Growing up, I was raised to not be materialistic. I did not need fancy gifts on my birthday, and I never needed the expensive clothes or the newest technology that was seen as ¨trendy.¨ I believed that those things did not make a person happy, but as I got older, something changed.

I remember hearing a quote once by Coco Chanel. It went, ¨The best things in life are free, the second best things are very expensive.” I think about that quote a lot, and the older I get, the more I realize that to me, saying that money cannot buy happiness is not true.

Now do not get me wrong, this is not an op-ed telling you to try to buy everything in hopes to make you happy. Rather, it is trying to get people to see that purchases can create happiness, and that there is nothing wrong with that.

I think the biggest reason people do not admit that money can buy happiness is because it has a negative and almost greedy connotation to it. I am not saying that happiness can only be bought, because that is not true. And I am definitely not saying that you should just spend all your money and hope it brings you happiness, because if I am being brutally honest, that will never happen. The truth is, money cannot buy you complete happiness, but it can be a huge contributing factor to bringing you pieces of happiness.

Travel is one of the biggest reasons that I believe money can buy happiness. In my opinion, travel makes you richer than you were before. Let me break it down: you buy everything that goes into traveling, the plane ticket, the hotel, etc. But you get back experience that stays with you forever.

Another great example of purchasing happiness is spending money on others. For me, I strive to make people happy. Giving is what I love to do most. So spending money on others brings me so much happiness. Whether it is a $3 cup of coffee or a $30 gift card, giving brings happiness and therefore so does money.

I believe the way you spend your money has to do with how happy it makes you. Blowing all your money in one spot will most likely cause stress rather than happiness. You could choose to buy a new camera, a concert ticket, or new clothes, and they could bring you happiness. It really just depends on who you are and how you chose to spend your money.

With or without a ton of money, it is fully possible to be happy. Though I believe money is one thing that can bring you happiness, I know it is not the only thing. It is not about only relying on money to make you happy; it is about finding the balance between happiness and money.