“Shifting from buying stuff to buying experiences, and from spending on yourself to spending on others, can have a dramatic impact on happiness” (flickr)
You have probably heard and maybe even embrace the idea that money can’t buy happiness. I’ve said so myself numerous times.
But behavioral scientists and researchers Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton argue this is not exactly true. Money, if you spend it right, can buy happiness.
“Shifting from buying stuff to buying experiences, and from spending on yourself to spending on others, can have a dramatic impact on happiness,” Dunn and Norton write in “Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending” (Simon & Schuster, $25). Dunn is an associate professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia. Norton is an associate professor of marketing at Harvard Business School.
Buy experiences. As frugal as I am, my husband and I decided many years ago to set aside two weeks a year, every year at the same time, to take a luxury vacation with our children. My oldest has gone off to college, but she still wants to be included on these family vacations. As Dunn and Norton write: “Research shows that experiences provide more happiness than material goods in part because experiences are more likely to make us feel connected to others.”
Make it a special treat. Don’t overindulge yourself, the authors say, because “abundance, it turns out, is the enemy of appreciation. This is the sad reality of the human experience: in general, the more we’re exposed to something, the more its impact diminishes.”
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Category(s):Happiness
Source material from Washington Post
