MBA2544 Why ‘Money Doesn’t Buy Happiness’ is The Biggest Lie Ever - The $100 MBA Show

Summary

The $100 MBA Show Episode: MBA2544 - Why ‘Money Doesn’t Buy Happiness’ is The Biggest Lie Ever Host: Omar Zenhom Release Date: November 8, 2024

Introduction

In Episode MBA2544 of The $100 MBA Show, host Omar Zenhom challenges the widely held belief that "money doesn't buy happiness." Drawing from personal experiences and insights from experts, Omar argues that while money alone may not guarantee happiness, it plays a crucial role in alleviating stress and providing the freedom necessary to pursue a fulfilling life.

Challenging the Conventional Wisdom

Misleading Nature of the Phrase Omar begins by addressing the common adage, "money doesn't buy happiness," labeling it as misleading. He explains that this phrase implies money is irrelevant to well-being, which contradicts the reality of our modern society where financial stability is essential for survival.

"This phrase suggests that money is irrelevant to your well-being, but that's far from the truth." [02:15]

The Impact of Financial Stress

Leading Cause of Anxiety and Depression Omar highlights that financial stress is a significant contributor to anxiety and depression. Citing the American Psychological Association, he notes that 72% of Americans experience money-related stress regularly.

"Financial stress is one of the leading causes of anxiety and depression." [03:00]

Personal Anecdotes Sharing his own journey from poverty to wealth, Omar underscores how financial struggles can dominate one's life, causing constant worry and limiting personal growth.

"The stress and the burden of being financially strapped is incredible. It's like you can't breathe." [04:45]

Redefining Financial Freedom

Beyond Extravagance Omar clarifies that financial freedom isn't about luxury items like Rolexes or Lamborghinis. Instead, it’s about having enough money to eliminate financial burdens, allowing individuals to focus on more meaningful pursuits.

"Financial freedom in my book is not about Rolexes and Lamborghinis. It's about having enough money to feel free of the burden that money can cause or lack of money can cause you." [05:30]

Essential Needs and Peace of Mind He emphasizes that money is necessary to cover essential needs such as food, shelter, healthcare, and education. While money in the bank doesn't directly create happiness, it provides the means to achieve peace of mind and security.

"Money doesn't directly make you happy, but the lack of money can make you very unhappy." [02:50]

The Role of Entrepreneurship

Path to Financial Independence Omar advocates for entrepreneurship as a viable path to financial freedom. Unlike traditional jobs where income is tied to time, a successful business can generate passive income, offering greater flexibility and security.

"This is why I love entrepreneurship. Because you build an asset that serves you and works for you, even when you sleep." [07:20]

Building Assets and Creating Value By creating a business, individuals can build valuable assets that not only provide income but also contribute positively to society by solving problems and adding value.

"Wealth building is something you should be proud of, not be ashamed of. You're adding value to the world and you are compensated for that value." [10:10]

Happiness as a Choice

Removing Unhappiness Omar echoes Naval Ravikant's philosophy that happiness comes from removing things that cause unhappiness. Financial stability is a key factor in eliminating stressors such as debt and financial insecurity.

"Happiness comes from removing things that make you unhappy. Things like stress, debt, unhealthy work environments." [12:30]

Autonomy and Control Financial independence grants individuals autonomy over their time and life choices, which Omar identifies as critical components of happiness.

"Money gives you control over your time, it gives you control over your life." [18:45]

Practical Steps to Financial Independence

Spending Less Than You Earn A fundamental principle Omar emphasizes is spending less than you earn. By maintaining disciplined spending habits, individuals can save and invest more effectively, paving the way to financial independence.

"Financial independence really is about spending far less than you're actually making." [19:15]

Avoiding Lifestyle Creep Omar warns against lifestyle creep—the tendency to increase spending as income rises. He advises keeping living expenses modest relative to income to ensure sustained financial growth.

"Don't fall into lifestyle creep. Try to be a little behind on your lifestyle so that you don't feel that financial stress." [19:50]

Consistent Income Growth He suggests that entrepreneurship offers limitless income potential compared to fixed incomes from traditional jobs, making it a powerful avenue for achieving financial freedom.

"With business, you are limitless in how much money you can make and earn." [20:00]

The True Purpose of Money

Buying Freedom Omar concludes that the true purpose of money is to buy freedom—freedom to live life on one’s own terms, make meaningful choices, and maximize the limited time available.

"The true purpose of money is to buy freedom. It gives you the power to decide how you spend your days, decide how you spend your life." [17:30]

Supporting Life’s Challenges While money cannot solve all problems, it provides the leverage to better handle life’s inevitable challenges, whether they are health-related, personal, or professional.

