The Two Financial Prerequisites For A Happy Day

The deeper I get into writing about personal finance, the more I find myself circling back to the same subject obsessively: the connection between money and happiness. Not the cliche ‘money can’t buy happiness’, but a much messier tangle of questions.  How much money is necessary for basic happiness? Why are so many people with money still miserable? Why do we automatically assume more money = more happiness? What happens when people get money and then realize it hasn’t changed anything?  And SO many more.

All of these questions have led me to write endless pages of notes, drafts, and half-baked essays about how modern ideas of money interact with our caveman brains.  How it comforts us yet stresses us out, makes things seem black and white yet confuses us with all the grey, seems like the panacea to all our problems when we don’t have it, only to cause more existential problems once we do.

And since you’re here reading this (subscribed to this, voluntarily spending your free time thinking about money with me) I’m guessing you’re curious about this too.  So, I thought I would start sharing some of my musings with you. Welcome to my consciousness these days.  We may be opening a can of worms here, and I invite you to come lay in it with me.

I'm going to start this series of musings on money & happiness by sharing the answer to one of the fundamental questions I sorted out a while back. What are the basic financial requirements to be happy today?  And the answer I’ve settled on is this:

There are two financial non-negotiables that make it possible to have a ‘happy’ day in the first place.  

If these two boxes are checked, most people can access a baseline level of contentment.  Think of these as the structural foundation around which you can start framing out a good day.

1. Your basic needs are being met right now.

This means that right now, at this exact moment in time, you’re sheltered, fed, warm, and safe.  That sounds obvious, but it’s shockingly easy to forget.

Happiness becomes hard to hold on to when you’re worried about groceries, or rent, or keeping the heat on.  Covering your basic needs (without going into debt) is the foundation everything else rests on.

If those needs are met in your life today, it’s worth pausing to enjoy a moment of gratitude.  Many people in our communities can’t check this box right now.  The fact that you can (even if you’re stressed about other things) is meaningful. 

Many people stop with: ‘If you’re okay right now you have enough to be happy.'  Personally, I believe this is only half the story.
 

2. ‘Tomorrow You’ also feels secure.

Humans have the uniquely annoying ability to perceive time as linear.  We can picture the future (and then immediately start to stress about it). Your dog doesn’t finish the dinner you gave him tonight and then immediately start worrying about if he’ll also get dinner tomorrow night.  Conversely, you do.  You’re aware that “Future You” exists, and you experience enough connection to that person that you want to make sure they’ll be okay.

Different people perceive their Future Selves at varying distances in the future.  Some people only worry about their Future Selves a week away, while for others it stretches as far as a year or two.  The important things is that we all need to believe our Future Selves are going to be okay.

And this is the point where people often start to struggle with money & happiness.  Many parts of modern day culture have pushed a ‘live for today’ mentality that encourages spending today rather than saving for tomorrow.  Living life to the fullest has somehow become synonymous with spending every dollar we have on our Present Selves.

We love quippy phrases like ‘Live for today because you never know if tomorrow will come’.  It sounds cute and vivacious, but it encourages behaviour that’s at odds with our lived experience.   Odds are, you are going to wake up tomorrow, and fundamentally we know there are a lot more Tomorrows lining up ahead of us.

You can absolutely spend money on enjoying today.  Please do.  But, if you’re doing it while forfeiting your future safety net, your brain will start tapping you on the shoulder with little electric shocks of anxiety as it worries about Future You.  Think of it like getting a blister in your shoe while you’re out doing something fun, it’s not enough to stop you, but will create an undercurrent of discomfort that permeates everything.

We’ve found a way to slap a bandaid on this mental rub.  We call it the Bi-Weekly Paycheque.  But it doesn’t quite work.  It only provides the perception of future stability.  Inherently you & I  know there’s a world of difference between the perceived security of upcoming paycheques vs feeling secure because you already have money set aside for your Future Self.  The latter is where true happiness actually becomes attainable.

So, where do we go with this idea from here?

I feel that ending today’s thoughts here still leaves so much left unsaid, but I should eventually stop writing, so here’s how I’ll wrap things up.

If you can check these two boxes, take a breath and enjoy a moment of gratitude.  Seriously.  Being able to cover today and tomorrow puts you in a category of comfort many people are still working  to achieve.  It’s not a guarantee of happiness, but it sure goes a long way towards helping you have a good day.

If you’re struggling with overspending and it’s keeping you from checking box 2, try saving even a little for your emergency fund,  (side quest:  then do some journaling to observe how your entire emotional baseline shifts).  It’s wild how quickly reducing uncertainty can increase feelings of calm & contentment throughout your day.

Finally, if you’re struggling to check either box, I hope you take it to heart when I say it’s not a personal failure.  The system is failing you.  Parts of our social safety net need some serious work, and I know that a personal finance education can’t fix systemic issues.  BUT, what it can do is prepare you to grab hold of financial opportunity and not let go of it when it does come your way.  I hope you can stick with it long enough to see that happen.

Want more of this?

If you’re interested, I’d love to keep exploring ideas of money & happiness together.  Alongside more practical lessons still, of course.  Reply and let me know if you have thoughts you’d like to share.  I'm still working to apply these ideas consistently in my life, and am thrilled to have you there with me.

See you next Friday,

- Cory