Money Can't Buy Happiness

It's a lie

Good morning 🌅 and happy Monday~

I landed in Singapore 2 nights ago and while I was on the plane with no internet my mind went on a chain of thoughts on the topic of ‘money can’t buy happiness’.

Heard of this a lot?

What do you think?

Well, I beg to differ whenever people tell me money can’t buy happiness… Don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about using money to buy material things to make you feel temporarily happy. I’m referring to something deeper.

Exactly 1 year ago I left my corporate job to pursue content creation full time. To explore doing things I love, with the likelihood of it turning into another income source.

I had saved up enough to leave my job. I wasn’t rich enough to retire indefinitely but I was financially secure knowing that the amount I had would be able to lasts at least 2 years before I have to go back to the corporate life if all else fails.

Looking back as time progressed I learned…

Money can buy financial security and that ENABLES happiness

When you don’t have to worry about how to make ends meet, how to pay for rent, how to pay for bills.

That feeling is liberating. It’s unexplainable. It is, for a lack of a better word, AMAZING.

The golden destination is to reach a point where one has enough money to live a comfortable and healthy life. Contentment. Have a roof over your head, filled with items you handpicked and love. Have enough money to afford going away for a month or two each year and more.

Why Money isn’t the answer to Happiness?

I spent the past week in Osaka and Kyoto, besides the first day of sightseeing it was just eating, shopping and more shopping. 😂 I made my very first big purchase in my life during the trip, and no, it’s not a branded bag. All in all I spent a grand total of $3,100 over 8 days.

How did I feel? There was a spike of dopamine for sure but it wore off in a couple of days and everything returned back to normal. If I wanted to experience that same feeling, I had to use money and do it all over again. Would I? No.

It just doesn’t make sense to me but instead I’m looking for a long lasting happiness.

I work for myself now, doing the things I love and making a good amount of money to afford my happy lifestyle and that to me, is a happiness that’ll last. I don’t wake up dragging myself out of bed, going into a job I absolutely hate just to collect my paycheque at the end of the month so I can live frugally and hope I can retire before I’m on my deathbed.

So don’t chase after money. Instead, build consistent money habits as you go on a journey of exploring, on a path less travelled.

Start Small

by understanding your relationship with money, you might not see the significance it brings now.

Years of tracking my money has grown me into a person that can manage money well even as my income increased tremendously in such a short span of time. From taking home $2,700 a month in 2023 to $10,000 a month now.

My goal this year is to have an overall savings rate of 70% and I’m at 68.5% thus far from January to June.

If you find it hard to track your money, try to make it fun. Like how my brother and I created this shortcut feature on iPhone linked to my Notion Finance Tracker, all I have to do is double tap the back of my iPhone to record an expense whilst on the go and viola. 😉

It’s available on Ko-fi if you’re interested.

Anyway, this sums up my thoughts while I was on the way back from Japan. Vlog on how I got my FREE flight is also up on the channel. Have an amazing week ahead and I’ll catch you guys in the next letter. :)

Demi