There’s nothing wrong with wanting more money to pay bills, buy special items, or save for retirement, but does it bring true happiness?

How many of us have heard the expression, "Money is the root of all evil?" It denigrates money, but it also does something else; it denies a person's ability to discern good from evil. Without offering a path for charitable pursuits and philanthropic endeavors, it portrays money as a dangerous course leading to moral decline.

We have to wonder what the likes of Andrew Carnegie, and the titans of business who have had museums, universities, and medical schools named after them, thought of their vast wealth. Were the donations a means of gaining income tax advantages or creating a place in perpetuity for themselves? Or did they have a need and a wish to perpetuate culture and learning, and their money was the means to do this?

Thinking of money and lots of it, brings thoughts of both charity and selfishness, and, in my mind, the Charles Dickens story, "A Christmas Carol." Dickens not only brings us into the home of a humble accountant, working for a selfish, nasty, very wealthy old man, but has sparked something new in research called "The Scrooge Factor." When does Scrooge decide to become a more giving, lovable individual? It comes once he is reminded of his mortality and how being alone at this special time of the year is terrifying for him. Has Scrooge's money made him happy? That's doubtful.

Terror management theory says that people deal with the anxiety that can come from knowing that death is inevitable by hanging on to sources of value that are important to them in their culture. One source of value is helping others; studies have shown that being reminded of death makes people want to help others more. Sounds like Scrooge, doesn't it? But there’s something else at work here, too.

When someone is materialistic, they value their belongings highly. While people who believe in high materialism keep looking for happiness in things like money, status, and looks, people who believe in self-determination theory (SDT) say that they should meet their basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness in order to be happy. Although materialism is an example of an external drive, it can make it hard to meet psychological needs, which can then hurt one’s own well-being.

Now, the emphasis is more on subjective well-being and what makes us happy or motivates us. As well as overall evaluations, measures of well-being capture judgments of life happiness or fulfillment. These judgments can be applied to specific parts of life, like relationships, community, health, or work.

Happiness, therefore, isn’t constrained by money but by our overall feeling of happiness, which is a conglomeration of many aspects of our lives, money being only one of them and how money contributes to all the others. Are we happier with money? Undoubtedly, it plays a major role in many aspects of our lives, and we can’t deny that, but making it the primary reason to exist in our lives would seem shortsighted.

There are, however, studies that show money can contribute to happiness. It is often found that as income goes up, so does a person’s level of well-being. Do people who make more money feel better? There is a pattern where the average happiness number goes up until a certain income level and then stays the same. But some research indicates it continues to improve with more money. The question remains regarding where individual changes take place in money's role in the lives of the wealthy and how they use money.

Researchers have found that there are two types of well-being (happiness): experienced well-being and reflective well-being. Experienced well-being is how people feel during the moments of their lives. People who make more money feel better every day and are happier with their lives. Being assured of our ability to pay the expenses of our lives and contribute to that of others would certainly give us a sense of satisfaction, aka happiness.

Reflecting on ourselves helps us better understand ourselves, which in turn helps us value our unique point of view more. So, thinking about who we are and what is important to us and enjoying our successes can help us determine how to protect and improve our health and happiness. It’s not always money, but what we can do with it and how it may help us design a path in our lives toward achieving happiness and avoiding that “evil” one.

There is no doubt about it: money helps. No one would deny its role in our lives or the fact that without it, motivation can increase or be crushed.