What does happy mean? In the ordinary meaning let me try this: its a comfortable good feeling where it is easy to smile or laugh where you spirits are lifted and where outwardly as a result you are pleasantly disposed. Only modest money or enough money to get by on can even assist. It makes you realize happiness is something you can and have chosen. It has great utility as well. Miserable fu*ked-up personas and attitudes usually get in the way of life and progress. And sure if you add good health to happiness you may even have heaven on earth.
IMHO, it's cash flow that really matters. If your cash flow is positive enough to pay your living expenses, regardless of the level you choose, then you have no financial obstacles to being perfectly content. If you want more money because you worry about what others think of you then that is an emotional/psychological issue that needs to be dealt with before you can be truly content. Money will not solve this issue although it may cover up the symptoms...similar to taking a pill to lower your cholesterol while your diet is the actual cause of the problem. If your cash flow is negative then the only way you can be content is to KNOW in your own mind that your assets will outlive your lifespan. SO I would say NO, money doesn't MAKE you happy but in this world we live in a certain amount is neccessary for survival and without this covered it would be almost impossible to truly be content.
IMHO the sole purpose of wealth is for insulation and self preservation. The question is - how much money do you really need and how much are you going to be able to earn? For most purposes, if you are willing to forgo the conspicuous consumption trap, at about 2.5 mil you and your family become insulated from the need to work to survive. This is due to this calculation: 2.5mil x 5% interest earning p.a. = $125,000 x .7(taxes) = $87500 which should keep you going ($7300 monthly =$3000 mortgage, $750 cars, $750 insurances, $750 fixed utilities with $2000 disposable income although more than likely you have paid off the house and have $5000 monthly disposable income.) At $10 mil you ensure a very high income for yourself and assure your children and their children's future. You can contribute to politics prominently and insulate yourself significantly from life's vicissitudes unless you are dirty. Somewhere between $25-$30 mil, you start to have more cash than you can realistically spend - about a mil a year in interest for doing nothing but sitting on your tush without touching the principal. After the fifth house in an exotic locale, furnished with Versace - what's the point? At $50mil plus, there's a major choice you have to make. What are you going to do with the $$ you can't spend? Do you give it away, or do you want to create a business. IMHO, not that it really is taught in our society any more (used to be in the british paradigm), that degree of wealth creates a heavy social responsibility. At that time, you have an opportunity to create a business that creates jobs and opportunities for others. "When a person has a job, they've got a chance." Why has that point been lost on our current crop of CEO's? One of the happiest times in my life was one of the most difficult financially - I was clearly struggling and probably effectively at the poverty line. But I had fantastic friends, a great girl, and the time to enjoy them. In fact, all I particularly want to do with my life is to get back to that kind of situation, but with my future and my children's future assured. The rest of my happiness will depend on myself, not my bank account.
A lot of people with money are just as unhappy as those with very little. Look at all of the super rich who face problems in their lifes that money does not fix. ie. Divorce, drug addiction, suicide.
I can see some ET remember don't know anything Mainly because they are mid 20s or early 30s, and lake of experience in life. An average human will not have more than 50 years of quality life. Those who enjoy and have more freedom are the richest people. You don't need luxury and lot of money to enjoy life. remember , today just any millionaire is ready to give back all the money he got, in order to go back 10-20 years in time
talking about money i think there are generally two groups of people. those who don't have enough and therefore have to work and those who have enough and don't have to work. the question is - those who already have enough - do they know that they have enough? if not and they keep chasing even more money - they are obviously sick of greed and so from a emotional point of view their life isn't much better than the life of somebody who still has to work. but if somebody has enough money for the rest of the life and knows it and is happy with what he got - no matter if he keeps working - will have a great time and a much higher quality of life. i think this basically makes a very big difference - knowing that no matter how old you get you will be able to maintain your lifestyle without ever HAVING to work one more day. if you then keep working because you love what you do - fine. but i've seen many people that simply can't stop making money just because they have a never-ending fear that some day they might be poor (again) and because for them it simply can never be enough. they live a miserable life because this ugly and massive greed will never go away (and if there would be a pill or therapy against this disease they wouldn't take it...).
Happiness is a state of the mind. Do you feel it? You do? You belong to the lucky few. I feel it now - I 've placed Coolweb on ignore!