Statistics Tell The Story

Some very interesting tidbits of information have been produced this week.
Yahoo finance produced a survey relating to money
It is enlightening non the less. What is illustrated here is the falicy
“Nearly 80 percent of U.S. adults say they need more money to feel financially
comfortable, and more than a quarter would have to double — or more than double
their current income to achieve that goal,”  (Yahoo! Finance/Harris Interactive survey.)
Among the other findings:

• More than half of respondents don’t follow a budget
• More than 70 percent say they face a major obstacle to money management
• A quarter would take a cut in pay of more than 15 percent to gain an extra
hour a day with family and loved ones Researchers in the field of well-being said 
they weren’t surprised at the results. “It doesn’t matter what the income level is,
people always think they need more than they have,” says Tim Kasser,
a psychology professor at Knox College in Illinois and author of “The High Price of Materialism.”

Can you see yourself in the above categories?

Americans seem to be drawn into the consumer machine with ease.
The media has become very effective in tranmitting the message that
you can never be satisfied enough with what you have. You must have
more and more to be happy. This is simply not true.
“People always want more money and then, when they get more, they end up wanting more again,
because they adapt to the kinds of things they buy,” explains Richard Easterlin,
a professor of economics at the University of Southern California and a pioneer
in the research on well-being.
“People always have this illusion they’ll be happier if they make more money.
They end up sacrificing family, health, and everything else to make more money
when they’d be better off sacrificing money to spend more time on health and family.”

The study suggested that people are significantly happier when they had more time,
instead of money. There seems to be a correlation between the tow however.
In other words haveing more money CAN equate to having more time. The problem
is that when people make more money, they do not know how to manage it correctly.

“Meanwhile, experts agree that financial comfort can be achieved by carefully managing
the money you have — something 23 percent of survey respondents said they don’t have
the knowledge to do.”

This is why Prosper encourages it’s students to create a spending plan that is meaningful.
Something that really points you in the direction of true fulfillment and not just to
buy more stuff.