Money and Happiness

A friend of mine, Steve Moeller, did research on the science of happiness. He gathered information to write a book about what really makes people happy. He gave me permission to share some excerpts with you from an article he wrote for Investment Advisor magazine. I found his thoughts very interesting, and hope you will too.

The assumption that more money will make us happier is etched into our consciousness. Happiness is something we all want; it's the holy grail of Western civilization. Biologists have recently proven that all higher species from lizards up to humans are biologically programmed to pursue pleasure and positive emotions. It's a basic subconscious drive that all creatures have. Everything we do, we do because we consciously or unconsciously believe that it will make us happy.

That more money will lead directly to more happiness is such a basic assumption that most people never stop to question it. When researchers at the University of Michigan asked research subjects what would improve the quality of their lives, the majority of the respondents said "more money."

The assumption that more money will bring us more happiness is etched into our consciousness, championed by our culture, promoted with billions of dollars of advertising each year, and institutionalized in our public policy. And it is still the primary promise of benefits that many investment advisors focus on. But is it true?

"Happiness" researchers have conducted more than 150 surveys all over the world with more than a 1 million participants. Let's take a look at what they have learned.

Since the end of WWII the purchasing power of American households has tripled. New homes are now twice as big as they were after the war, we have twice as many cars per person, and we eat out more often. The average American now lives much better than most of the kings and queens throughout history.

So are we happier? No!

This spectacular increase in wealth has had almost no positive effective on our society's happiness. In fact, from 1957 to 1996 the proportion of people telling the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center that they are "very happy" declined slightly (from 35% to 30%.) Over the same time period; divorce doubled, the prison population quintupled and major depression rose tenfold, turning it into the fourth most common debilitating disease. America's not alone; Europe and Japan have experienced the same basic trends.

One of the happiness researchers' more noteworthy findings came from a survey of Forbe's 400 wealthiest Americans. These cent millionaires and billionaires were asked to rate their life satisfaction from "extremely dissatisfied" (1) to "extremely satisfied" (7). Surprisingly, the respondents' average rating was 5.7, only slightly above the average rating.

But here's the really interesting part. Masai tribesmen from Kenya in East Africa also participated in the life satisfaction survey. Although they live in huts made out of dirt and cow dung, herd cattle for a living, have no electricity or running water, and don't have any money, they also rated themselves a 5.7 in the life satisfaction scale.

Quite a few studies now show that believing that money is more important than other values-like relationships with loved ones, spirituality, a feeling that your life is contributing to the greater good-is actually detrimental to happiness. Clearly there's more to happiness than wealth, luxury and material comforts.

So, how much is the right amount of money to maximize our happiness? Here's the bottom line from the scientific research on happiness-once we have enough money to pay for life's basics like food, clothing and housing, more money has very little impact on our happiness.

More money does buy more happiness and well-being if you are poor, and increases fairly quickly until you achieve a solid middle class income. But research shows once your household income reaches the middle class range, increased income has a diminishing positive impact on your happiness and well-being.

The point is, above a certain income level, which isn't by any means "wealthy", additional income alone has almost no impact on our happiness. And depending on the price you pay to earn it, more income could even reduce your quality of life.

In fact, a large and growing number of studies support happiness researcher Ed Diener's comment that, "Materialism is toxic for happiness." But most Americans don't seem to believe this.

Why, if we tell researchers that more money doesn't make us happier, do we chase it so hard? We could blame it on advertisers and the media, two giant institutions that have a vested interest in having us consume more and more stuff each year. But there is another, more subtle villain; the subconscious workings of our brain.

Psychologists have developed a term "hedonic treadmill" to describe humans adaptation to more wealth and material goods. So if you get a new car, you will be happier for a while, but then you will adapt, and so think it's normal. In order to maintain the same level of happiness through consumption, you must continually buy new things. This is what the concept of "retail therapy" is all about. Adaptation is great for the economy, but bad for you and your financial security.

As an investment advisor, I often work with people who believe that more money will buy them more happiness. As evidenced by this article, in reality, I should help clients determine what will really make them happy and then determine how much income their ideal life will require. It may be a lot less than they originally thought.

Dave Young, President and founder of Paragon Wealth Management, has helped his clients enhance their financial well-being since he began managing money in 1986. He was his first client after he sold his 12 franchise businesses and couldn't find a traditional brokerage firm to meet his needs.

From his personal investment experience, he knew there was a better option to managing money. Later that year, he started his own investment firm. When he avoided the 1987 stock market crash, his methods sparked a lot of interest.

Today, this undiscovered money manager in Utah currently manages 60 million dollars plus for 150 clients.

