Happiness: a buyer’s guide

23 Aug Happiness: a buyer’s guide

Posted at 15:50h in Happy Tips by
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Money can improve your life, but not in the ways you think

Can money buy happiness? Since the invention of money, or nearly enough, people have been telling one another that it can_ã_t. Philosophers and gurus, holy books and self-help manuals have all warned of the futility of equating material gain with true well-being.

Modern research generally backs them up. Psychologists and economists have found that while money does matter to your sense of happiness, it doesn_ã_t matter that much. Beyond the point at which people have enough to comfortably feed, clothe, and house themselves, having more money – even a lot more money – makes them only a little bit happier. So there_ã_s quantitative proof for the preachings of St. Francis and the wisdom of the Buddha. Bad news for hard-charging bankers; good news for struggling musicians.

But starting to emerge now is a different answer to that age-old question. A few researchers are looking again at whether happiness can be bought, and they are discovering that quite possibly it can – it_ã_s just that some strategies are a lot better than others. Taking a friend to lunch, it turns out, makes us happier than buying a new outfit. Splurging on a vacation makes us happy in a way that splurging on a car may not.

_ã–Just because money doesn_ã_t buy happiness doesn_ã_t mean money cannot buy happiness,_㝠says Elizabeth Dunn, a social psychologist and assistant professor at the University of British Columbia. _ã–People just might be using it wrong._ã

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