deVere Investor Insight - Q1 2021

The saying that money and wealth will make you happy is a myth, but it is still around us. We are still told to work hard and study so that we could get a good job and make loads of money. Sure, the money will allow us to buy the luxurious house we have always dreamed of, the fancy cars and the latest technology but does that really mean happiness? Positive psychology defines happiness as the frequent experience of positive emotions and the infrequent experience of negative emotions. There is also a link between life satisfaction, life appreciation and pleasurable moments. A study conducted by Lyubomirsky et al. in 2005, highlighted how happy people are more likely to be successful across all spheres of life, including work, health, income, friendship as well as personal relationships. Over time the distinction between happiness and success became blurred and we started chasing money and wealth, depending on that to make us happy. There lies the problem: we strive and work harder and harder to gain and come out on top. We are fully immersed in improving our job performance to better our salary that we forget about ourselves and our wellbeing. As a result, it is easy for an individual to find oneself alienated, anxious or even feeling depressed, as in search of happiness – what is thought to be happiness – one loses oneself. Luckily, we are living in a time where mental health is being spoken about and the taboo is being slowly pushed away, making it a safe space to talk. Motivational speaker Jay Shetty says, “We need to define what success means for us. We need to redefine what success means.” However, we could easily go on forever discussing and trying to come up with a definition for happiness and success. Nonetheless, we could focus on author Stephen Covey’s definition of success: “If you carefully consider what you want to be said of you in the funeral experience, you will find your definition of success.” Now that is some food for thought. Investor Insight // Q1 - 2021 23