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How Can a Teenager Make Money Online - 5 Suggestions

How can a teenager make money online? Regardless of why you want to make extra money one thing is for sure, teenagers are usually broke and could use any little boost to help them make some extra money. I mean you want to have a decent car, and be able to take someone out on a decent date right? Well hopefully you can implement one of these methods to help you earn some extra money.

1. The first method for a teenager to make money online is to offer some kind of product or service in an area you are familiar with. This could be cars, baseball cards, comic, etc. If you are good at something or knowledgeable about something you can guarantee that their is someone out there interested in your expertise.

2. Sell products on ebay. Find stuff in your parents attic that they do not need anymore and sell it! This could be a great way to generate an extra few hundred bucks. Just make sure that your parents don't mind you selling their stuff.

3. Put an advertisement for a company on your car or truck. Often times companies will pay people to put their company logo on your car because the company sees it as a form of cheap advertising. The only draw back of this is that it can make your car ugly and no teen wants that!

4. Try to be an affiliate marketer. You do not need a website to do this however it is somewhat difficult to be successful without your own website. But you can give it a try its free!

5. The best way that a teenager can make money online is to buy a domain name and set up a website. Now there are some start up costs associated with this but it can be lucrative if done correctly! Also learning basic programming code can triple your profits easily. You see there is a little known code that you can implement into your webpage code that can drastically increase your profits. It takes less than five minutes to implement and virtually runs itself!

Matt Lord is an affiliate marketer interested in helping others succeed and make money online. for more information on what he believes is the easiest opportunity on the web visit. [http://www.marketingprimetime.com]

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What Money Should You Use First In Retirement?

Most successful retirees will have three sources of money for retirement:

1. Qualified: IRA, 401(k), 403(b), Thrift Savings Plan, etc. that they contributed to during their working years for use during retirement. Income taxes have not yet been paid.
   
   
2. Social Security: Virtually every private-sector worker is eligible for Social Security during their retirement years. Also, a non-working spouse of a qualifying worker is generally eligible to receive at least one-half of what the working spouse qualifies for at normal retirement age.
   
   
3. Savings and investments: These are your other savings you've set aside for retirement or to pass on to the next generation. This pool of money is sometimes called non-qualified money because income taxes have mostly been paid or lower tax rates apply - for example capital gain taxes or taxes on stock dividends.
   

Two of these sources have age restrictions. Social Security can be taken as early as age 62 (earlier if disabled or there are other special circumstances) and should be started no later than age 70 because this is age when benefits peak based on the mortality tables. You are generally penalized for using your qualified money before age 59-1/2; however, there are numerous exceptions. You must start withdrawing a minimum amount from your qualified retirement money when you reach age 70-1/2. Of course, you can convert your qualified retirement money to a Roth IRA which allows you more latitude in its use. You can use your non-qualified savings and investments at any age or you can bequeath these moneys to others at your death.

What about taxes? Your Social Security benefits will always receive favorable tax treatment. Of course, the more income you have the greater will be the income taxes on your Social Security benefits. But, under current law Social Security benefits are always tax favored. Your qualified retirement money will be taxed at your normal income tax rate when you begin to withdraw it - and remember you must start taking required distributions at age 70-1/2. You can convert your qualified money to a Roth IRA and pay the taxes all at once and then enjoy tax-free income indefinitely into the future. Converting to a Roth IRA makes sense for some but not other; therefore, you'll want to get professional advice before converting to a Roth IRA. Your non-qualified savings and investments generally have the least amount of taxes due when used because you've already paid income taxes or they receive special treatment such as capital gains or dividend income.

What happen at your death? For Social Security, your spouse will be eligible to get the greater of what he or she qualified for on their own or as your dependent OR whatever the deceased spouse was receiving. This spousal benefits is very important because it will be received as long as the surviving spouse lives - which could be a very long period of time. If the deceased spouse elected to postpone Social Security until age 70, that means the surviving spouse will get a much larger amount than if the decreased spouse started early at age 62. For qualified money such as IRA, 401(k), 403(b), etc. it can generally be passed tax free to the surviving spouse, or others, and they will pay taxes at their normal rate. Generally payout must occur over their remaining lifetime. There are methods whereby you can stretch payout if left to non-spousal heirs and I encourage you to speak with your financial advisor about this if you do not plan to use all your qualified money during your lifetime. Your non-qualified savings and investments are part of your estate and can pass to whomever you elect at your death. I'll not comment on the tax consequences of these money but will encourage you to get professional advice from a financial planner, attorney and CPA if you have a sizable estate that will pass to others at your death. This is very important if you wish to prevent the Government from being your beneficiary.

