The Real Reason Money Will Never Make You Happy (What I Wish I Knew at 20)

And Here’s Why That Matters

A few months ago, I read something by Morgan Housel that completely changed how I think about money. He said most people don’t actually want to be rich. They just want to feel rich. That difference changes everything.

When I was twenty, I thought freedom came with a number. A figure in the bank. Some magical amount that would make me stop worrying. But that number kept moving every time I got close. Like the horizon. Always out of reach.

For a long time, I confused progress with satisfaction. Making more, having more, accumulating more. Every small victory gave me a quick high, followed by a strange emptiness that I tried to fill with the next goal. I called it ambition. But it was addiction.

It took me years to realize the problem wasn’t money. It was the brain. Everything starts to make sense once you understand what your brain truly wants. In general, it doesn’t care about fancy cars or big houses. What it wants is dopamine. That’s it.

Your brain only wants dopamine.

As the book Dopamine