“Personal Money” reviews The Money Book by CAP
Book is available at CAP, Popular, MPH and other leading bookshops.
Category: Personal Finance
Consumer culture undermines your well-being
Our unlimited wants, unending needs, uncontrolled spending, unnecessary buys and unbridled acquisitions have all resulted in one thing – an unhappy life, social scientists warn.These findings emerge at a time when the consumer culture has reached a fever pitch, comments Myers, also the author of the 2000 book, The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty.
Owning more things and accruing more wealth may provide only a partial fix; it does not ensure long-term happiness. Research shows that when people fulfil their lives around extrinsic goals such as product acquisition, they report greater unhappiness in relationships, poorer moods and more psychological problems.
Most people want and aim to be wealthy. But one of the key findings of happiness research is: Although more money delivers big increases in happiness when you are poor, each extra dollar makes less difference once your basic needs have been met.
Which do you value more – your money or your life? In today’s consuming culture, most people wouldn’t mind having more money to spend. But while money matters in life, ie for meeting basic needs, always wanting more, or having more and spending more may not necessarily be a good thing. Too much money shatters one’s life.