Money Really Doesn’t Make Us Happy

credit: Tracy O

Money isn’t everything. Most of us can grasp this concept, although we might have difficulty applying it in real life, where money seems pretty important to make sure we have a roof over our head, food to eat … and lots of gadgets and gizmos to play with. A recent article at Yahoo Finance reinforces the idea that money doesn’t buy happiness. And there are a few interesting reasons why this is the case:

• When we buy stuff, we want more: studies have shown that people who have enough money to buy material things they wanted aren’t satisfied, because then they just add more things to their list of wants.
• We can’t predict what makes us happy: when we look back on past experiences, apparently, we tend to remember the peak and the result without recalling the rest of the experience (which might have been no fun at all!) and so we repeat behaviors like making an impulse purchase, without remembering how long we had to work to pay for it.
• Most interesting experiences are cheap or free: while we think that going shopping or eating out make us happy, studies show that simpler (and cheaper) activities like walking with friends, meditating, or cooking, all make us happier.
• We think money is everything: a lot of people get confused about the real value of money, and equate it to security, freedom or happiness. It’s not. It’s just money.

Tags: finance | Life Hacks | Saving Money | Shopping