Ray Dalio: Can Money Buy Happiness? | AI Podcast Clips
00:00:00.000 | - You're, if I may say so,
00:00:03.320 | one of the richest people in the world.
00:00:05.280 | So you're a good person to ask, does money buy happiness?
00:00:10.800 | - No, it's been shown that once you get over
00:00:15.800 | a basic level of income, so that you can take care
00:00:19.640 | of the pain, you know, health and whatever,
00:00:23.720 | there's no correlation between the level of happiness
00:00:27.600 | that one has and the level of money that one has.
00:00:30.960 | That thing that has the highest correlation
00:00:35.280 | is quality relationships with others, community.
00:00:39.180 | If you look at surveys of these things
00:00:41.240 | across all surveys in all societies,
00:00:44.240 | it's a sense of community and interpersonal relationships.
00:00:49.160 | That is not in any way correlated with money.
00:00:52.100 | You can go down to native tribes in, you know,
00:00:55.620 | very poor places or you can go in all different communities.
00:00:59.960 | And so they have the opportunity to have that.
00:01:02.680 | I'm very lucky in that I started with nothing,
00:01:06.480 | so I had the full range.
00:01:07.800 | I can tell you, you know, by not having money,
00:01:10.640 | and then having quite a lot of money,
00:01:13.400 | and I, you know, I did that in the right order.
00:01:15.520 | - So you started from nothing in Long Island.
00:01:17.360 | - Yeah, and my dad was a jazz musician,
00:01:20.120 | but I had all really that I needed
00:01:22.680 | because I had two parents who loved me
00:01:25.280 | and took good care of me, and I went to a public school
00:01:28.440 | that was a good public school,
00:01:30.280 | and basically, you know, you don't need much more than that
00:01:33.600 | in order to, that's the equal opportunity part.
00:01:36.460 | Anyway, what I'm saying is no, I experienced the range,
00:01:40.280 | and there are many studies on the answer to your question.
00:01:44.160 | No, money does not bring happiness.
00:01:46.360 | Money gives you an ability to make choices.
00:01:52.120 | - Does it get in the way in any way
00:01:57.040 | of forming those deep, meaningful relationships?
00:02:00.080 | - It can.
00:02:01.120 | There are lots of ways that it makes negative.
00:02:02.840 | That's one of them.
00:02:04.000 | It could stand in the way of that, yes, okay,
00:02:08.000 | but I could almost list the ways that it could stand,
00:02:11.240 | it could be a problem.
00:02:12.320 | - Yeah, what does it buy?
00:02:14.920 | So if you can elaborate, you mentioned a bit of freedom.
00:02:19.080 | - At the most fundamental level,
00:02:20.920 | it doesn't take a whole lot, but it takes enough,
00:02:24.840 | that you can take care of yourself and your family
00:02:29.840 | to be able to learn, do the basics of,
00:02:36.000 | have the relationships, have healthcare,
00:02:41.280 | the basics of those types of things.
00:02:44.000 | You know, you can cover the patients,
00:02:46.080 | and then to have maybe enough security,
00:02:49.800 | but maybe not too much security.
00:02:51.800 | - That's right, yeah.
00:02:52.920 | - That you essentially are okay.
00:02:57.240 | Okay, that's really good.
00:03:00.160 | And you don't, that's what money will get you.
00:03:03.640 | - And everything else could go either way.
00:03:06.040 | There's no correlation. - Well, no, there's more.
00:03:07.440 | - There's more. - Okay.
00:03:09.280 | Then beyond that, what it then starts to do,
00:03:12.960 | that's the most important thing.
00:03:14.600 | But beyond that, what it starts to do
00:03:17.480 | is to help to make your dreams happen in various ways.
00:03:22.320 | Okay, so for example, now I, you know, like in my case,
00:03:26.980 | those dreams might not be just my own dreams,
00:03:31.560 | they're impact on others' dreams, okay?
00:03:35.220 | So my own dreams might be, I don't know,
00:03:39.840 | I can pass along these, at my stage in life,
00:03:43.100 | I can pass along these principles to you,
00:03:44.880 | and I can give those things, or I can do whatever,
00:03:49.320 | I can go on an adventure, I can start a business,
00:03:54.320 | I can do those other things, be productive,
00:03:57.520 | I can self-actualize in ways
00:04:00.200 | that might be not possible otherwise.
00:04:03.780 | That's my own belief.
00:04:07.560 | And then I can also help others.
00:04:10.480 | I mean, this is, you know, to the extent,
00:04:12.280 | when you get older, and with time, and whatever,
00:04:14.920 | you start to feel connected, spirituality,
00:04:18.320 | that's what I'm referring to,
00:04:19.440 | you can start to have an effect on others
00:04:21.360 | that's beneficial, and so on, gives you the ability.
00:04:24.000 | I could tell you that people who are very wealthy,
00:04:28.620 | who have that, feel that they don't have enough money.
00:04:31.840 | Bill Gates will feel almost broke,
00:04:34.680 | because relative to the things he'd like to accomplish,
00:04:38.520 | through the Gates Foundation and things like that,
00:04:41.240 | you know, oh my God, he doesn't have enough money
00:04:43.640 | to accomplish the things he wishes for.
00:04:45.920 | But those things are not, you know,
00:04:48.760 | they're not the most fundamental things.
00:04:51.080 | So I think that people sometimes think money has value.
00:04:55.760 | Money doesn't have value.
00:04:57.960 | The money is, like you say, just a medium of exchange
00:05:00.980 | at a store, although, well, and so what you have to say
00:05:04.340 | is what is it that you're going to buy?
00:05:06.880 | Now, there are other people who get their gratification
00:05:09.600 | in ways that are different from me,
00:05:11.960 | but I think in many cases, let's say somebody
00:05:15.000 | who used money to have a status symbol,
00:05:18.360 | what would I say, or that's probably unhealthy.
00:05:21.720 | But then, I don't know, somebody who says,
00:05:24.600 | I love a great, gorgeous painting,
00:05:27.640 | and it's gonna cost lots of money.
00:05:29.440 | In my priorities, I can't get there.
00:05:33.360 | But that doesn't mean, who am I to judge others
00:05:38.000 | in terms of, let's say, their element of the freedom
00:05:40.560 | to do those things.
00:05:41.680 | So it's a little bit complicated,
00:05:43.400 | but by and large, that's my view on money and wealth.
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