Can Money Buy Happiness?

Written by Nickel - 9 Comments

I just ran across an interesting article (subscription required) on Google in a recent issue of Time Magazine. The article included an interview with company founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, as well as CEO Eric Schmidt. One particularly interesting question was: How does it feel to suddenly be so wealthy?

Brin’s response:

It takes a lot of getting used to. You always hear the phrase: money doesn’t buy you happiness. But I always in the back of my mind figured a lot of money will buy you at least a little bit of happiness…

Page added:

If we were motivated by money, we would have sold the company a long time ago and ended up on the beach.

So there you have it… Even the uber-rich Google guys say there’s more to life than money.

Published on March 8th, 2006 - 9 Comments
Filed under: Miscellany
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About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!

Comments (scroll down to add your own):

I think a lot of people think of this too literally. I believe money is a facilitator. In fact, I’m going to have to write an article about this. Thanks for pointing out the article!
Comment by Tim — Mar 8th 2006 @ 12:27 pm
As a faithful reader (and a librarian), just wanted you to know you could go to your local public library’s website, click on their Databases, and pull up the full-text article on Brin and Page in Time for free. Use your library! I found this by searching the database ProQuest. There is so much more available than just using Goggle. By the way, I LOVE this website. I have gleaned so much helpful financial information plus it’s entertaining to read - thanks!!
Comment by Kim Battern — Mar 8th 2006 @ 1:33 pm
What about temporary happiness? Great website I read more & more every day!
Comment by djmike — Mar 8th 2006 @ 9:04 pm
To him who has much, much is expected.

Cheers
Comment by Emma — Mar 9th 2006 @ 12:08 am
Money can’t buy happiness. But being broke can certainly buy plenty of depression.
Comment by Matt — Mar 9th 2006 @ 3:19 am
If money can buy happiness then credit can lease it.

If credit can lease happiness then debt can rent it.

If debt rents happiness then you’re a poor tenant.
Comment by Guest — Mar 9th 2006 @ 11:17 am
Poor & happy or rich & miserable, Guest? I’ll take a poor happy tenant over a miserably rich homeowner.
Comment by jim — Mar 10th 2006 @ 10:08 am
I personally think that I would be pretty happy being rich. I would at least like to try it out and see. Can any rich people give me a few million. If I end up being unhappy, then you can take the money back. Fair enough?
Comment by RS — Mar 13th 2006 @ 12:45 pm