The old adage “Money can’t buy happiness” is pithy, but it’s not exactly true. Money can buy lots of things that make you happy. It can also reduce a lot of your stress. However, you still need to know and pursue what will make you happy.


As personal finance site Yes and Yes explains, the adage is meant to convey a more complex, but difficult truth: if everything in your life sucks, money alone won’t magically make everything better. If you know what will make you happy, then money can probably help you get there. Maybe for you happiness is traveling, or exploring your city, or just spending time doing things with the people you love. In all those cases, money can help you, as long as you know what to do with it:

Money can pay for the therapist but it can’t make you change your behavior. Money can buy you a Match.com membership, but it can’t make your dates any kinder, smarter, or more likely to laugh at that story about your dog. Money can pay for the home delivery of a lightly dressed green salad, but it can’t prevent you from eating an entire bag of pizza rolls at 11 pm on a Wednesday night.


If you like to travel, money can buy you a plane ticket. If you like to explore your city, money can buy you a ticket to that play downtown. And if you’re happy just spending time with your loved ones, enough money can buy you more time with them and less time working. It’s all in how you use it. You just have to know what you want, first.

Money Doesn’t Matter If Everything Else Sucks | Yes and Yes via Rockstar Finance