879 Money as a Tool For Happiness

MONEY IS A GREAT SERVANT BUT A BAD MASTER. Money can get a bad rap. You hear stories of people who worked so hard to get it, and it left them feeling unhappy. Some people even call it the root of all evil. But what if you used money as a tool for happiness? If you spend it wisely, it can help you have better health, better relationships, and more time for the things that fill you up. Instead of making money the problem, make it work for you. For this Five Minute Friday, I revisited a conversation I had with Gretchen Rubin where she talked about her research on happiness and money. She says that happiness, like money, should be something we observe in the good times and the bad. Learn how to improve your relationship with happiness in Episode 879. In This Episode You Will Learn: Why you need to think about happiness in the good times and the bad (2:00) How money relates to happiness (03:00) The difference between buying things and experiences (3:30) If you enjoyed this episode, check out the video, show notes and more at http://www.lewishowes.com/879 and follow at http://www.instagram.com/879 Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is Five Minute Friday.

• 0:10Lewis Howes?

  Now today's episode is with the one and only Gretchen Rubin. And for those that don't know who she is, she's really taken off in the last half decade with her books and her blog. She's a New York Times bestselling author of several books, including The Happiness Project and her newest, Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives. She is also a host of a very popular podcast called Happier with Gretchen Rubin. And she's on there with her sister, talking about similar topics that she covers in her books and her blog.

• 0:49Speaker 01

  So I think happiness is something that it's, it's sort of like, it's like money. It's good to think about money when you're worried about money and it's good to think about money when you're not worried about money. Cause that's also a good time to be thinking about money. It's like, this is, it's, or health. You want to think about health when you're not in good health, but when you're in good health, you also want to think about your health, because you've still got to be doing stuff that's going to protect that health. You don't want to take it for granted. And I feel like happiness is the same way. When we don't have it, we need to think about it, but then when we do have it, I think we need to think about it then as well. And so I think that the risk for most of us is not that we overthink it, but that we just sort of in the turmoil of everyday life, we don't think about it and we don't do the things that we could do to make, that we can, to make ourselves as happy and healthy

• 1:33Speaker 01

  and as productive as we can be, given our circumstances.

• 1:37Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. And in your research, how does money play with happiness?

• 1:42Speaker 01

  Well, it's interesting. This is definitely one of the most complex and emotionally charged areas with happiness. And I would say that money can't buy happiness, but money can buy many things that contribute powerfully to happiness.

• 1:55Lewis Howes?

  Sure, yeah.

• 1:56Speaker 01

  Um, so you know, um, It's easier to be in good health if you've got money to pay for a gym or to pay for doctor's visits or, you know, divide healthier food. Um, it's, and you know, and sometimes people, there's a lot of people who say like, whoa, money, money, it like, you shouldn't buy things, you should buy experiences because experiences are what make you happy. But you know, the line between experiences and things, possessions, is often kind of difficult to draw. So like a dog, is a dog a possession or an experience? Is a camera a possession or an experience? Is a book a possession or an experience? Is a set of knives, that means it's so much more fun to cook, a possession or an experience?

• 2:40Speaker 01

  You know, and so sometimes I think we get, we sort of wanna say, money doesn't matter. But the fact is, if it's spent wisely, if it's spent in ways that are going to take you closer to the things that actually do bring happiness, like relationships. If you have enough money to go to your friend's wedding and you have a ton of fun and you see all your old friends, well, that's gonna add a lot to your happiness. But it's expensive to go to a wedding, you know? Like you gotta buy a present, you gotta buy a ticket, you gotta stay at a hotel, all that business. But like, if you're buying cocaine, that's probably not gonna make you happier. So it's, it's really a, it's really a matter of using it wisely. Um, it's a, you know, like habits, uh, it's, it's a good servant and a bad master.

• 3:22Speaker 01

  So using money in the right way, and of course, the greatest luxury that money can buy is not to worry about money, you know? And so if you're worried about money, that's, that isn't, that's a big happiness challenge. You know, if you're worried about paying your rent, if you're worried about paying for food, if you're worried about whether you're gonna lose your job, that's really rough. And so money can buy that, that kind of-

• 3:43Lewis Howes?

  Peace of mind, yeah.

• 3:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, sense of security. And so knowing that you're gonna be, you're saving for your retirement regularly so that you're not, you know, gripped with fear every time you think about getting older. You know, so I, I think it's a matter of being wise and thoughtful about how you spend your money. But if you're just like running out and like, you know, buying something that you don't even need and don't care about, well, that's not gonna, that's not, that's not going to be, um, a good thing. And of course, you know, spending money on other people, giving away to charity, like giving back to the institutions that have made a difference for you, um, helping other people, enormously satisfying. And so there's, it, it, it's just, it's, it's, it's a tool.

• 4:28Speaker 02

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