Can Money Buy Happiness?

In the book, What Would Jesus Do Today? Mike Cope and Rubel Shelly give us a great list of things money can and cannot provide in our lives. Here is the list:

One more trip to the mall cannot fix you. Money Can buy:

• Sex, but not intimacy
• A house, but not peace
  
• Medicine, but not health
• Amusement, but not joy
• Therapy, but not healing
• A bed, but not sleep
• Allies, but not friends

I love that list. At times I think we all misplace our expectations of money. Notice the internal issues that really add meaning cannot be touched by a magic wand. Those parts of us can only be healed by the One who created us.

The Fourth Thing You Can Do With Money

It is common in Christian financial circles to speak of the three things you can do with money.
Dave Ramsey and Crown Financial Ministries (along with others I'm sure) say you can:

• Give
• Save
• Spend

This is a great, simple summary that is easy to remember.

However, a fourth category may clarify our thinking. What about adding the category "live" as something we can do with money? This would make the four things - give, save, spend, and live. This may help us remember that some spending is the necessary stuff of life. Other spending is just something we have always thought would be cool to own. We all know that purchases can be broken into needs and wants. And it would probably take a long time (can someone say eternity?) for us all to agree that the same items belong in the same list. Nevertheless, this reminds those of us who are seeking to live a simplistic life that there are some forms of spending that are necessary and some spending (gasp) that we can live without.

Try prioritizing how you use money. And yes, the list IS in order of importance.

1. Give
2. Live
3. Save
4. Spend