Here's News: Wealth Is Desired & It Leads To Happiness

Lure of Great Wealth Affects Career Choices

Money-Happiness Link Is Complex, Study Says: Researchers Debunk Myth That Money Doesn't Buy Happiness

A decade into the practice of medicine, still striving to become “a well regarded physician-scientist,” Robert H. Glassman concluded that he was not making enough money. So he answered an ad in the New England Journal of Medicine from a business consulting firm hiring doctors.

And today, after moving on to Wall Street as an adviser on medical investments, he is a multimillionaire.

Yes, but we have wasted the time, energy and money that it took to create a doctor, denying the slot that Glassman took so that he could become wealthy to those that have more altruistic ideals, like genuinely helping people to be healthy and achieve some joy in life.

Does money buy happiness? It's sometimes said that scientists have found no relationship between money and happiness, but that's a myth, says University of Illinois psychologist Ed Diener. The connection is complex, he says. But in fact, very rich people rate substantially higher in satisfaction with life than very poor people do, even within wealthy nations, he says.

It's not the money itself, it's the independence and the ability to make choices that are not available when money is not available. In my own case, I once had the idea of becoming a doctor. But I could not come up with the money to pay for medical school, despite having a record of achivement in medicine as a US Navy Corpsman and having passed the MCAT in a top percentile. I also pursued a graduate degree as an MPH/MSW, but ran out of financial resources. I still owe on my student loans and can't seem to shake the debt because making ends meet takes precedence over paying the government.

Not everyone with money will make the right choices, but at least they had the option. Anyone making less than $300,000 a year doesn't often have those choices, especially if they want to live in a decent house or apartment, work and pay their bills.

It's that simple. If you have money you have choices. Many of those choices can lead to happiness in career, family and personal achievements. It's amazing to me that it takes various studies and the New York Times to arrive at these conclusions when it seems like common sense to most of us struggling to make ends meet from one paycheck to another.