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Looking for happiness through financial success? Wondering what the magic number is? It's $40,000. Really. So pick a job you are going to enjoy instead of one that makes a lot of money -- just be sure your job will get you to that $40,000 mark.

In fact, this salary guideline is well established in research: the first $40,000 makes a big difference in a person's level of happiness. Happiness is dependent on being able to meet basic needs for food, shelter, and clothing. After meeting those needs you have to turn to something other than consumerism, because additional money has negligible impact on how happy you are. Your level of happiness is instead largely dependent on your outlook.

Here are some of the ways people have reported they’ve manifested money in the Million Dollar Experiment so far:

• Finding new ways to monetize assets they already own (several people have started making money with Google Adsense or Chitika eMiniMalls)


• Unexpected checks arriving in the mail (rebates, tax refunds, etc.)


• Finding money (usually coins; one person reported finding a $20 bill on the ground)


• Joining a new affiliate program


• Interest rate changes (getting a lower interest rate on debt or a higher rate on Savings)


• Taking advantage of an opportunity for easy money that comes to them out of nowhere


• Selling “worthless junk” on ebay


• Saving money (receiving unusual discounts or freebies)


• Receiving fresh income from previously “dead” sources


• Even a small lottery win!

I think Earl Nightingale said it best:

Nothing can take the place of money in the area in which money works.

Conflicting beliefs about money

For most of my life, I’ve been stuck with incongruent attitudes towards money.

What is money?

Money is a social resource – the primary social resource.  Money has no inherent value of its own, but we assign it value through social agreement.

How to earn money

Let’s consider what it means to earn money.  Since money is a social resource, earning money means acquiring more of that social resource.  When you spend money, you convert money to value.  But when you earn money, you convert value to money.

If you think about it, there are two basic ways to earn money:

1. Make a social contribution, and receive payment commensurate with the social value of your contribution.


2. Take advantage of market inefficiencies to extract money without contributing any value.

The contributor mindset

Now let’s consider the contributor mindset.  This mindset recognizes that the best way to make money is to provide fair value in exchange.  Create genuine social value, and receive payment commensurate with that value.

Making money consciously

Contributing social value is the primary strategy for making money consciously, but by itself it’s still not enough.  The problem with social value is that your personal values won’t perfectly align with the social consensus.

Congruent contribution

Two simple realizations can help you achieve a congruent mindset about money and push beyond limiting financial beliefs.  First, you must consciously adopt the contributor mindset and abandon the moocher mindset.  And secondly, you must find a way to contribute social value while achieving alignment with your personal values.  Once you’ve internalized those two mindsets, you’ll be in a position to generate abundant income while serving the greater good.