When reading various sites this weekend, I ran into a little nugget of wisdom – Im sure youve seen everyone talk about how important it is to have a job you like (or ideally love). Well, thats fine and dandy (and Im a believer in it), but I havent seen many justifications for the statement other than because of the impact on ones happiness. This weekend though, I ran into the idea that if youre unhappy at work, youll most likely compensate for it by over spending at home. Youll buy nicer things than you should be in the hope that they will help make up for the lost happiness. Now, I can imagine very few people are going to admit thats the reason they buy things they cant afford, but from my own limited experience, I can say that I believe this is a valid point. Thinking about many of the people I know, those that dont particularly care for their job do spend way beyond their means and those that are at least moderately happy control spending to a much more reasonable level. Since most of the people Im talking about are younger (20s 30s), I wonder if this is just something that happens when starting out or if it holds true all the way through life. Of course, I realize there are tons of reasons that influence the way people save or lack thereof, but at least in some cases, this really does seem to be a real issue.