<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/1241de27-5be5-482d-8ef0-de620c441648/610E1800-EF0B-4EF5-A6A9-1C572E3FFAA8/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://moneytheory.com/striving-for-simplicity/" href="http://moneytheory.com/striving-for-simplicity/" style="font-size: 11px;">moneytheory.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://moneytheory.com/striving-for-simplicity/"><DIV class="philosophy" id="title"> <DIV class="wrap"> <DIV class="posttitle"> <H2><A title="Permanent Link to Striving for Simplicity…" rel="bookmark" href="http://moneytheory.com/striving-for-simplicity/">Striving for Simplicity…</A></H2> <P class="post-info">Dec 27th, 2008 by <A title="Posts by Jason" href="http://moneytheory.com/author/Jason/">Jason</A> </p> </DIV> </DIV> </DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://moneytheory.com/striving-for-simplicity/"><SPAN>The age old question abounds – does money really equal happiness?<SPAN> </SPAN>Instead of examining a question as broad as that right now, I will go into a subsidiary of it:<SPAN> </SPAN></SPAN></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://moneytheory.com/striving-for-simplicity/"><SPAN>Does having a lot of stuff really make life easier, resulting in an increased feeling of comfort and happiness?</SPAN></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://moneytheory.com/striving-for-simplicity/"><SPAN>In relation to my previous <A href="http://moneytheory.com/in-keeping-up-with-the-joneses/">post</A>, “In Keeping Up with the Joneses,” my view of this is that, the more stuff around, the more complicated life becomes, the more isolated you may feel, and the more and more you feel the need to escape, thus resulting in the pursuit of more and more to deliver you away from where you are right now – the present.</SPAN></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://moneytheory.com/striving-for-simplicity/"><P class="MsoNormal"><SPAN>So I’m not saying we should all become misers, abandon everything, head for the country, and live like the Amish.<SPAN> </SPAN>I do feel though that by creating an overall balance in life, it can help put us on the road to more and more contentment with the present, and not with what more we can gain in the future.</SPAN></P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/610E1800-EF0B-4EF5-A6A9-1C572E3FFAA8/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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