Now that I've set the stage, which of your money should be used first in retirement? Of course it depends on your individual circumstances but the average retiree that can afford to postpone Social Security until age 70 will generally benefit. Why? Because, the money is always tax-favored so you want a relatively larger portion of your retirement money to come from Social Security. Since Social Security benefits grow about 8% for each year postponed PLUS a cost of living adjustment (making total growth about 11% annually), you can't beat this rate of return with any other safe money investment. Add to this exceptional growth the spousal benefits and the lower tax rates and you have a powerful reason to postpone Social Security for as long as possible. I know, you're worried about dying before you reach the break-even age of about 80 - remember the spousal benefit and look at the mortality tables. You'll find that there is almost a certainty that one or both of the average married retirees will live into their 90's which is well beyond break-even age. So, contrary to conventional wisdom, postpone your Social Security if you can afford to - especially if the wife is a few years younger than the husband and the husband was the principal breadwinner. What, you're worried that Social Security will be eliminated by Congress? Think about the 50 million now getting Social Security benefits and 78 million more (the baby boomers) now turning Social Security age! That a powerful voting block that Congress knows will vote them out of office if they tamper with Social Security too much. Social Security is not going anywhere - it will be available for the remainder of your life.

Okay, so you postpone Social Security: what about your qualified money like IRA, 401(k), etc.? You know that 100% of your withdrawals will be subjected to ordinary income taxes...and they'll also help determine the income taxes you'll pay on Social Security benefits. No tax breaks here. Which way to you think income taxes are headed? Me too - higher and higher because of a sea of red ink from national debt, rising deficits and excessive federal expenditures which will continue unabated. So, by taking this money first you (a) will pay lower taxes now rather than higher taxes later and (b) you'll be taking less of this money later when Social Security benefits starts, meaning you'll pay fewer taxes on these benefits. Of course, if you think taxes are going to go down (are you crazy?), you might conclude this sequence of use is backwards. But, you'd be wrong if you run the numbers as I did in my publication The Guide to Social Security...and A Better Retirement. (link below).

What about the your non-qualified savings and investments? You should use these to bridge the income gap as needed and for emergencies. Again, if you have more money than you'll need in retirement, get professional help so that taxes can be minimized when this money passes to your heirs at your death.

In the past year there has emerged a lot of chatter about delaying Social Security...and the conventional wisdom of taking it first (which almost three-fourth of Americans do) is dead wrong. You don't agree? Well, remember that at one time the conventional wisdom said the earth was flat, but we know different now. At one time the conventional wisdom was take Social Security at age 62 but we now know that is wrong for most folks. If you started early and it was a mistake, I wonder what other financial mistakes you've make with your retirement money? If you're wondering too, I recommend you get professional help so you can have a better retirement.

Here are some links that support the foregoing analyses:

http://www.theretirementpros.com/eReport_Social_Security.php

http://www.webcpa.com/article.cfm?articleid=21897

http://www.money.aol.com/kiplingers/investing/canvas3/_a/fresh-ideas-for-retiring-rich-3/20051005142009990001

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The Best Ways to Make Money Fast

There are almost thousands of ways to make money fast, ranging from the outright risky to the risky yet profitable means of making money. Remember if you want to make money fast you will need to make quick yet profitable investments. Since you aren't rich yet, you can't invest in property, or start a money laundering operation. What you need to do is to start from the bottom and work your way up, which might require time if you haven't done this kind of thing before.

In my opinion the stock market is a great place for people to start making money fast. They don't need to wait, as the stock market fluctuates many times rising and falling giving people an opportunity to buy low and sell high. However if you want to make money in the stock market you will need to learn about stocks. You need to know which businesses are doing well and have a chance of rising in the future, this will give you some insight into what stocks you should buy. Take your time to do the research involved, and study which stocks should be profitable in the near future.

The point of the stock market is to really buy up stocks that have a probability of rising. As the stock rises, you make money, at which point you can decide to sell your stocks and buy other stocks at a lower price, this cycle of buying and selling is how people make money fast in the stock market.

If you need money now, like I mean in the next 10 minutes, try what I did. I now am making more money than in my old business and you can too. If you want to learn how to invest a few hundred dollars in the next 10 minutes and double it before you go to bed tonight, click now to read a "Rags to riches" story that is remarkable - Free! Quickest-way-to-make-money-on-earth.com

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Making Money Off the Internet With Internet Data Entry Jobs

These days, you really cannot depend solely on your pay check because no matter how many extra hours you put into your work, there just doesn't seem to be enough money for you as well as your family to get by.

The trick to stay afloat in this economy is by tapping into all possible resources that you have at your disposal, and one such resource is the internet.

