I read an article the other day about a major investment bank that sent an advisory letter to its clients about how to be happy in life. The letter was from investment strategist James Montier in the London office of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, a German financing institution. A lot of people found this to be quite interesting as investment banks usually provide their clients with money and business advice, but not philosophy. Mr. Montier is rather well known in the big money circuit, having authored a book entitled “Behavioural Finance: Insights into Irrational Minds and Markets”. I guess that Mr. Montier, having mastered the irrational side of the mind, decided to take on the rational; i.e., what is life and happiness really all about? Plato, Aristotle and their followers have written huge volumes on that question. Mr. Montier got it down to ten bullet points.

The “first commandment”, according to Mr. Montier, is that life is not solely about money. He advises his readers not to equate happiness with money. (I guess that this would be news to the rich people that Mr. Montier is addressing). “People adapt to income shifts relatively quickly, the long lasting benefits are essentially zero.” However, Montier later told an interviewer “I still need a little bit of money just to keep me happy.” One has to wonder just what “a little bit” is to Mr. Montier; $200,000 a year? $500,000? Or does a million not go as far as it used to?

This is obviously the advice of the rich to the rich. Mr. Montier does make a good point, in that when you’re making $500,000 a year and it suddenly goes up to $1,000,000, you get used to it pretty quickly and you don’t really feel that much better off. Your tastes and standards and expectations adjust, and you start wishing you had $5 million. What a bummer.

What Mr. Montier misses entirely in his proffered wisdom is the experience of people getting by on $7 or $10 per hour (i.e., $15,000 to $20,000 per year). At that level, there is something more at stake than adaptation to extra luxury. At that level, it’s a question of power, or lack thereof. People living in that income range can have their lives crushed so very quickly; a bad accident, a divorce, a layoff, sickness, a natural disaster (think of all the folk in Louisiana and Mississippi), etc. The feeling of powerlessness and vulnerability is not a good feeling. It’s hard to be happy when your family’s plans and dreams can be swept away in a moment (and you see or hear about it happening all the time). For those people, an extra $20,000 a year and a $50,000 bank account would certainly buy some happiness; or at least allow “the pursuit of happiness”, as the Founding Fathers said.

I’ll now list the balance of Mr. Montier’s bullet points on “the good life”.

MONTIER: Exercise regularly. Taking regular exercise generates further energy, and stimulates the mind and the body.

COMMENT: OK, that is good advice for the rich and poor.

MONTIER: Have sex (preferably with someone you love). Sex is consistently rated as amongst the highest generators of happiness. So what are you waiting for?

COMMENT: If sex is the highest generator of happiness in this world, then there ain’t gonna be all that much happiness to be had (which may be the hard-edged truth about life, after all). Sex and love definitely are a good combination, but there’s so much bad love and bad sex out there, and a whole lot of sex happening without love whatsoever. If sex does give occasional happiness, it’s usually quite fleeting; it’s quite uncertain when that happiness can be repeated, or whether it can happen again at all. If sex is the key source of happiness, then how can you be happy in your old age? (Oh, wait — maybe Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein has a lot of money tied up in the companies that make Levitra, Viagra, etc.).

MONTIER: Devote time and effort to close relationships. Close relationships require work and effort, but pay vast rewards in terms of happiness.

COMMENT: OK, this is true; it’s a good point to remember. But as to whether the main reward of a close relationship can be called “happiness”, i.e. a joyful or content feeling or state of mind, I have some doubts about that.

MONTIER: Pause for reflection, meditate on the good things in life. Simple reflection on the good aspects of life helps prevent hedonic adaptation.

COMMENT: I agree that meditation is a good thing. Mr. Montier’s meditation is a bit simpler that what I had in mind, but it serves a good purpose, i.e. not taking things for granted.

MONTIER: Seek work that engages your skills, look to enjoy your job. It makes sense to do something you enjoy. This in turn is likely to allow you to flourish at your job, creating a pleasant feedback loop.

COMMENT: This is a nice idea, but for a whole lot of people this is meaningless. You work primarily to pay your bills. Finding the work that you enjoy is a luxury for all but a few on this planet. I’m glad (maybe even “happy”) if Mr. Montier is one of those few, but I’ve found that the job market is a rough place for most of us. You don’t get a lot of choice. Unless you are quite lucky or have a huge savings account to live off of, searching for a job that will make you happy is out of the question. For the majority, a job is not going to be a big source of happiness (even when the pay is good).

MONTIER: Give your body the sleep it needs.

COMMENT: Good advice – try to get a straight eight. But even if you book the time, the question is, will you get that sleep? If your life is in balance and you are “happy”, you probably will. But if you’re not happy, you’re probably not going to sleep well even if you stay in bed for eight hours each night. (But again, maybe Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein has money in the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture sleeping pills.) If you’ve got a million or two invested with Dresdner, you’ll probably sleep pretty well. If you’re struggling to make the next mortgage payment and electric bill, maybe you won’t.

MONTIER: Don’t pursue happiness for its own sake, enjoy the moment. Faulty perceptions of what makes you happy may lead to the wrong pursuits. Additionally, activities may become a means to an end, rather than something to be enjoyed, defeating the purpose in the first place.

COMMENT: Did he just say something? Something about smelling the flowers?

MONTIER: Take control of your life, set yourself achievable goals.

COMMENT: For crack addicts, an “achievable goal” might be to sell the furniture to get their next fix. That might be all the control possible in such lives.

MONTIER: Remember to follow all the rules.

COMMENT: Do rules necessarily lead to happiness? What about enjoying the moment?

Well, once again, this document was meant to help Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein endear itself to its clients and hopefully gain new ones, and not as universal advice for the good of all humankind. Still, I thought it was rather interesting to see what the rich are thinking about these days. They really have no clue as to how most people live, or whether the majority could actually take their recommended steps to happiness. It sure is a lot easier if you have the money that they have !!!