Money and Happiness: A “Little” Paycheck Perspective
If you’re one of the many people on earth whose relative happiness seems to revolve around the dollar amount on your paycheck, the reality of starting out your career in an entry level position may just have you running for a cliff.
You (and I) may think that money is the key to living a happy life, but according to many experts, a six figure salary may buy you a nicer car, but it won’t buy you true happiness.
According to the blog Personal Finance Advice When Money Can Buy Happiness is when the amount you make meets your basic life needs: shelter, food and clothing. When those needs are met, it shouldn’t matter whether you make $100, $1,000 or $100,000 more, you already have the freedom to be happy.
And I would have to agree. Don’t get me wrong, I’m as superficial as the next 22 year old post-college sorority girl. I too dream of driving a nice car, having a closet full of cute new clothes and possessing the cash to eat out every night with my friends. However, when it comes down to it, my long term happiness (and yours too) doesn’t hinge on having the kind of money that makes those things possible.
The bottom line, as I’ve found out in the last six weeks of my new job, is money doesn’t mean happiness. Money means responsibility. None of us want to spend our carefree youth working 12 plus hour days because we have so much to do at work to earn that $80,000 paycheck. So, what we twenty-somethings need is not a bigger paycheck but a massive attitude adjustment. We have our whole lives to work ourselves to the bone chasing the ever-growing cash carrot. Why not enjoy living within our means (at least for now).
Not convinced? Check these out:
- 5 Way a Big Check Can Backfire from CNN.com
- Money Wont Buy You Happiness from Forbes.com
- Why Money Doesn’t Buy Happiness from Newsweek
image from azmythfinancial.com
The Best Herb Out There? It’s Mint (.com).
Maybe you already know about the best Web site ever, but, my friends, I have just been enlightened. It’s called mint.com. For those of us working with a limited budget (along with a coffee and shopping habit), mint.com is a helpful tool for tracking where the hell all your money is going.
You simply input your online banking logins and passwords (I have my checking/savings and credit card accounts on there), and it puts all of your incoming and outgoing transactions into categories. With those categories, mint.com tracks your spending on a really nifty flash player pie graph. You can click through to find out the percentage of your monthly income you spend on groceries, rent, utilities or, say, coffee. You can also narrow it down even further to find out how much you spend each month at a specific restaurant or store, say, Starbucks.
The site also allows you to set budgets for categories, like groceries, and will email you in the event that you go over your allotted budget for the month. In addition, you can compare your spending habits with other people in your city (I’m not yet sure why you would want to do this, but with mint.com you can). The site provides information on available high interest savings accounts, and in the coming months, it will also allow you to track your investments.
If you’re worried about security, you shouldn’t be. Mint Software, Inc. is a licensee of the TRUSTe Web Privacy Seal Program. You’re not convinced by my naive understanding of internet security? Check out How Mint Keeps You Safe. They’re better at explaining it. Happy budgeting!
image from mint.com
Let’s Talk About Money, Baby.
In the spirit of addressing every topic associated with finding, getting and keeping a job in PR, I thought is was time to utter that four letter word that we all think about but rarely utter: cash.
According to salary.com, the average yearly salary for a “public relations manager” is $78,917. The number that is often thrown
around for PR professionals with less than two years of experience hovers around $40,000. In case you didn’t know already, the latter group is most likely us.
Now that you are comfortable with the reality of our first of couple years in PR, let’s get some advice from Jon Morrow, author of the blog On Moneymaking. How I Got a Six-Figure Salary Right Out of College outlines three tips for making more money right out of college.
1. Start building your resume early. Your relevant work experience is crucial to landing a good job.
2. Get noticed by the right people. Networking within the PR industry while in college is essential to your success.
3. Forget about doing what you love for a while. The odds of you landing a great job are higher if you remain open minded about job prospects in different branches of the PR industry.
image from internationalpropertyinvestment.com
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