When Money Matters

Old sayings notwithstanding, a recent study finds that for people grappling with disabilities, money can buy happiness. Whether finances and good cheer spawn good health, however, remains a subject of debate.

The man in the TV commercial wins the lottery, then he shouts and dances and, presumably, laughs all the way to his bank. But his elation won't last long, say experts, because money can't buy happiness, at least for most people.

Financial windfalls might not lead to cheerier futures, but a new study suggests that when confronted with a serious health crisis, having a sizable nest egg can keep people from becoming lonely and sad. Whether feelings of contentment can guarantee everyone better health or longer life, however, is not yet clear. After years of studying how bad feelings dampen vitality, researchers are just beginning to turn their attention to the potential benefits of a sunny disposition. If health, wealth, and happiness are somehow connected, the road to physical and emotional well-being could be paved by sound financial planning and government programs that serve as a safety net for the poor and disabled.

To date, scientists who've looked for a link between wealth and mirth have come up short. "Happiness is amazingly robust against socioeconomic status," says social psychologist Nancy Adler of the University of California, San Francisco. Instead, an individual's mood seems to have a natural set point, spiking and dipping based on experiences--whether breaking the bank in Vegas or breaking a hip in the bathtub. After a time, however, people's psyches revert to their preset level, says David Myers, a happiness researcher at the appropriately named Hope College in Holland, Michigan.

New research, however, indicates that money does matter--at least for a couple of years--when a person experiences serious health problems. Peter Ubel and his colleagues at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, examined the health, happiness, and income records of 500 people who became disabled over the course of a decade--developing difficulty walking, dressing, or carrying something hefty, for example. In a paper appearing this month in Psychological Science, the researchers reveal that wealthier folks showed less of a mood plunge when they became disabled than did the poorer adults. Two years after the disabling event, individuals whose assets were above the median felt 10 times better about themselves than did those with fewer assets.

But as in the world of lottery winners, the effect didn't last indefinitely. After an additional 2 years, Ubel found, the happiness difference between the rich and the poor had started to fade--the rich felt worse, and the poor felt better. The results make sense: Individuals who have access to resources in a time of crisis probably experience less stress, says clinical and health psychologist Linda Gallo of the University of California, San Diego: "But maybe those resources … only go so far as to attenuate the negative aspects of disability."

For people dealing with a physical setback, money can buy at least a temporary emotional reprieve. But whether a positive state of mind can then foster fitness is still an open question. Some research suggests it can. "There is provocative evidence that people who have higher levels of true happiness have lower levels of mortality and morbidity," says health psychologist Sheldon Cohen of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He exposed a group of equally healthy volunteers to the virus that causes the common cold and found that participants who reported "more enthusiasm and more positive emotions" were less likely to get sick. Other researchers have seen positive emotions correlate with reduced amounts of inflammation.

But not all studies find such a link. "Health and happiness don't always track," says Adler. Ubel and colleagues have found that dialysis patients report the same good moods as do people with strong kidneys, for example.

The connection between health and happiness is a very difficult one to study, says Cohen, in part because identifying the cause and the effect can be problematic: It's hard to say whether being merry is actually good for one's health--or whether being healthy engenders high spirits.

While some researchers continue to investigate the potential health benefits of happiness, others are placing their bets on money: Several studies have shown that people who are well off financially are also well off physically, says Adler. "When you look at the socioeconomic status gradient, the higher you are, the better health you enjoy," she says. For example, in a study of more than 10,000 seniors, epidemiologist David Melzer of the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom found that the semiskilled men at the bottom of the workplace totem pole suffered through an average of 6 months more disability--the inability to handle day-to-day tasks--than did guys with higher paying jobs. And the executives lived longer as well--2 years more, on average, than their friends who ran the checkout counters.

Given the possible connections among health, wealth, and happiness, some researchers espouse strong government programs that could improve the nation's health by protecting the pocketbooks of its most vulnerable citizens, particularly seniors on fixed incomes. Universal health care should be the first step, says Gallo. Researchers should also look to other, nonmaterial factors that people might be able to exploit to prop up their well-being. For example, among disadvantaged people, those who feel they have some control over their lives report being just as happy as those who are richer, she says.

As for how to maximize well-being now, Ubel warns that a solid savings account might generate more happiness--and ultimately better health--than the impulse buys that bring fleeting joy. "Don't expect the things you buy in good times to carry you through when you have trouble," he says. "If you are not saving money for a rainy day, you are putting yourself at risk." Instead of splurging on an iPod, for example, Ubel recommends springing for disability insurance, which covers the bills when health troubles prevent someone from working. In the end, the happiest--and healthiest--people probably won't be the ones who were waiting for the lottery to save them.

Mary Beckman is a writer in southeast Idaho whose happiness distracts her from planning for financial misfortune.