The Chips and Guac Principle: Money, Happiness, and Metrics of Fulfillment

By Sanjeev Kumar

The Chips and Guac Principle, Sanjeev Kumar's debut book, uncovers the role money has on our emotions, our happiness, and what we value in life. It explores our true passions and how to center our lives around that passion. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: New Degree Press
• Release date: May 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9798885042499

Book preview

The Chips and Guac Principle

Money, Happiness, and Metrics of Fulfillment

Sanjeev Kumar

new degree press

copyright © 2022 Sanjeev Kumar

All rights reserved.

The Chips and Guac Principle

Money, Happiness, and Metrics of Fulfillment

ISBN

979-8-88504-137-9 Paperback

979-8-88504-770-8 Kindle Ebook

979-8-88504-249-9 Digital Ebook

To my mom, who has always been

my number-one supporter.

Contents

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Introduction

Chapter 1

Guacamole

Chapter 2

Is Anybody Really Happy?

Chapter 3

Emotions Are a Social Construct

Chapter 4

Can I Plan to Be Happy?

Chapter 5

Money Can Buy Happiness

Chapter 6

Money Isn’t the Only Factor for Happiness

Chapter 7

The Harms of Wanting the World for Your Children

Chapter 8

. . . So What Now?

Acknowledgments

Appendix

Introduction

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Power Rangers, Disney Channel, and apple juice were the classic trifecta of my after-school adventures. Crashing on my couch after a long day of multiplication tables and binge-watching PBS Kids until my bedtime seemed like the peak of childhood. My mom always brought Goldfish crackers during commercial breaks, making the ads for Gerber baby food bearable. Things at school weren’t complicated either. My friends and I faced off in rap battles in the cafeteria and ruled the swing set during recess. The worst thing that happened was spending thirty minutes on my homework every night, God forbid. But life was good. This felt like genuine happiness to me: having the ability to do whatever I wanted with whoever I wanted without a care in the world.

However, as I grew older, my problems and concerns grew along with me. They became more complex every year. With academic stress and societal pressures piling on my shoulders, it was difficult for me to maintain my vision of happiness. I tried to make time to go bowling on the weekends and binge-watch hours of The Office with my friends, but sacrificing these hours to study for my next midterm became more frequent. My mind steered away from the good old days and shifted toward potentially amazing futures. Attending the best universities in the country, earning a job at a top investment banking firm, and making a seven-figure salary was now my dream. My motivations became financially driven, wanting to make the most money for the best lifestyle.

Stability and status were the biggest takeaways from my high school career. All my peers aimed to attend Harvard or Stanford to pursue a career in law, medicine, or engineering. The fact of the matter was none of my classmates had a passion for anything besides a career that would earn them hundreds of thousands of dollars in the future. This wasn’t just among the students, though. Many parents would consistently push the notion that we as students had to be educated, not for the purpose of knowledge and bettering the world but for our own personal wants and desires. Making money was bound to provide us with financial stability, which would inevitably make us happy, or at least that’s what I was told. The more money I make, the easier life will be, and therefore I should be happy, right?

I led myself to believe money and happiness had to be intertwined. People with money must be happy, and people without money lack happiness. To some extent, this is true. Without money, one would worry about where their next meal will come from and struggle to find shelter. Having a steady income could resolve this by offering the basic needs for survival. As a person’s income increases, one can afford more luxuries. Rather than just having enough money to purchase food, one could have meals of their choice. Rather than settling for the clothes one can afford, one can shop at high-end retail stores. It may seem like a great system where more money would lead to more happiness, but to what extent? If I buy the best brand-name clothes and the most expensive watches on the market, would that make me happier than buying products that are a bit cheaper? If I did end up having these clothes to wear, would my happiness be sustainable into the future?

Happiness is a very subjective experience that differs between each person. So having money to purchase materialistic desires like clothes and jewelry may make some people happy. But what does it really mean to be happy? I knew happiness as hanging out with my friends and eating Goldfish crackers at the age of twelve. But that has changed. Six years later, I knew happiness as earning hundreds of thousands of dollars and living in a large house. But that has changed. In six more years, my personal definition of happiness could change again with new experiences and opportunities. However, billions of other people on Earth who have already had these experiences studied the various factors toward self-fulfillment. Happiness has shifted from being a qualitative subject to substantial data that supports trends on what defines being happy.

This book will explore the principles of self-fulfillment and how money plays a significant role in our perception of happiness. Whether it be the role of money itself and how materialism shifted our understanding of joy, or the role of classism and socioeconomic statuses that affect societal views of happiness, we will go deeper into the roots of how one can take control of their own happiness by first taking control of one’s financial desires. However, it’s essential to recognize that money is not the determining factor when it comes to one’s happiness. So many other moving parts must be taken into consideration, including demographics, purpose, drive, and personal beliefs. Understanding the role of money is simply one aspect that helps to get a holistic view on how to be happier and more fulfilled in life. As a college student, I am now transitioning into a life of independence and free will, so I want to help myself and other young adults make the smartest decisions to prevent living a life full of regrets. We will talk about how both money and happiness operate within one another and what steps you can take to live a better life in terms of joy and self-satisfaction.

Chapter 1

Guacamole

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Taco Tuesday is a ritual I commit to.