Money brings happiness, or does it? Our culture tells us that yes, we will be happy if we win the lottery or land that high paying sales position. The power of money is often framed in what it buys, its power to purchase. But what if we turned our expectation of money on its head and sought to increase happiness instead of the amount of stuff we own?
Elizabeth Dunn, PhD, associate professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia, Canada studied how spending might increase life satisfaction. Her initial findings showed that we misjudge what we buy in three ways:
“People misdirect what will make them happy, how happy it will make them, and how long that happiness will last.”
Research shows that the new backyard deck soon makes the rest of the yard look seedy by comparison, and the initial contentment bestowed by the acquisition vanishes in time. Things don’t necessarily convert to bliss, but there are other ways of changing how spending money makes us feel. Try these:
- Buy experience rather than stuff.
This eliminates the trap of compare-and-despair, as well as buyer’s remorse. Your experience and reliving it never deteriorates or goes out of style. - Smaller pleasures in greater number often outweigh larger, more infrequent ones. Dunn found that happiness is linked more closely to the frequency of pleasures rather than their intensity.
- Spend on others instead of yourself. Dunn’s research showed that when given the option of spending on self or others,
a higher level of happiness was reported when spending on others. - Rent instead of buying. Possession is overrated in these lean times. The smart set rents pleasures, then hands in the keys at the end of the day, along with payments, insurance and other responsibilities.
- STOP. Think about the downside of purchasing something. Everything has a downside but the wanting feeds the glow of perfection. We never consider maintenance costs, time needed for upkeep and other hidden negatives associated with any larger purchase. “Happiness is often in the details,” says Dunn.