Making money off the internet with internet data entry jobs is very popular right now because it is quite easy to pull off, and the best part is that you do not need a very large capital in order to start a data entry home job.

All you would initially need is a working computer and a reliable connection, and you'll already be up and running.

Making money off the internet can be done in many ways. In fact, there are some circumstances where you will not have to spend money at all.

For instance, you might choose to become an affiliate marketer, in which case all that you will need is a little bit of knowledge in advertising and marketing to earn a great deal of money.

But the simplest way of making money off the internet has to be at home data entry.

There are many data entry programs available, but you have to be careful in the company that you choose. There is no experience needed and all the training is provided for you.

A good company is always easily contactable and will answer any questions and queries in a speedily fashion.

Internet data entry jobs are very attractive to a lot of people because they enable you to work at home at your own pace in your own time.

Companies are always looking for data entry processors. There are many opportunities for Mums, Dads, Students, Retired and more.

Of course the more time and effort you put into it the more money you will make, but if you really want to make money quick:-

Click Here To Make Money in the next 5 minutes FREE!

Barb Thornback also lists the 'Top 20' opportunities to earn extra cash from home on her Website.

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5 Easy Ways to Make Money Using Paypal

Paypal has been a very popular place for people looking to make money online. In this article you will find 5 easy ways to make money using paypal. These are all techniques both newbies and veterans use and even if you have no experience at making money online, there are many options and all you have to do is try them! Hopefully these 5 ways to make money using paypal will help you get started!

Before we get to the techniques though, it is important that you set up a paypal account. once you're done with that, these 5 different ways to make money all offer great benefits:

1. E-bay:

E-bay is one of the largest online stores in the world where anyone can sell anything. All you have to do here is set up an e-bay account and sell anything you'd like. Whether it be one of your old props you don't want anymore or if you have some collectible item that is of value, E-bay is quite possibly the best place to sell it because you can auction it and find some really good buyers! The set up is very easy and you will receive all the money you earn through paypal.

2. Blogging:

Blogging involves making an internet journal. Blogspot is the most popular one because anyone can set up a blogging website and post entries in there. Based on what your blog is based on, you can attract viewers and link them to your e-bay page or anything else you're selling online.

3. Affiliate Marketing:

This is my favorite technique because it offers very little liability. Affiliate marketing involves you selling other people's items and making a commission on every sale. E-bay offers affiliate programs, but I stick to clickbank (free guide provided later on). Affiliate marketing is quite possibly one of the easiest and most profitable ways to make money using paypal.

4. Craig's list:

Craig's list is a popular website where people put up something to sell. It is like e-bay but is free. It doesn't get as much attention as e-bay but it definitely has a lot of potential to make money if you have something of value. You can even promote other people's items from popular websites like clickbank and commission junction, put them up on Craig's list and let it make money over and over!

5. Article marketing:

This is the technique I use to generate $1,000s every month. It is very easy and doesn't even involves paypal. All you do is register on clickbank and promote products and make money by just writing articles!

It is a very easy task once you try it a couple of times you will be amazed at how much money you can make. You can get a free 27 page guide on how to make $1,000s doing article marketing here!

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Money Making Scams - Avoid 5 Internet Money Making Scams

There are many Internet business opportunities available online, and the scams follows them around! In this article, I will help you identify the 5 common money making scams that most of the online business newbie always fell into.

Scam #1 - Get Rich Quick Scheme.

Many program, e-books, video courses claimed to help people get rich quick, and I assure you these are scams in some ways... Just ignore them and learn the proper way to make money online - Internet marketing!

Scam #2 - You Can Make Money Easily.

Anything that claimed to be easy is already or eventually will be crowded with people, only the hard way that most people ignore will let you make money easily! Most people think making money online is very easy, and eventually they gave up trying due to wrong expectation!

Scam #3 - Pyramid Scheme.

Any Multi-level marketing with more than 2 levels, in my dictionary is scam! Customer will need to pay more to sustain the commissions, I don't like too many levels scheme, they don't focus on providing a good product and services.

Scam #4 - Pay To Join Affiliate Program.

Some affiliate program claim that they can make you tons of money, but requires you to purchase their product or charge a sign up fees. My suggestion: ignore them! A good affiliate product and service will NEVER ask their affiliate to pay money before they earn!

Scam #5 - You Don't Have To Know Marketing.

Some how I heard someone saying: You don't have to know marketing to be successful online...Ignore them, because you need to know everything about online marketing before you can earn enough money to sustain your life!

These are the most common money making scams, you must be able to identify and avoid them before you can build a successful online business!

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