Everything else equal, of course I'd rather have more money. But being rich isn't super high on my priority list.
I'm more going along the lines of being rich to the point where everyone around you knows you can't refuse them if they ask for a reasonable amount of money, service or item. What I want to be is described in post 34.
Money buys freedom. Freedom is what makes people happy. The freedom to do whatever you want when you wake up in the morning. Waking up at 6am to drive in Houston traffic to go sit in a cubicle and take directions from some corporate middle manager is not freedom.
Material things do not improve your chances at happiness. Wealth only gives more options. If you can't be happy with nothing, you won't be happy with everything.
I do. I'm an amateur author. Finished my very first book even. The first draft at least. Never written one before but of course I dream of making it big doing that. I think of being JK Rowling rich and what I'd do with her wealth. I'd hire lobbyists to pass more modern building codes and then I'd make earthships more accessible to people that want to live off the grid. I'd build a neighborhood around the MLK/183 of Austin since the soil is good there and build earthships. I'd sell them at a very very affordable price to low income people. They'd help build their own home sort of like Habitat for Humanity, pay a very affordable mortgage and know they live in a house that costs 0 in utilities like gas, electricity, or water even. They'd eat healthier too since they'd have a greenhouse garden in their home year round and a tilapia fish farm. Their grocery bill would be smaller. Eventually they'd pay off their mortgages while saving hundreds of thousands in utilities over period of their mortgage and would likely move up into a higher economic class status. The property value on their homes would go up. I'd save the world by putting good use to recycled tires, bottles and aluminum cans all the while helping poor people eat healthier, live healthier, and save up money so they can move to middle class. I'd make the lives of many better. That's what I'd do.
Of course I do. I'd buy property near those absurd "earthships" and erect massive tire fires like the one on The Simpsons. That's what I'd do.
There's a lot you've got to give into to get to that level of wealth and regardless I'm at a point where no, I wouldn't want to switch places with him (well, until everything in my name is paid off and I have a job which will allow solid flexibility). Money does allow freedom but it's not everything.
Money doesn't buy happiness. But it buys everything else. So yes, I wouldn't mind being rich and then work on my happiness.
Being rich doesnt buy happiness and being poor doesnt bring happiness...so either way, happiness is independent of financial status. I choose being rich.
I don't like possessions. Not at all. I like freedom. If I wake up tomorrow and want to go play cards in Vegas, then if I have money I just jump on the plane and go. I don't have to ask some boss to have a day off and I don't have to wake up to an alarm if I have money. Maybe I want to go visit my mom out of state next week, if I have money and freedom then I can book my ticket the day before and go. You want to go buy a new car and you can just walk in and pay cash for it without having to ask a bank to look at your silly credit score? Freedom. This is what brings happiness. This type of freedom.
