The Blue Roof

Hear is a serious myth, a wealth stealing lie par excellence! This is a conversation I overheard some time ago. Y is a lady that works in an environment with high income people and she said to a friend: “I don’t know if it is such a good thing to be wealthy. If I look at the number of divorced people among our clients, I don’t want to be wealthy.” Phew! That is a statement and a statement and then some!

The assumptions behind this statement! Was there any scientific research to determine if the divorce statistics are worse than the population? Was there any research to determine the correlation between wealth and divorce? And I would challenge the assumption that the people are wealthy! I think they are poor people with above average incomes. In many cases living beyond their means. But it is only a theory, I have not done research either!

Unfortunately, Y puts into words what many people think – that wealthy people are unhappy. If you believe that wealth makes you unhappy, will you want to be wealthy? The answer is obvious.

The problem is, Y, like a lot of other people confuses a high income with wealth. Regular readers will know why this is an absolute fallacy. I am quite willing to concede that high income earners living beyond their means have more stress and that it can lead to a higher divorce rate and perhaps unhappiness. But I am consistently trying to warn you away from that lifestyle.

Real wealth, wealth based on cash flow producing assets, does not increase stress, quite the opposite. The truly wealthy people that I know are also the most relaxed people that I know.

But happiness, is not something that comes from outside. Happiness is not determined by outside factors and possessions or the lack there-of. Happiness comes from inside. I am frequently amazed by the happiness and exuberance displayed by very, very poor people, like people living on the street. And unfortunately I also know very unhappy wealthy people. And when I see this “happy beggar” I often feel guilty, because I have so much more that he, but I am not displaying nearly as much happiness!

Perhaps we should distinguish something else, as well. Life is easier with more money. The problems are different, but over all life is easier. I sometimes think life is easiest at the extremes. If you have nothing, your worries are “bed and breakfast”. Very simple and a very simple lifestyle. If you have enough money, the worries are somewhat different, more complicated, but the lifestyle is much more relaxed.

In between, where we just make ends meet, that is where we live with stress. We have something to lose! And we have barely enough income to keep what we have, so we are constantly scared that something will go wrong. And we are ambitious and want more than we have and way more than we can afford. And the stress might steal our happiness! But it does not change the fact that happiness is a personality trait!

The bottom line is this: wealth and (un)happiness is not correlated. Life is a lot more enjoyable with money than without money (I will tell a personal story about this tomorrow). So go out and do the things you have to do to be truly wealthy!