"Money is going to give you a better leverage, a better position to be able to battle those things and to overcome them." [19:00]

Conclusion and Call to Action

Omar wraps up the episode by reiterating that money, when managed wisely and used to build assets through entrepreneurship, can significantly enhance one’s quality of life and happiness. He encourages listeners to pursue financial independence as a means to achieve greater personal freedom and fulfillment.

"Wealth building is something you should be proud of, not be ashamed of. You're adding value to the world and you are compensated for that value." [20:10]

For those seeking guidance on their entrepreneurial journey, Omar invites them to explore the resources available at 100-MBA-NET, which offers over 2,500 business lessons, templates, guides, and tutorials to support their path to financial independence.

Key Takeaways

Money's Role: While not a direct source of happiness, money alleviates stress and provides the freedom to pursue meaningful goals.
Financial Stress: A primary source of anxiety and depression; achieving financial stability can significantly improve mental well-being.
Entrepreneurship: A powerful avenue for building wealth and achieving financial independence, offering greater control and passive income.
Happiness as Choice: Removing financial stressors is essential for achieving happiness; autonomy over one’s life is a critical component of well-being.
Practical Financial Management: Spend less than you earn, avoid lifestyle inflation, and focus on building assets to secure financial freedom.

For more insights and actionable strategies on building your business and achieving financial independence, visit The $100 MBA Show on YouTube or explore the extensive resources available at 100mba.net.

