Happiness works like this.
It is something internal. You should be able to know yourself, be yourself, and be grateful and appreciative. This has nothing to do with people or things. its good to know your passions and purpose. Purpose is not necessarily some higher calling, but knowing what you like, what you are good at, and pursuing it.
Now money. Money, like people can enhance your happiness if you have the first part I mentioned above taken care of. There are a lot of miserable people pursuing money, but they have no passion and purpose. Lottery winners that think money will answer all their problems are suddenly filthy rich and buy a bunch of crap and realize its not making them happy, they have no purpose or passion. When people look to another person to make them happy, or money, its short lived.
In my mind its very simple to understand, sometimes harder to execute, but that is the reality. You have to learn how to be happy rich or poor. You have to have purpose in your life. I personally know filthy rich people on both sides, happy and not happy. Money has nothing to do it, its more what you expect of the money. If you expect it to make you happy that aint gonna happen.
This is very enlightening, give it a watch.
https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy?language=en
Also read up on Maslov's hierarchy of needs.
