Fix it Friday Ep. 3 - Why Money Can’t Buy Happiness

• Money can't buy lasting happiness because our brains are driven by the dopamine rush from anticipating new possessions, not from the items themselves. This creates a cycle of constant desire for more, similar to an addiction, where the excitement of acquiring something new fades quickly, and we're left craving the next big thing. True happiness isn't found in material wealth but in deeper, more meaningful sources of fulfillment.
• Montesquieu's insight from the 1700s still rings true today: our desire for happiness is often less about achieving personal joy and more about being happier than others. Social media, particularly Facebook, amplifies this by showing only the highlights of others' lives, creating an illusion of greater happiness. We measure our success and happiness in relative terms, constantly comparing ourselves to others rather than finding absolute satisfaction or what truly brings us fulfillment.
• The principle of "enough" highlights that true happiness and contentment come from recognizing when we have reached a point of fulfillment rather than constantly striving for more. Joseph Heller's response to the billionaire hedge fund manager—emphasizing that he had "enough"—shows that contentment isn't measured by wealth or material success but by the ability to acknowledge and appreciate what we already have. Without this sense of enough, we will always move the goalposts, and money alone will never bring lasting happiness.

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Welcome to the Crazy Wealthy Podcast with your host, Jonathan Blau. Whether you're just starting [00:00:30] out or are an experienced investor, join Jonathan as he seeks to illuminate and demystify the complexities of making consistently rational financial decisions under conditions of uncertainty. He'll chat with professionals from the [00:00:45] advice world, entrepreneurs, executives.

And more to share fresh perspectives on making sound decisions that maximize your wealth. And now here's your host. 

Jonathan Blau: Welcome back, everybody. Thank you for [00:01:00] joining us for our third episode of Fusion. Fix It Fridays. This is the mini segment of, uh, our podcast, Crazy Wealthy Podcast. And today I'm going to talk to you about why money can't buy happiness.

Everybody's [00:01:15] kind of always heard that, uh, some people may believe it or not believe it, but, uh, I'm going to try and attack that, uh, that issue from a behavioral perspective. So In, in general, uh, one of the things that's interesting is when we [00:01:30] watch people aspiring to, to, to have more wealth or more material objects, uh, when we look, oftentimes, when one looks at those people, they think, oh, they must be really happy to have the great big car, the great big house.

But what we also see is, Uh, somebody who [00:01:45] has a new BMW aspires to have the new Ferrari, and then aspires to have, uh, a new Lamborghini and so forth. So it's, it, the problem is our brain doesn't want the new car or the bigger house, our brain wants the dopamine rush, that pleasure chemical [00:02:00] that's produced in anticipation of getting that new car.

bigger, whatever it is. And so therefore, we can never satisfy, uh, happiness with things and more money because it's the dopamine rush, which is like [00:02:15] any other addiction. It's, it, it, it, it just wants more and more. So that's one of the, the, the, the reasons that, that money can't buy happiness. Another reason is, um, as the French philosopher from the 1700s, uh, hundreds Montesquieu, put it [00:02:30] so, I think so well, uh, is that, If all we wanted was to be happy, that would be easily accomplished.

But what we really want is to be happier than other people, which is almost always very difficult because [00:02:45] we deem other people to be happier than they actually are. And there's no better manifestation in modern times of what Montesquieu identified in the 1700s, uh, then Facebook, the Facebook, [00:03:00] what I call reality, right?

You go on Facebook and you can wonder why is everyone just have this great life that I don't have. They go on any great vacations. Uh, they do think these great celebrations for their birthdays and anniversaries. It's because that's all anybody is [00:03:15] showing. Right? So, so, so that, that's a great example of what I call the immutability immutability.

of human nature, right? Hundreds of years ago, Montesquieu was talking about the same human nature, uh, uh, [00:03:30] element of, of, of the fact that we, we measure our happiness and success in re not in absolute terms, but only in relation to what others have. So I always found that to be very interesting. Um, so if there is [00:03:45] no, absolute number of dollars on material goods that, that uniformly can be said to, to be the number that would make people happy.

Generally, there's also an equation that I like to share. [00:04:00] That's, that's a good measure of wealth and happiness. And that equation is simple. It just simply looks at what do we have materially, financially, and subtract out what we want. If that equation doesn't lead to a positive number as the result, then [00:04:15] Then we're not really happy because we keep moving the goalposts that tends to be something that is is a human nature of action because of wanting to kind of keep up with the Joneses.

And so, based on that measure, what we have minus what we [00:04:30] want. If that's not a positive number, based on that, I think there are probably many unhappy billionaires. One of the stories I always like that I got from Morgan Housel, who wrote The Psychology of Money, and has his own podcast. [00:04:45] Uh, which is called the psychology of money.

He, he, he talks about the man in the car paradox. And that's where there was a, a, a young man who was valet parking cars in California. And he saw someone drive up in the Ferrari. Now he's looking [00:05:00] at the person in the Ferrari. We all think that, wow, I must look cool. The guy's looking at me and my Ferrari.

But nobody cares more about our things. And we do that. That young man wasn't looking at the man of the Friday. Look how cool he is. He was looking at the man in the Ferrari and [00:05:15] saying, how cool would I look if I had that Ferrari? He didn't know or care a thing about the man. So if we could kind of internalize that and recognize nobody cares so much about our stuff more than we do, maybe that would quell the need to goalpost a I just give that [00:05:30] as as a little tip.

The other the other thing I like to point out is there's a story. Okay. Of, uh, there's this party in Shelter Island that a billionaire hedge fund manager's through. And Kurt Vonnegut was there with, with, uh, Heller, who, [00:05:45] who wrote the, uh, book Catch 22. And he says to Joseph Heller, he says, listen, this guy, this hedge fund manager, made more money In a single day and you've made in all of the books that you've sold all of all of the [00:06:00] catch 22 Uh books that you've sold in your lifetime.

So Heller looks at Donaghy. He said that may be so but I have something He'll never have. Donaghy said what could you have that this billionaire hedge fund guy could never have and his answer was so eloquent. Uh, [00:06:15] Heller He said He said in one word, enough. And, and, and that one word, he draws, uh, all, all of the ideas I'm trying to get across, right?

If, if we don't have enough, then, then we'll always be moving the goalposts and money certainly [00:06:30] will never be able to buy us happiness. So what I always leave you with is what I always tell my, uh, the new investors who are interviewing us, always try to walk away from this meeting saying to myself, whoever I see in the world that has a lot more material things and money than me.[00:06:45] 

Understand as long as I have one thing that they can never have which is enough I'm likely to be much wealthier than they'll ever be so with that, uh with that sign off I thank you for tuning in again in the meantime You can listen to these podcasts crazy wealthy in general and [00:07:00] the fix it segments on CrazyWealthyPodcast.

com. You can go to FusionFamilyWealth. com, our website, and you can also listen on your favorite venues, everything from Apple to Spotify to iHeartRadio, uh, and, [00:07:15] and all of the popular venues. Thank everybody so much for tuning in and we look forward to having you join us. On the next episode.

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