To Daydreaming Travelers: All That Extra “Stuff” Is Holding You Back

Sane, thoughtful people know that money doesn’t buy happiness. Nothing new there. But sometimes it’s hard for day-dreaming cubicle jockeys to imagine quitting a cushy 9-to-5 desk job to pursue their fantasies of long-term travel.

Good news according to a recent article in Newsweek:

Psychologists have spent decades studying the relation between wealth and happiness,” writes Harvard University psychologist Daniel Gilbert in his best-selling “Stumbling on Happiness,” “and they have generally concluded that wealth increases human happiness when it lifts people out of abject poverty and into the middle class but that it does little to increase happiness thereafter.

LifeHacker sums it up best:

If you can get yourself into the comfort of middle class living, keep in mind that the longer and harder hours you’re putting in to climb the ladder from this point on probably won’t make you any happier.

You really can live without your twice-daily Starbucks and a new late model Beemer. All that extra “stuff” is only holding you back. Start saving now and you’ll be one-step closer to realizing your travel dreams!