Why money doesn't bring happiness and how to fix it

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Elizabeth Dunn and her colleagues at the University of British Columbia have developed eight principles for how to handle money to make it happy.

I recently returned from a trip. I visited Kiev. And although I did not even get out of the country (I live in Kharkov), the trip gave me great pleasure. Knowing in advance that everything always goes wrong, as you expected, I took a considerable amount of money and about half more in reserve. And spent them all.

After a few days, I wondered if I was sorry for the money spent. I had fun, met old friends, traveled to tons of places and met new people. The answer was obvious.

Several years ago, psychologist and professor at the University of British Columbia, Elizabeth Dunn, spent trying to find the relationship between happiness and the amount of money. Dunn asked a logical question:

Undoubtedly, money makes a person happy. But why doesn't an insane amount of money make us insanely happy?

According to Dunn, it's no surprise that many people don't know what it takes to be happy. In this they remind the rich who, not understanding wine, store expensive bottles in their cellar. And it often turns out that a large portion of this collection tastes worse than the mediocre wine drinks in stores.

There is little correlation between income and happiness, and this fact should be of concern to us. After analyzing the research of her colleagues, interviewing respondents and conducting an analysis, Dunn made a completely logical conclusion:

If money doesn't make you happy, then you are spending it wrong.

Money is about becoming happy, but only if it is used correctly. As a result of the study, Dunn and her colleagues came up with eight principles of dealing with money that will make a person happy:

1. Spend more money on experience and less on material things.
2. Spend money on other people.
3. Buying a lot of small things will bring you more happiness than buying a few big ones.
4. Avoid guarantees and other overpriced forms of insurance.
5. Postpone the consumption process.
6. Think about how a particular purchase might affect your daily life.
7. Don't compare your purchase to alternatives.
8. Monitor other people's money habits and determine if their purchases bring happiness.

Psychologists can teach people how to spend money to be happy, and Dunn says her research is just the beginning. Money is often more enjoyable when we think about it than when we spend it. This should not be so, and only ourselves are to blame for this. It's time to improve.