According to one person who earns seven figures, money may be able to buy happiness after all.
She grew up watching her parents count pennies, she says in an anonymous interview with The Cut, which asked three high-earners about what it's like to make $1 million or more per year, "and I always said I would be the person at the hotel who would open the $4 bottle of water without flinching, just because I could. I am that person now."
A decade ago, she opened a PR firm "all from scratch," she says. Today, she brings home $1 million a year.
Along the way, she has learned that money can indeed be a joy: "I don't believe in more money, more problems. I have no shame in saying that money rules. Money is freedom; money is happiness."
She's not the only high earner with this mentality.
After researching more than 1,200 self-made millionaires, author Steve Siebold found that rich people, largely, are willing to admit that money can solve most problems and appreciate what it can do for them.
"The rich see money as a positive tool that has the power to create freedom and opportunity for themselves and their families," Siebold writes in "How Rich People Think." After all, "if you have a problem, and you can make it disappear by writing a check, you don't have a problem."
Accepting that money can create options and happiness is a key reason the rich continue to generate more wealth, Siebold says: "While the world class sees money as a critical resource that opens up endless possibilities, the middle class is demonizing it and denying its importance."
"Start telling yourself on a daily basis that money is your friend and a positive force in your life," he continues, "and your mind will go to work to help you acquire more."
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