Does Money Make Life Easier or Harder?

If you had all the money in the world, do you think it would make your life easier? Or, is there more to personal happiness than money?

Let’s be honest: Being rich and having a lot of money would make life “easier”. Money buys you a house. It pays for your car. It can accommodate a luxurious lifestyle. It covers your food.

Food and shelter are non-negotiable essentials. However, is life really about those other materialistic things? Don’t get me wrong, owning expensive cars and mansions would be nice, but there are far more important things to consider.

Think of it like this: You can buy a gold-plated, diamond-encrusted car worth millions, and you would be getting exactly what you paid for; a car with a small fortune of treasure embedded into it. This purchase may inspire envy in others, but I doubt it would make your life any more personally meaningful.

In comparison, you could backpack around an entire country for $1,000 or less (depending on where you backpacked) and meet new people and gain experiences you will remember and cherish for the rest of your life.

Just because money makes life easier doesn't mean it makes life better. Going down the cheap path in examples like backpacking will provide a far more interesting and adventurous trip than living luxuriously and staying in only the nicest places.

Money, in general, does have one major downside: It controls the world. Money and goods equivalent to money (oil, gold, et cetera) start wars. Countries invade other countries to gain control of their “money”; this results in many innocent people and soldiers dying for reasons they're not even aware of.

Yet, on a smaller scale, money can also be the deciding factor if someone is successful or not in life. A kid who is a creative genius waiting to be uncovered can be majorly disadvantaged if their family cannot afford a decent education for them. On the other hand, a kid who has nowhere near as much potential could go further in life because their parents earned more money and could afford a better education.

Examples like this are what can make having money a huge factor in whether your life is “easy” or “hard”. In conclusion, money does make life “easier”, but it doesn't make your life more meaningful or any better.

It's all about personal preference; someone who is living on a budget could enjoy life way more than someone swimming in money. It's all about who you are.

Congratulations to Cayde for winning this week's writing challenge: Does Money Make Life Easier or Harder? Cayde wins a $50 Westfield gift card for his submission. For your chance to win, check out our latest writing challenges in our Comps section. Also, be sure to follow this guide on how to win the writing challenge!

Photo: iStock.com/Kritchanut