Rich Ape vs. Rich Human

Thus your own experience likely tells you that money does not buy happiness. Financial advisors are the group closest to Americans and their wealth and can see up close that millionaires, much like the poor, may be less happy than the merely "comfortable"—and for the same reason. Both are prone to extreme money worries.

It is easy to see how those struggling to put food on the table experience profound anguish, as would a millionaire who is the target of a lawsuit or a billionaire whose children are taking an unenergetic approach to their own lives and careers.

And yet a poor person who performs exhausting manual labor but can feed his family probably sleeps with much more satisfaction than many CEOs. Happiness really just depends, but primarily on non-financial factors.

Human beings are not apes who, if materially satisfied, will play without a care in the world. A rich ape (i.e., one with an abundant supply of fruit and nuts) would not worry that her offspring lack motivation or can't sustain personal relationships.

But rich humans are never satisfied because for us money is but a means but is not by itself meaningful. It is through the refinement of character, the building of relationships and the expenditure of effort to achieve worthy ends that we are likeliest to find happiness regardless of our economic, social or demographic standing.

Financial advisors are in the money business and need to know that that is not the same thing as the happiness business, that living a good life is far likelier to bring contentment than what is widely regarded in our materialistic society as the good life.