Money & Happiness

What is meaningful in life?

Family, a Partner, Kids, Career advancement...

What are key drivers of those? If you've managed to get married and have kids, I wonder if the happiness you get makes you lower the priority on career. Or, does it rachet up the pressure to perform at work and make more and more money since you have to fund a family in perpetuity. You could just get "a job" and spend quality time with the family, instead of killing yourself to get them the finer things in life, give them better lives than you had. But I would feel like a bit of a failure, as I expect each generation to do better than the next.

Money allows us to "do things" in life, with our family, for our family and ourselves. Buying things both for utilitarian purposes and for materialistic purposes is obviously enabled by financial well-being. Being in Hong Kong has affected my buying habits - I'm pretty frugal, but I now find myself buying things I previously would never have considered, and without much consideration. I do this because it gives me gratification, a bit of happiness in a boring life. Ooo, a new camera, what about a new cell phone? How about some brand name leather shoes? Custom suit? Video game system? Got to have that PC. How about that hunk o' cheese that costs 4X the US price at CitySuper? Well, at least I haven't graduated to anything more damaging, not that I could afford to.

Anyways, my hypothesis is that if I had unlimited funds I would be able to focus on the things that really matter in life, and achieve a greater happiness...and that's not the purchasing of electronics.