Give away money to be happy?
Wealth is a tantalizing goal to pursue. many of our ventures and efforts are designed to obtain money. But is there some point of diminishing returns?
For some, wealth can become unfulfilling, even painful. Consider the story of the millionaire in Austria who just this week decided to give away all of his money, because it was making him miserable. “My idea is to have nothing left. Absolutely nothing,” Karl Rabeder told The Daily Telegraph. “Money is counterproductive – it prevents happiness to come.” He will move out of his luxury Alpine retreat into a small wooden hut in the mountains or a simple bedsit in Innsbruck. His entire proceeds are going to charities he set up in Central and Latin America, but he will not even take a salary from these. Why the drastic change?
“More and more I heard the words: ‘Stop what you are doing now – all this luxury and consumerism – and start your real life’,” he said. “I had the feeling I was working as a slave for things that I did not wish for or need.”
When I started reading the story, it sounded understandable, but crazy. But his description of a recent vacation made the point of view more familiar.
While he was on a three-week holiday with his wife to islands of Hawaii, he made the following observation: ”It was the
biggest shock in my life, when I realised how horrible, soulless and without feeling the five star lifestyle is,” he said. “In those three weeks, we spent all the money you could possibly spend. But in all that time, we had the feeling we hadn’t met a single real person – that we were all just actors. The staff played the role of being friendly and the guests played the role of being important and nobody was real.”
It is a scenario we can all understand. Vacations, retail stores, restaurants, even at work, the environment is similar, often contrived.
Maybe this guy is on to something. In fact, a major university came to a similar conclusion in a study they performed last year. The University of Rochester study, published in the June issue of the Journal of Research in Personality, shows that reaching materialistic and image-related milestones actually contribute to ill-being; despite their accomplishments, individuals experience more negative emotions like shame and anger and more physical symptoms of anxiety such as headaches, stomachaches and loss of energy.
I don’t think I am ready to migrate to the hills and wear sackcloth. I am relatively wealthy, and am very happy with life. However, I do realize that many of the things that provide contentment and satisfaction do not come from what the wealth provides. The wealth provides security, and comfort, nothing more. In fact, the efforts required to obtain more than aren’t really worth it.
So for now, I’ll keep my money, but continue to enjoy the truly important things in life.
