successful, if it's, you get a college degree,
00:08:06.860 you're successful. If in that family you get a college degree because both your parents are,
00:08:11.520 you know, they have degrees, you're successful. If they're athletes, you become an athlete,
00:08:15.620 if they play guitar, piano, music, okay, successful. If they're educators, if they're doctors, if they're
00:08:21.200 lawyers, if they're business people, if they're politicians, you see kind of what happens. If you
00:08:25.660 read books, if you exercise in a house, if you pray, if you go to church, if you're military,
00:08:30.460 if you're tough, if you can shoot, hunt, cook, this is all cultural, right? For currency, for
00:08:35.160 happiness. I'm going to add a couple of different things from my own experiences to it, from what
00:08:40.660 made me happy and what I've experienced from other people that make happy, that I've witnessed myself.
00:08:45.700 Almost anybody I've met that's extremely grateful, they're some of the happiest people I've met,
00:08:49.480 okay? You got music, generates happiness. You got experiences, you can buy all the nice
00:08:55.440 cars in the world, or you can go to Italy. Like for me, I've owned Ferraris, Lambos, Porsches,
00:09:02.100 Rolls Royce, you name them. I've owned a lot of exotic cars, but I probably remember the story
00:09:07.340 of me going to Italy at Marinello when I went to the headquarters of Ferrari, where the three-time
00:09:13.460 Ferrari world champion took me for a drive, was teaching me how to drive a Ferrari. I was driving
00:09:19.200 a 458 going 168 miles an hour. I have the video till today. It's pouring. I'm flying through the
00:09:26.660 streets. He's saying, step on it. Don't be afraid. Step on it. Why are you scared? Step on it. I'm like,
00:09:32.100 this guy's crazy. He's absolutely crazy. Just going, right? I will never forget that story.
00:09:40.900 That's an experience, right? Exhilarating. When you see me at the end of this car, when I'm going,
00:09:45.900 I'm laughing so loud, it's not even funny. You feel the experience. Books, reading, you close your
00:09:52.160 eyes. The imagination takes you and paints a picture. It's a form of being happy. Writing,
00:09:57.100 you're releasing your thoughts. It's like weight being lifted off your back when you're releasing
00:10:01.560 it. Comedy, humor, a great conversation, a great debate, a great person to be counted on.
00:10:07.420 Somebody who counts on you. Somebody who's relying on you to make the right decisions.
00:10:11.140 That is a form of happiness. That is a form of fulfillment.
00:10:15.960 Playing games, playing Monopoly, playing Rami, playing Spades, playing Domino with your friends
00:10:21.920 and you're going back and playing Monopoly. There's a certain sense of happiness that that creates.
00:10:27.140 So this is where the guy at the end was talking about how, you know, I have to be a little bit more
00:10:32.880 aware to be around my friends because these relationships I value more today than I did
00:10:37.240 before. So if you're watching this right now, the debate at the beginning, I told you,
00:10:42.040 I asked you if you believe money buys you happiness or not. I said, put thumbs up. If you
00:10:46.060 don't put thumbs down, is it still accurate for you? Are you still in the same place? But if you
00:10:50.380 enjoyed today's video, definitely subscribe to the channel. So in closing, I asked this question
00:10:56.160 before I even made the episode on Twitter. I said, does money buy happiness? I got a lot of
00:10:59.620 different response. One of the guys said, the following says, I don't know if it buys happiness,
00:11:03.140 but I've never seen an unhappy person on a jet ski, which was funny. Another one I saw was,
00:11:09.480 it may not buy you happiness, but the happiest place on earth, Disneyland, will not let you in
00:11:14.480 without money, which means, hey, if you want to go to the happiest place on earth, you kind of need
00:11:18.880 money, which the premise is you kind of need some money to be able to do some of the things that makes
00:11:25.340 you happy. But at the same time, if you want to make money to put it in other people's faces,
00:11:30.260 I don't know if that's a form of happiness. It may work for you short term, midterm, but it's not
00:11:36.120 going to work long term because eventually you're going to realize the value of very, very, very
00:11:40.640 good relationships that help lift you up. And the greater the relationship that help you challenge
00:11:46.320 to keep getting better versus those that pull you down, the happier you are long term because you're
00:11:50.640 in an environment that's challenging you to constantly be getting better. With that being said,
00:11:55.320 if you still say money doesn't buy happiness, put thumbs down. But if you say now money does buy
00:12:00.120 happiness, smash that thumbs up button. And regardless of it all, if you enjoyed this
00:12:03.700 episode, subscribe to the channel. Got another video I want you to watch. I did four or five
00:12:07.060 years ago titled, how to find great friends, how to build great friends. If you've never seen this
00:12:12.640 video, click over here to go watch it. Take care, everybody. Bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye.