Good Morning DINKS. As a dual income couples we all earn money. We may use our money to pay our monthly expenses in order to live our lives, we may save our money for our future goals, or we may spend our money in order to enjoy our lives in the moment. Money may pay for our lifestyle and it may help us achieve our personal dreams; so if money controls our lifestyle does it mean that we are dependent on money for our personal happiness?
Think about the last time that you were upset because you were having a bad day, how did you make yourself happy again? Maybe you went out shopping and bought something nice to make yourself feel better, maybe you ate your favourite comfort food in order to boost your good mood, maybe you took a hot shower or a long relaxing bubble bath, or maybe you just took a little nap to make yourself feel better in hopes of waking up refreshed. When you want to make your bad day better does your personal therapy session involve money?
Being dependent on money is just like being dependent on anything else in life; it can be our go to saviour that helps us gets through the tough times in life and makes us feel better when we are having a bad day. However dependency (on anything) can be a gift or a curse. It can definitely help us feel better, but the happiness may only be temporary. Some people eat Oreo cookies to make themselves feel better after a bad day and some people choose to spend money on some retail therapy. However after the bag of cookies is gone or the money is spent we may find ourselves once again unhappy.
I used to spend money carelessly when I wanted to celebrate the good times in my life, and also when I was sad and trying to make myself feel better. I no longer have the habit of spending money carelessly whenever my mood changes because I learned that money does not control my happiness or my sadness. When I tried to make myself feel happy by spending money I lived to learn that I just ended up feeling worse when I got my monthly credit card bill. At the end of the day after the money is spent the problems that made me sad or unhappy were still there. Money doesn’t buy happiness and food only provides temporary comfort for our personal problems.
I am not sure if it is healthier to drown my sorrows by shopping or by eating comfort food, but I think that both options can lead to personal destruction if we become dependent on either of them. If we depend on something such as food or money to make us happy our dependence can become very destructive if we don’t ever actually ever get to the root of the problem and try to correct the aspects of our lives that are causing us stress or making us unhappy.
Would you consider your personal happiness to be dependent on money?
Photo by wrestlingetropy
Kristina Tahnyak
Tahnya is a Certified Financial Planner and former Investment Advisor turned marketing and communications professional She holds a degree from Concordia University, is debt free and currently works in the field of digital marketing.
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