No this post won’t involve fast cars, luxury yachts and million dollar penthouse suites. In fact those are the things that most likely (I’ve never owned any so I don’t know) won’t make you happy.
But is it possible to buy happiness? Sure why not. Here’s how:
Buy Time
Why not buy yourself some more quality time by outsourcing the boring, repetitive and mediocre tasks in your life. Everything from booking appointments, paying bills, doing the shopping and blogging can be outsourced! Thanks to the internet and The Philippines , you can buy this “time” for relatively little as well.
Giving yourself more time to focus on the things you love is a surefire way to feel happier.
Buy Brains
Te best place to start investing is yourself. Spend your dough on books, movies, scientific journal, musical lessons, language courses. Invest in anything that will expand your knowledge.
And as Plato famously said: “knowledge is the food of the soul”. So feed your soul with new knowledge and expand your horizons.
Buy Hope
My views on charity are fairly out there – although I do believe the work done by charities such as Sponsor a Child in Africa are wonderful and do amazing work – the only real long term solution is by encouraging and fostering investment in Africa.
But how can an individual possibly invest in Africa. Kiva.org is my charity of choice, which allows you to invest in small businesses and projects throughout the world by lending to entrepreneurs in third world countries. Your $200 could fund an entire venture in Africa. The most important part of Kiva is you get your money back (plus a very small amount of interest). This way, you can keep investing in Africa, increasing your value, but most importantly you’ll be helping fund entrepreneurs who we all know, are the backbone of our society.
Buy Coffee
And now for the more trivial but just as enjoyable. Buy coffee! For just $3 and half an hour of your time, you can experience true happiness……or so I think.
Unlike fast cars and fancy gadgets, coffee won’t go out of fashion and if you avoid Starbucks, drinking coffee won’t be a symbol of status. Rather, you can enjoy it for what it is – an experience.
I’m sure there are many other ways to buy happiness. Let me know your experiences in the comments
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5 Comments
great post Anthony!
These are really good insights I like it. I will say its pretty unique the way you see things. I was a little skeptical with the title and I was ready to criticize but I understand it now…Hey I feel we have something in common now. Keep up the blog brother!
That is exactly it! It isn;t what money is, but what you can use it for that makes you rich. Almost any problem in the world can be fixed with money.
I plan to buy a lot of the first 3 items, but have to admit that I am not a coffee drinker
I’m not sold on the outsourcing. I’ve not had much luck with the quality of work. Sure didn’t make me happy. If you want things done right, do them yourself. When outsourcing, remember you get what you pay for.
I like it
Although, I seriously want to give up coffee!
Outsourcing is awesome Mike! You just got to find the right people in the right places. If you want someone techy, look on tech forums, see the people that go out their way to answer your questions…and then ask them if they are interested doing some work for you
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