On February 5, Elon Musk,  the guy behind Tesla, SpaceX, and X (formerly Twitter, formerly a bird, formerly our collective sanity),  posted a short message on his own platform:

Whoever said “money can’t buy happiness” really knew what they were talking about.

Then he added a sad emoji.

Naturally, I paused mid-scroll.

Was this tongue-in-cheek? Was this late-night existential billionaire posting? Was this the opening act of a two-part tweetstorm?

Because let’s be honest. This is a man who is behind rich. Not comfortable rich. Not vacation-home rich. We’re talking I-can-launch-things-into-space-for-fun rich.

So when someone like that says money can’t buy happiness, you have to wonder, what exactly can’t he buy his way out of?

Well. For starters.

Some of his kids don’t like him.
Money doesn’t fix that.

Plenty of people openly call him a loser at the end of the day.
Money doesn’t fix that either.

He’s famously socially awkward.
Again, there are no amount of Teslas in the driveway will teach you how to read a room.

You can buy platforms. You can buy influence. You can buy headlines. You can buy the ability to casually shape politics, markets, and public discourse while the rest of us are comparing almond milk prices.

But you cannot buy human connection.

You cannot Venmo your way into being emotionally attuned.

You cannot IPO your way out of loneliness.

And this is where things get interesting.

Because yes money can’t buy happiness. That part is true. Psychology agrees. Ancient philosophers agree. Your exhausted therapist agrees.

But also, not having money makes a lot of things much harder.

Let’s talk Maslow for a second.

At the base of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs are the fundamentals: food, shelter, safety, stability. Money absolutely helps with that foundation. When you don’t have it, stress multiplies. Everything becomes heavier. Decisions shrink. Bandwidth disappears.

Money won’t make you happy.

But the absence of it can make life brutally difficult.

So we’re left holding two truths at once. Money doesn’t buy happiness. And money removes a whole category of suffering.

Both can coexist.

What money can’t do is resolve the internal stuff. It doesn’t heal attachment wounds. It doesn’t repair fractured relationships. It doesn’t magically install emotional intelligence. It doesn’t give you peace with yourself at 2 a.m. when the noise finally stops.

It also doesn’t stop you from being deeply human.

Which brings me back to Elon’s sad emoji.

Was he joking?
Was he serious?
Was this vulnerability? Performance art? Accidental therapy session?

Hard to say.

Maybe there will be a late-night Part Two tweet. Maybe there won’t.

But I do appreciate the accidental reminder.

You can have everything and still feel empty. You can have very little and still find meaning. You can run companies that shape the future and still struggle with the basics of being a person.

We are all, in our own ways, trying to climb Maslow’s pyramid while pretending we’re fine.

Some of us do it with spreadsheets and coffee. Some of us do it with group chats and gummy bears.
Some of us do it with rockets and social media platforms.

Same human nervous system. Different budgets.

So yes, money can’t buy happiness.

But it can buy silence, space, security, and options.

The rest?

That part still requires doing the work.

Even if you’re a billionaire.

Especially if you’re a billionaire.

And somewhere out there, I imagine Elon Musk staring at his phone, wondering why none of this came with an instruction manual.

Welcome to the club.