Biography

Can Money Really Make A Nigerian Happy?

Photo From pmnewsnigeria.com

When you look around you in Nigeria, you discover that there are more things that makes you un-happy than the things that make you happy. I use myself as an example. I sleep in darkness everyday because I have not witnessed electricity for like four months now. Whenever evening comes, smiles will leave my face because I know that I am going to spend the

next nine hours or more in darkness due to lack of electricity supply in my area.

When I leave my house, in the morning, I begin to think of how to battle with the bad roads I am about to toll to my office. The bad roads make me work on my car at three days interval, thereby spending monies I never budgeted to spend. These and many other things deprive the greater percentage of Nigerians of the fullness of joy.

Each time I think about this, I begin to wonder whether there is anything that can really put smiles in the face of a Nigerian. Something in me tells me that money can. Someone may ask, how do you know this. My simple answer is that I know because I see smiles in the face of successful Nigerians who have made money. The likes of Aliko Dangote and Mike Adenuga, always smiles each time I see them on the telly or view their pictures.

Money can get me a nice apartment in an estate that has good roads and I wouldn?t have to drive as if I am battling with my car or driving in and out of my house. Money can buy me solar system and my house will be lighted-up 24 hours, and I will stay in darkness no more.

Contrary to my opinion above, studies made over the past 10 years in the field of positive psychology have revealed that money adds to human happiness only up to a point. After that point, making more money doesn?t really contribute to our overall mood and life satisfaction.

Another study show that wealth can even impede our ability to experience the joy of life. Elizabeth Dunn, Ph.D., once said that ?If you have a lot of money, you feel like you can get whatever you want, so you don?t need to savor every little morsel of pleasure that comes your way,? . By implication, those who have enough money are less likely to desire the good things of life when they come across one than those who don?t have enough. The reason according to Dunn is that those who have enough will always believe that they can afford to have those good things of life any time hence no need to jump unto them at the moment.

These results don?t mean you should not struggle to make more money, rather you can change how you think about money and how you can get the most out of what you earn. Dunn have therefore come to a conclusion that it?s not how much you have that makes you happy but what you do with it that counts.

Four Ways To Spend Your Moneys And Be Happy.

1. Be Generous With Your Money.

Norton?s studies show that we?re happiest spending money on others when we can see the impact the gift has on someone: when your friend often wears the earrings you bought her, for example, or when your financial help allows someone in need to have her teeth repaired or get his car fixed. And while donating anonymously to an organization in another country may not give you the same mood boost, it will still bump up your life satisfaction more than if you held onto the money, Norton says.

In one study, Dunn and Norton approached people on the street and gave them either $5 or $20. Half of those lucky passersby were instructed to spend the money on themselves by 5 p.m. The other half were asked to spend it on others. A follow-up evening call found that the group who bought things for themselves did not report any change in their mood from before they received the cash. Those who spent the money on others (many bought coffee for strangers; some gave to the homeless; some purchased small gifts for nieces and nephews) experienced much happier moods, however. Interestingly, the amount of money had no bearing on their happiness.

?We all think that having money and buying things for ourselves will make us happy,? says Norton, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, ?but we make notoriously bad predictions about what will make us happy. Retail therapy can make us feel good temporarily, but spending on others makes a big difference in our overall, long-term happiness.?

Spend Money on vacations.

It is good to give but you don?t have to impoverish yourself as doing that will end up making you un-happy. It is good to some times spend money on yourself beyond your basic need. It is not only by buying houses, cars, clothes jewelries that we spend money on ourselves. These can only give us momentary happiness.

Studies have found that when it comes to spending our disposable income, purchases that make us have new experiences tend to make people happier than material purchases. It has also been found that spending on experiences broadens our horizons, strengthens our connections and creates lasting memories.

It has been discovered that when we buy material goods, we have the tendencies of comparing our purchases unfavorably with all the other purchases we could have made and those that others have made. For instance, when you buy a Toyota saloon car, you discover that not long after the purchase, you will begin to regret not having bought an SUV which has better ground clearance instead. Or you saved up for a new LG washing machine, only to visit a friend?s home and feel that her Termercool washing machine washes better. We are most likely not going to compare and regret as much when it comes to experiences.

3. Spare Time and Spend The Money.

It is always better to use money to buy time than luxury. When you buy time with your money, you spend the time for your self and with your loved ones. When some people make money, they like spending it on luxurious apartment. They like to buy or build a house. Most people don?t put time into consideration in choosing the location of the house. When you buy a much larger house that is far from your work, for example, consider the effect of the commute. The hours you lose with your loved ones over time will have a bigger impact on your happiness than will the finished basement or the extra bedroom. On the other hand, if the housing costs are higher near where you work, shop or go to school, the extra expense will likely be worth it in the long run, as long as you can afford it.

5. Invest In your Future.

G. Benjamin, the author of Making Money Matter: Impact Investing to Change the World have observed that the way we spend our money reflects our core values. It is always important to invest in ones future than investing in the present and transitory things. An investment made today in real estate will afford more secure future than investment in cars which will end up depreciating in value over time.

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