Money

Everyone says money doesn’t buy happiness, but it clearly has something to do with it. You can’t be very happy if you’re deeply in debt and about to lose your house because you don’t have enough money to make the mortgage payments, for instance. So some money is necessary, but it does have diminishing returns. Once you have all your basic needs met, and have enough to make yourself comfortable and do the things you enjoy, getting more money doesn’t really help an awful lot.

I see money as more of a hygiene factor and less of a motivator: having more of it doesn’t really make you happy, but having less of it can definitely make you unhappy.

Money has been on my mind a lot lately due to an unexpected issue with my teeth. I got an abscess beneath one of my teeth that infected the one next to it as well. The root canal treatments failed and I had to have both teeth surgically extracted. So far, I’ve spent about $1,800 on that, but the worst is yet to come. Because the two teeth are together, I can’t get a bridge. So I need either a denture, or implants. Implants are the best solution, but come with a $12,000 price tag.

Now, I have that money currently in investments, but I had it in mind to one day think about buying a house or apartment of my own. I’m at least a year away from having enough of a deposit to even consider it, but spending that money on my teeth would put that goal back another year or more.

I’ve still got three months or so to make the decision about what I want to do about my teeth, but it’s raised all kinds of questions in my mind about what exactly is my money for? I love the apartment I’m renting, but I would never buy it due to it being leasehold. I’ve always vaguely had an idea that I would buy a place, but I could never buy a place even a fraction as nice or as convenient as the place I’m currently renting. Perhaps I don’t really need to buy at all? But I hate moving with a passion, and don’t want to be at the mercy of a landlord’s financial situation again.

All this angst over my goals in life caused by a couple of teeth!