This should not be a tough concept to grasp, but for me it was not something I did until very recently. When I plan my future I do consider finances and how much money I expect I will have at certain stages. I consider how career choices will affect my future financial standing. I think this is on par with how most people make decisions, but recently I have been changing the proportion that these things matter to my decision making.
I have been looking at how I have lived my life so far and have been trying to think about where I want it to go. When I have been considering this, instead of thinking about it in the sense of what will make me most successful, I have been thinking about it in the sense of what will make me happiest.
Having lots of money in the bank is great. I have a few careers that I am lined up for that will make me very well off, but will they make me happy? While having enough money to be stable is very important, once you reach a level of income that is stable for the lifestyle you are living, more money does not make you happier.
Alfred Marshall discusses a principle on happiness in his book: Principles of Economics (1890). This principle called diminishing marginal utility, states basically that with each increase in how much you make the increase means less and less to you. If you have $0 and are given $100, that means so much to you, but if you have $1000 and are given $100 it means much less than that first $100.
So while I do need to consider if the life path I think will make me happiest is sustainable and safe, I am trying to think of what will make me happiest not richest. I know many kids out there are dreaming of their future lives as adults, and even some adults trying to decide what their next step in life is. I hope some of them find this post and try to use the idea of happiness as a measure of success and not money. Make each decision based on how happy it will make you and those around you.
Self Nerds 
