Money Equals Does Not Equal Happiness

I don’t think anyone reading this is going to believe that money equals happiness. Sure, money allows you to pay off your bills, take nice vacations, order the prime rib instead of the turkey sub. But money, per se, isn’t going to make you happy. Not for all that long, anyway.

I think I personally started realizing this about fifteen years ago, when I started actively traveling around the United States. Sold all of my belongings (which weren’t much), including my car, then headed out west to work at Yellowstone National Park. It was a great time for me, traveling around the U.S., carefree, admiring the landscapes I came across, the animals that live in different parts of the country.

When I started traveling, I had nothing. A few hundred dollars to my name, nothing in savings. And when I say nothing, I mean nothing. Nada. Just the cash in my pocket (although I do think I had some in my checking account, which I’m including as cash in my pocket; I’ve only recently opened a savings account, some 15 years later). But money wasn’t going to make a difference. Not much of one, anyway. Because the experience was free, save for gas and food and the occasional $40.00 hotel room, which I got when I wanted a hot shower and comfortable bed. And truth be told, the experience was happiness for me. Roughing it was happiness for me. And now, the older I get, I long for that happiness.Two weeks a year isn’t happiness for me. There’s not enough time in two weeks to relax and kick back. Not for me. I want a couple of months traveling around Europe, or relaxing in the mountains, or reading books I haven’t had a chance to read. I don’t like working 40 hours a week. I loathe it, actually. I do not enjoy having to be somewhere, having to take orders (maybe I am not being ordered to do anything, but it’s unfortunately how I feel when I work for someone). Most of the time, anyway. I’m a romantic. I picture myself one day writing the great American novel, hiking the Appalachian Trail, visiting every country around the world where I won’t get my head chopped off by some angry zealot or thrown in jail for spitting on the sidewalk. But not doing the 40 hour work week is irresponsible. Isn’t it?

I don’t know how everyone does it. I don’t know if my friends and family are strong or weak. Is it stronger to drudge through 40+ hours a week at a job you don’t particularly want to be doing, or is that the easy way? Am I the weak one for not building up that 401k over the past 20 years? Or am I the strong one for having been all over the world, living what to me is a pretty adventurous life? I don’t know the answer. But I do know it wasn’t all that expensive to do so. I’ve worked for a few years, and I’m debt free.

Except for my college loans, which I don’t really consider all that bad.

Here’s me in Thailand. This raft trip cost me probably $5.00.