Money doesn't breed happiness, but it can help

Many individuals have been asked the question "What would you pick, money or happiness?" There's no right answer to this query, and the fact is that there are positives and negatives about both. All pretending aside - many people, especially in the wake of the global recession, have struggled to have enough of both factors in the last few years.

That being said, these two elements are largely on the rise in the United Kingdom, as the nation continues to pull itself out of the economic slump that it experienced in the last few years. There's still room for improvement, but that sentiment will likely always be present.

However, a recent study published by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) recently made the answer to the original question a bit more quantifiable.

People pick happiness over money
For respondents to the ONS poll on national wellbeing, it seems that the old phrase "money can't buy happiness" rings true, according to The Guardian. The newspaper noted that many of the poorest areas of the U.K., like Northern Ireland, are home to individuals who exceeded the overall national level of positive wellbeing. Moreover, the news source noted that London, which is usually within the top three wealthiest areas of the nation, ranked below the average in terms of sentiment.

The Guardian reported that this all means having money or living comfortably in well-off areas of the U.K. doesn't mean that people are happy with their current situations, and these parameters cannot be used to get an accurate picture of individuals' feelings.

The cold, hard facts
Even though many people would readily pick happiness over money, it's usually preferable to strike a balance between the two. For instance, many individuals who might choose happiness note that they likely couldn't be completely happy if they were dirt poor, without a roof over their head and had no ability to access credit.

However, this isn't something that people in the U.K. need to fret over. Alternative credit is always a possibility for individuals in the nation, thanks to the presence of companies like short term lenders. Even if people are living in the poorer regions of the U.K., they can always head to one of these businesses and apply to borrow, because these types of lenders don't use individuals' traditional consumer credit scores against them. Instead, they use different ranking models, like the Payment Reporting Builds Credit score, which determine's a person's financial viability based on his or her penchant to make utilities payments on time, among other things.