Transcript

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Hey everyone, welcome back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm Omar Zenholm and in today's lesson, in today's episode we're going to discuss why Money doesn't buy Happiness is the Biggest lie ever. I was poor for very long, most of my life before I was rich. So I know that this is a lie, okay? And we hear it often in our society and there's many reasons why it's such a popular phrase. But we're going to dig deeper today's episode and I'm going to show you why money actually can solve a lot of your problems and create a lot of happiness in your life. This is a big reason why I have started the Hundred dollar MBA is because I want to help other people become financially independent through building a business. I believe that money can solve a lot of problems for you and open up a lot of doors. Now money its it's not going to make you happy. Like money in the bank is not going to automatically just make you ecstatic, right? Maybe more entirely. But what you can do with that money is going to open up a whole world of ways for you to be able to be content, peaceful. And I'm going to draw from a lot of things I've learned from other people on this topic. But I'm going to also share some examples of my own life. So let's get into it. Did you know that financial stress is one of the leading causes of anxiety and depression? That's according to the American Psychological Association. Now, when we hear this, we're like, yeah, of course, you know, financial stress is horrible. But 72% of Americans report feeling stressed about money at least some of the time in the course of their daily life. Let's talk about why having enough money isn't about extravagance, right? You know, having financial freedom in my book is not about Rolexes and Lamborghinis. It's about having enough money to feel free of the burden that money can cause or lack of money can cause you. Okay? So what we're trying to get to today is how can money make you happy? And how much money do you actually need in order for that to happen? But first I want to talk about why the quote, money doesn't buy happiness is very misleading. Okay? This phrase suggests that money is irrelevant to your well being, but that's far from the truth. In our modern world, you need money to survive. Okay? How are you going to eat, how you're going to sleep, how are you going to protect your family? How are you going to make sure that you're feeling healthy, you have the healthcare you need? Money doesn't directly make you happy, but the lack of money can make you very unhappy. I know firsthand, I live through it, right? The stress and the burden of being financially strapped is incredible. It's like you can't breathe, right? And if you've ever been paycheck to paycheck, you know exactly how that feels. Worrying about bills, worrying about not having enough money for even like gifts for your family on a birthday, or, you know, being able to pay your way through a birthday party at a dinner or something like that, it's incredibly stressful. Okay? That doesn't sound like happiness to me, all right? Now, unless you're going to be a monk and just, you know, kind of disconnect from the modern world, then you need money. You need money and you need a certain amount of money, so you're not worrying about it all the time. Now, I am a believer that happiness is actually a choice. You know, I know people that have money that are financially free, that are financially stable, but are miserable, right? Because they haven't chosen to be happy, they haven't allowed themselves to be happy and are looking for ways to be happy. Okay? So happiness is a choice, but it's kind of like a prerequisite in order for you to be in that position to choose happiness. You need to get from under the burden of not being financially free. You know, the burden of debt, the burden of, you know, strapped for Cash, not being able to pay your bills, all that kind of stuff. Okay? So financial freedom for me means not having to worry about, you know, your essentials, rent, food, unexpected expenses. You need to kind of get to that position in life where you don't really think about money anymore. And it's not on top of mind all the time. You're kind of taking care of that part of your life. And I remember from a very long time in my life, you know, growing up, my parents were immigrants. They came from Egypt to America. They really worked hard, but they struggled financially. We never kind of were financially independent. Money was a big stress in our house. And I remember growing up in my early, I would say 20s, 20s, even my, you know, late teens, thinking to myself, man, if I could just solve this money piece of my life, things would be so much easier. And I really believe that. And in the back of my mind, I thought to myself, well, what if that's not true? What if I do solve it? I'm not happy. And guess what? When I did solve it, I was significantly happier, okay? Because I wasn't worrying about money. Money is a huge stress. If you haven't heard, okay, if I haven't said it enough, but the point here, or lack of money is a big stress. So what I'm trying to get here is once you all this problem of lack of funds, making sure that you have enough money to cover all your expenses and then some, and you're not really thinking about money so much, your mind is open to be creative. Your mind is open to be innovative. Your mind is able to solve bigger problems and fulfill other parts of your life and fulfill you in different ways. So instead of seeing money as a root of all evil, you need to start viewing it as a tool for freedom. Money buys you time. It buys you peace of mind and opportunities to pursue what really matters to you. I believe that you really can't reach your full potential as a human being without being financially free because you are strapped and unable to seek the medical help you need. If you're not feeling healthy, or even if you want to excel in your health and get a coach, or maybe you want to learn something new and get educated, that's going to cost you money. If you want to be able to live in a safe area or environment that costs money. You know, all this is not, you know, some sort of fantasy world that these things happen automatically. You need financial freedom. You need money in order to make that happen. And for me, the ultimate financial freedom is not having to trade Time for money. And this is why I love entrepreneurship. This is why I think entrepreneurship is the way to become financially free. Because even if you're like, you're a banker or some sort of like, financial advisor, or you're like, you know, a hedge fund manager, you're tied to your job. And if you stop doing, doing that job or you say you take a year off, that money's not coming in anymore, your salary's not coming anymore, and you can't live that lifestyle anymore. With entrepreneurship, you build an asset that serves you and works for you, even when you sleep, even when you're on holiday. This is really what we're trying to do here. I'm a big believer that lack of money creates a lot of problems, okay? Wealth is about freedom. Like I mentioned, it's being able to choose how you spend your time. Without money, you're trapped in this cycle I'm talking about. It's a constant stress from financial problem to financial problem. If you have health issues, you can't solve it with getting the best doctors, if broken relationships, you can't get coaching or see somebody that's going to help you through that, you have limited life choices. This is just a fact, okay? And if you're just going to, you know, have a blanket statement, money is evil, or money doesn't solve our problems, and just be blind to this, you are doing yourself a disservice. You're actually stopping yourselves from solving a lot of problems that can really make you a much happier once they're solved. I know because I witness this firsthand. You know, seeing my family being strapped for cash, being very, very tight month over month, and being unhappy because of that, because of all that financial stress. It's hard to be happy when you don't know if the ceiling gonna hold up, right? And if you've ever experienced that or been around that, you know that your main problem in life is not am I self fulfilled, Am I self actualized, Am I living my life's purpose, Am I doing my passion? No, your main problem is, hey, to make sure that I don't have to worry about money anymore. And once you solve that, then you have the liberty to figure out the other stuff, right? You have the freedom to do that stuff. But if your focus is survival, that's exhausting. This is why I'm a big believer in prioritizing building your financial security as a way to improve your quality of life. Whether you're trying to invest in a business, if you're trying to build a business if you're looking to invest in the stock market, whatever it might be, you know, in my opinion, entrepreneurship is one of the best ways to do this. Because you're building assets that are worth something, right? You build a business that earns you money, that earns you income even when you're sleeping. It allows you to employ other people and allow them to become financially independent, all that kind of stuff. And then one day, if you want to sell your business, that's an asset that you can sell, that's like really going to change your life. This to me is huge, okay? This to me is something that was like an unlock in my mind when I learned about it when I was in my early 20s. Like, okay, this is something that I can actually do now. It doesn't happen overnight, but it's definitely worth the investment of time and energy over the years that I spent. Because I could tell you for a fact that when you are financially free, your problems are not problems anymore. I'll tell you why. Because you have perspective, okay? You have perspective. You know what real problems are? You know what real problems are when you didn't have money. Those are real stresses. But there's very few things you can't solve with money, okay? Very few things. And people that want to deny that are just lying to you. They're just lying to you, period. Because if you have the money to spend, there's many things you can invest in to improve your quality of life. And I mentioned a few of them already, but we're getting into them a little bit later. But my point here is that you need to really just commit to the idea that, hey, I need to figure out this financial piece of my life, get financially independent, build a business that allows me to do that. If you commit to that, that's a really good step forward because it means that you are moving towards the direction of getting out of that trap and getting out of that death cycle of financial stress you spent over here.