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Price of happiness – does being rich really add value to life?
It's said that money can't buy you health, but what about happiness? asks Chris Bond.
LET'S be honest, we've all thought about what we'd do if we won the lottery. And why not, it's just a dream at the end of the day. But what if that dream came true, what would you spend the cash on and would it really make you happy?
There are plenty of cautionary tales about people winning huge sums of money blowing it all on flash cars and a millionaire's lifestyle. Equally, there are those determined not to let their new-found wealth ruin their lives, as Carl Prance showed this week.
The 50 year-old train driver from Wales was one of six family members who won 6.9m on the Euro Lottery last September, but he still goes to work every day and has no plans to swap his three-bedroom terraced house for a luxury mansion.
The only thing he and his wife have splashed out on is a 64,000 luxury caravan on the Welsh coast, where they have both been going since childhood.
"The money hasn't really changed me," he said, "I still play skittles down the local club and I've worked on the railway for 32 years."
Mr Prance was speaking on the eve of the draw for the latest EuroMillions rollover jackpot, worth a staggering 95m, which means by this time tomorrow the world should have a few more millionaires.
But does being a member of the rich club make you more contented? TV chef Nigella Lawson doesn't seem to think so. The self-styled domestic goddess caused a stir recently when she said she wasn't planning to leave her fortune to her two children.
"I am determined that my children should have no financial security. It ruins people not having to earn money," she was quoted as saying.
This sentiment may not be shared by those fearful of their inheritances being swallowed up by death duties, but it raises the question of just how much money we need to live comfortably?
A study in 2006, carried out by an investment banking firm, concluded that 25,000 a year is all we need to reach optimum happiness.
It suggested people should focus on "personal growth" rather than cash if they wanted to improve their quality of
life – in other words, to go on safari, rather than buy a
new car.
Andrew Oswald, professor of economics at Warwick University, has studied lottery winners and those who have inherited wealth for more
than a decade.
"There is evidence to suggest that winning the lottery can improve mental health and a person's well-being but the effect is not enormous. There's not an optimum figure that we can calculate, but once you're earning more than 100,000
a year that tends to make a
bigger difference."
But although incomes have dramatically increased during the past 50 years, contentment levels have hardly changed, suggesting the more money people get, the more they want.
"We want to be better off than the next person but because there are more wealthy people
in the country now it doesn't have quite the same effect," says Prof Oswald.
Life coach Cali Bird believes happiness comes down to more than just money.
"If you're satisfied with your job then that's great, money can certainly bring you happiness but it can also be the golden handcuff that stops you taking the plunge and doing something you really want to do," she says.
"There are plenty of people in high-powered jobs who don't like what they're doing and others earning much less who love what they do, so it all comes down to how satisfied you are with life.
"We all probably think it would be nice to win 18m but even a few thousand pounds is enough to make a difference to most people's lives without totally changing them."
Experts have found that a strong marriage and good health are more likely to have a lasting effect on personal happiness
and make people feel content than money.
So while even winning 1,000 can make a difference to a person's outlook on life, there are more important things in life.
Last month, Stephen Smith became Britain's biggest national lottery winner when he banked a 19m jackpot. But the 58 year-old former hospital porter, who suffers from a life-threatening blood vessel condition, said he would give all the money back in return for the guarantee of a long life with his wife, Ida.
It is a reminder, if we needed one, that time is the most valuable thing we have, because we can get more money but we can't get more time.
What 95m would mean to you
Based on a rate of 5.25 per cent the interest alone would roughly equate to the following;
4,987,500 per year
423,596 per month (enough to buy you a two-bedroom apartment overlooking Chelsea harbour in London)
95,648 per week (enough to buy you an 11 metre Sunseeker XS Sport 39 boat)
13,664 per day (enough to buy you a new Mini Cooper)
569 per hour.
(Figures provided by private bankers Coutts).
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Tuesday 07 February 2012
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