Unhappy? That's rich . . .

So what makes people happy? Here is what a random sample of staff in The Times office say: "Watching Desperate Housewives with a bottle of wine and a large pizza"; "Going for a walk by the Thames on a sunny day with my three-year-old daughter"; "Sex"; "Finding a lovely pair of shoes to fit my unusually big feet"; " My football team winning in the 90th minute"; "Looking at my little house when it's all clean and tidy and counting my blessings”; "Tea, crumpets and a good book in front of the fire in winter"; "My faith”.
 You will notice that there isn't a single note of materialism in this list. True, journalists on national publications aren't badly paid, and many will fall comfortably into the £25,000-plus bracket. But when people are made to think about what makes them happy, it is seldom that their thoughts drift towards money. And yet still we envy those who have it.
 “We have a bizarre idea of what we need," says Montier. "People very often talk about needing the latest fashionable clothes or needing the newest, trendiest technological toy, often exacerbated by an insistence on social comparisons, keeping up with the Joneses. But happiness should be an absolute concept, not a relative one. "
...we should remember an old Swedish proverb: "If you buy what you don't need, you steal from yourself." Full article Here!
Some extracts: True happiness, said Bob Monkhouse, is when you marry a girl for love and later discover that she has money.
European research indicates that lottery winners revert to their previous levels of happiness within a year of their windfall.
James Montier, its author, is global equity strategist for Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and has produced his report from research drawn from around the world. He recently wrote a paper on the psychology of happiness and his first rule was: never equate it with money.
Once you are earning £25,000 and upwards, he ventures, and your basic needs for food, shelter and healthcare are covered, money becomes increasingly irrelevant to genuine happiness. By the time you reach Bill Gates's level the difference is probably negligible. If you want to raise your happiness level, he says, spend your money on experiences (a safari/Himalayan trekking/a concert) rather than a Rolex, a yacht or a Ferrari because they will bring you more joy in the long run.
Dr Clive Wood, director of the Happiness, Personality and Health course at Cardiff University, says: "Nowadays acquisition is very important. People believe that if they win the lottery they will become hugely happier, and for a while they do, but human beings have a surprising capacity to return to where they started. The problem is that once you're wealthy you become habituated to being wealthy and you want to know what the next thing is. We're constantly striving, which stops us being happy."
Experiences, on the other hand, become more valuable to us as time goes on. Their charm does not wear off but increases as experience is central to our identity. "Experiences seem to be open to positive review," says Montier.
It goes without saying that a large sum of money would certainly improve some people's lifestyle and sense of security which, presumably, would make them happier.
It goes without saying that a large sum of money would certainly improve some people's lifestyle and sense of security which, presumably, would make them happier.