I recently had read an article off of
www.thevine.com.au entitled ‘Happiness is 76 years old’, which positively correlated money with happiness—to a certain extent. It explained that the happiest people are those make between $61,000 to 90,000 dollars per year, and who are older than 76.
Initially I saw two faults here. First, who really makes between $61-90 thousand per year? According to
www.news.com.au, in May of 2007, the average wage income in Australia was only $55,600 per year. This means that most, or at least 50 per cent of Australians would be considered financially ‘unhappy’. Secondly, it is totally unfair that we all have to wait another 50 or so years to be eligible for that ‘happiness’, and I reckon that by then we wont even know what to do with it. So why hope for those years to come? I guess wearing diapers again for the second time in your life is a great achievement, but I wouldn’t say it’s something to strive for.
Another thing the article touches on is the closing gap between gender differences with happiness. Women used to be considered a lot happier than men, but isn’t the case anymore. This is due to the heavy change of women becoming more involved in the workforce and education areas of society. By taking on more responsibilities of independence, it seems like women are sacrificing their happiness. Is it all worth it? Guess it just depends on the type of woman you are. For me, maybe not so much.
What about rich and the famous? Well, these people in fact are not what they appear. The article states that ‘money loses its ability to reliably raise wellbeing beyond a household income of $100,000”. Bottom line is that we are fighting and struggling in life to make a certain amount of money, not too much or too little, or otherwise will have no chance to be happy.
If it were up to me, happiness would not be measured by the amount of money you make, how old you are, or if you were a man or woman, but by the everyday experiences of the life, moment by moment. Maybe something bad has recently happened to you, and therefore you are entitled to your time of sadness, anger or despair. But overall and in general, we should be able to call ourselves a happy generation. It’s a sad thing that people feel as though money is a requirement for happiness and something needs to change now.
So stop your stressing, relax and enjoy your youth. If it were up to me, and in the case of my own life it is, I wouldn’t settle down until I was able to do all the things in life I want to do. I would suggest making a list of every place, person, food, or thing you want to experience in life. Take out a loan or two, if it means being able to accomplish your dreams, it’s worth the work in the end. I’d rather play now, when I’m youthful, in my prime and full of life with no attachments or major responsibilities, than when I can’t make good use of my earnings.
