Despite the assertion proclaimed in a motocar advertisement whoever said 'money can't buy happiness isn't spending it right' the traditional wisdom on this topic remains powerful. But most people don't want to take on faith the traditional advice that money cant buy happiness and wish to find out for themselves. A recent book by psychologist Tim Kasser The high price of materialism (MIT Press 2002) scientifically analyses how our materialistic consumer culture affects happiness and psychological health.

There is no doubt that sever poverty in itself will call cause unhappiness. If your every waking moment is preoccupied with trying to keep body and soul together you cannot live a happy life. But the evidence is strong that, once you have sufficient income to sustain basic necessities and once you live-in a secure social environment , increasing affluence makes little difference to your happiness (See Subjective Well-Being across Cultures MIT Press 2000,by Ronald Inglehart and Hans Diter Klingemann)

Surveys of lottery winners and extremely wealthy people have shown that they claim to be only slightly happier than the average person. Although severe poverty guarantees misery, the accumulation of wealth does not guarantee happiness. Some Arab cultures have a symbol for wealth which is the digit one followed by a large number of zeros. The symbol one represents health. Take it away and you are left just with a bunch of zeroes. Wealth in itself will neither produce happiness or unhappiness. Of much more significance is ones attitude to wealth. Kasser cites convincing evidence in his book that the desire for wealth produces unhappiness in people when this desire rules their value systems.

He claims that there is a reciprocal relationship between materialism and unhappiness. People who are insecure anxious and depressed tend to be more materialistic and after the excitement of their latest acquisition dies down the dull grind of materialism in turn breeds insecurity, anxiety and depression.

Kasser claims that materialistic values are symptomatic of underlying anxiety and represent an ineffective coping mechanism for dealing with these anxieties. He cites studies show materialistic people less satisfied with their lives their families their incomes and their general enjoyment of life.
Suprisingly also Kasser presents evidence that people who feel driven to accumulate wealth place little value on personal autonomy self direction and independent thought. This means that the more driven we are to accumulate wealth the less likely we are to use our wealth to try to enrich our lives.

So what is the secret of happiness? What we each really need is to live lives that contribute to the betterment of the world, to live in a loving family, to feel valued and wanted, to enjoy food health, to develop our talents.

David G Myers gives the following research based suggestions for a happier life.

· Realise that enduring happiness doesn't come from wealth.
· Manage your time
· Act happy you can sometimes act yourself into a frame of mind.
· Seek work and leisure that engages your skills
· Take aerobic exercise
· Get enough sleep
· Foster close relationships
· Reflect on the positive aspects of your life
· Nurture your spiritual self

George Bernard Shaw also gives some good advice 'The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure for it is occupation'

Happiness is something that happens to you as you get on with doing these things. It is a by product of living a balanced life. If you pursue happiness as a goal in itself it will elude you like the end of the rainbow.

There is a principle in the universe that says Whatever it is you want first give it away. It seems there is some truth in this for example if you want to love you must love others, if you want to be trusted you must trust others; if you want respect you must respect others. And you will find that if you are generous with your money, money will come back to you. But treat it lightly.