Saturday 10 January 2009

Does Wealth make you Happy?

The definition of wealth varies so much. So many people see wealth as the cash, money in their pocket, yet it is so much more, as Lynne McTaggard Author of Living the Field discovered:

Dr. Richard Tunney, a psychologist at the University of Nottingham, in Great Britain, carried out a study for the UK’s National Lottery examining levels of happiness and overall satisfaction with life among those who’d won the lottery, compared with a sampling of non-winners across the nation.

Approximately 1800 people participated in the survey, which examined how satisfied they were with their lives and achievements and also the kinds of relationships they had with friends, including when they met, how often they speak, which activities they participate in together and the number of new friends they made in the last two years.

Tunney discovered that achievements and even money mattered a good deal less than friendship. Those with five friends or fewer had a 40% per cent chance of being happy, irrespective of their economic status or of whether they had won the lottery. Those with five close friends had a 50% chance of being happy, but by far the happiest were those with at least 10 friends, who had about a 55% of being happy and satisfied with their lot in life.

Furthermore, those people who counted themselves as ‘extremely satisfied’ with their lives had twice as many friends as those who were ‘extremely dissatisfied’ with their lives.

The critical mass of friends required to ensure happiness appeared to be 10; adding on more friends didn’t significantly increase the participants’ levels of happiness.

Furthermore, those who were happiest of all were part of a small close-knit social circle that had existed for a long time.

So how much wealth do you have in your life?

Energising Wealth Weekend: 17-18th January 2009, London

See you there!