A friend of mine once said with total conviction: “If I could just make $80,000 a year, I’d be happy.”
That wasn’t just small talk; it was a figure he had calculated carefully in his head for a long time—enough to pay the rent, eat well, and stop stressing over every expense. In his imagination, reaching that milestone would make life lighter and his heart calmer. Back then, $80,000 was like a door: he just had to open it to find peace.
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1. When you hit the goal, happiness visits—then leaves fast
Eventually, that day came. My friend’s income actually hit the mark. The joy was real, but it didn’t stay long.
Only a few weeks later, that exhilarating feeling quickly turned into the “new normal.” Life was still full of pressure. He was still tired. He was still comparing himself to others. The old anxieties were still there; they were just covered up by a prettier number on a paycheck. And then, quite naturally, my friend started looking at people who earned even more. A new thought emerged: “Maybe it’s just not high enough. If it were $100,000, or $150,000, then things would definitely be different.”
The “enough” figure had quietly moved on, without a word of warning.
“The tragedy of wealth isn’t having no money; it’s that no matter how much you have, it never feels like enough.”
2. When happiness becomes a chase
The money increased, but the sense of fulfillment did not. The issue didn’t actually lie with the $80,000 or $100,000 figure. It lay in the fact that every time we reach a goal, our standard for happiness is pushed higher based on comparisons with others.
Happiness, at this point, is no longer an internal sense of peace; it becomes an exhausting external chase:
- Someone else is ahead $\rightarrow$ I feel like I’m lacking.
- Someone else has more $\rightarrow$ I feel like I haven’t made it.
And so, the race never ends. My friend wasn’t poor, but he never felt wealthy—simply because there was always someone out there doing better than him.
3. When money becomes a question with no answer
“How much money do you need to be happy?” It sounds like a perfectly logical question, but it’s actually a subtle trap. If happiness depends on a number, it will never be fixed. That number always fluctuates according to your environment, the people around you, and societal standards.
Today, this number is enough to be happy, but tomorrow, seeing someone else with more makes us feel deprived. It’s not because our lives got worse, but because the feeling of “enough” doesn’t come from a bank account—it comes from how we look at ourselves.
4. Money should be the background, not the finish line
Is it bad to set a goal to make a lot of money? I don’t think so. Financial goals can be a powerful motivation to improve ourselves and move forward. However, if we set material wealth as the sole measure of human value, or if we chase after external glamour, things are no longer right.
I’m not advising you to “not make money,” nor am I telling you to be “content with very little.” I’m simply saying: don’t tie your sense of happiness to a number that is always running away.
Money should be a tool that helps you: worry less, fear less, and be forced less to live against your true nature… not something to make yourself suffer. The feeling of “enough” must come from knowing what you are living for, not what income bracket you stand in. Otherwise, you will always be busy earning more—not to live better, but to escape a feeling of “insufficiency” that was never resolved from within.
“Happiness never asks how much money you have in your pocket. It only asks one thing: ‘Have you allowed yourself to feel like you have enough?'”
What is your “enough” figure right now? And if you reached it, do you believe you would stop to enjoy it, or would you continue to set an even more distant milestone? Share your perspective so we can re-evaluate the true meaning of wealth!
