If money doesn't make you happy, then you probably aren't spending it right

[Ufostrahlen]

Provoking title, insightful research:

If money doesn't make you happy, then you probably aren't spending it right
Journal of Consumer Psychology 21 (2011) 115–125

The relationship between money and happiness is surprisingly weak, which may stem in part from the way people spend it. Drawing on empirical research, we propose eight principles designed to help consumers get more happiness for their money. Specifically, we suggest that consumers should (1) buy more experiences and fewer material goods; (2) use their money to benefit others rather than themselves; (3) buy many small pleasures rather than fewer large ones; (4) eschew extended warranties and other forms of overpriced insurance; (5) delay consumption; (6) consider how peripheral features of their purchases may affect their day-to-day lives; (7) beware of comparison shopping; and (8) pay close attention to the happiness of others.

http://dunn.psych.ubc.ca/files/2012/09/1-s2.0-S1057740811000209-main.pdf

TL;DR: How to Buy Happiness with Money

Not enough; want to read more: Prosocial Spending and Happiness: Using Money to Benefit Others Pays Off

 

[null24]

Good timing. Does anyone here partake in the consumer ritual if Black Friday? Either I'm doing a good job ignoring it or it's a little more low key this year.

 

[jamie]

 

[jamie]

I think once basic living is covered with some disposable income left over for yourself the happiness to money ratio starts to taper off. People tend to want more and more...they want not to be taken care of, they want millions..they want the large ocean front home, they want a new car etc..

There is definitely a glass ceiling there.

The most important thing money could provide one is the freedom to not work.

 

[travsha]

I feel like money doesnt buy me happiness because I am already happy. Happiness comes from inside.

I do follow all the guidelines above though - I rarely buy material things but any extra income I have is generally spent traveling. But I am happy traveling or sitting in the woods by my house....

I feel happiest when I spend lots of time in nature away from my possessions actually - when I am camping for free in the forest or staying in a hut in the jungle without electricity.... Living the cheap life for some reason helps me focus more on whats important. There is something very freeing about having everything you need in a single backpack and not having to worry about electricity or things and stuff you bought with money.... When you buy things you then want to buy more things, but when there is nothing to buy you dont feel a need for anything more - you just feel satisfied.

 

[Beelzebozo]

The most important thing money could provide one is the freedom to not work.

You said it Jamie.

I want to plug one of my favorite books, as it changed my life: Your Money or Your Life.

Thank you for posting this topic Ufostrahlen, this is very timely for me.

Right now in my life, I am in the process of becoming more skilled so that I can make more money and work less. I feel blessed that the things I desire are all either free or inexpensive. Then again, I feel my desires are a product of my psychedelic/spiritual experiences. Who wants a Benz and a penthouse when you can find overwhelming peace and joy just sitting on the floor?

 

[anne halonium]

Who wants a Benz and a penthouse when you can find overwhelming peace and joy just sitting on the floor?

i demand all of the above in the new age.
cept a benz is sorta weak,
next cage i get is gonna be audi R8 or die.

i see no conflict of treasure /buzz.

over the decades, ive been obscenely wealthy,
and, been poverty stricken.
all the while ive had access to top hallucinogens.
it was all fun really, even the harrowing poor stuff.

treasure by itself is pretty useless.
only when humans profane it does it become fun.
therefore hallucinogens plus treasure, IMO, is more fun.

and i NEVER would do black friday.
the maid is set up to cyber shop 24/7/365.
xmas is when i feel like it.

 

[tseuq]

i see no conflict of treasure /buzz.

over the decades, ive been obscenely wealthy,
and, been poverty stricken.
all the while ive had access to top hallucinogens.
it was all fun really, even the harrowing poor stuff.

treasure by itself is pretty useless.
only when humans profane it does it become fun.
therefore hallucinogens plus treasure, IMO, is more fun.

Fun, fun, fun... here we come

tseuq

 

[spinCycle]

Modernity finds a way to turn everything into a commodity, from nature's blessings to spiritual transcendence it's all available for a price.

I pretty much stop buying consumer products from thanksgiving until the end of the year, just so it won't be counted as part of the whole monstrous scene.

Ever really look at and think about money when you're tripping? It's one of those ultimate absurdities, too funny for words really.

 

[Ufostrahlen]

Who wants a Benz and a penthouse when you can find overwhelming peace and joy just sitting on the floor?

Well, I wouldn't mind finding overwhelming peace and joy from just sitting on the floor of my penthouse. :lol: And I don't say no to a self-driving, electric Benz. But not for the price of my personal well-being.

 

[tseuq]

Ever really look at and think about money when you're tripping? It's one of those ultimate absurdities, too funny for words really.

To me not really funnier than f.e. a hammer, what we developed as tools.

tseuq

 

[Jees]

As a 16 year old boy, I had to grab nickles & dimes to buy me that beginner radio controlled airplane.
At the planes flight club was this rich grown up guy, he could and did buy any new impressive stuff available, bragging with it, but showing many aspects of an unhappy person.
I could not get that like it was a real mystery to me, but learned a great lesson there at 16 and it left a deep imprint that never left me.

In a way that rich guy became a life "teacher" (how-not-to) who paved my path fundamentally without him ever realizing that.
I'm grateful for people who (unwillingly) take the burden on their back of displaying personal pitfalls, so I can surpass more easily myself. Grateful instead of pointing "they have it all wrong". Like it could have been me and it helps to feel compassionate too. I don't feel to be better individually but more in luck to have them as examples of the human condition. I carry those seeds of them human traps too, I know that, it is never gone. Just trying not to stumble in as some show me.

 

[tseuq]

offtopic:

I carry those seeds of them human traps too, I know that, it is never gone.

Spiraling in and out. :lol:

tseuq

 

[hug46]

At the planes flight club was this rich grown up guy, he could and did buy any new impressive stuff available, bragging with it, but showing many aspects of an unhappy person.

Maybe this guy was unhappy before buying the new impressive stuff and therefore self medicating by buying new gadgets. I think that a lot of obsessive, excessive consumerism is a sympton and not a cause of unhappiness. Also a lot of people who bragg and bullshit do it due to insecurities.

I also think that a good way to enjoy the value of money is to become poor every once in a while. If you are always rich it can be possible to become a bit blase about your income and how you spend it. Stinking rich people who have known no other sort of lifestyle tend to be so out of touch with poverty that they appear to have no compassion.

let them eat cake

Also a lot of spiritual reachings teach us to be frugal and help to distribute the wealth equally. I am not a religious person but a lot of this spiritual stuff is fairly on the money as far as morals go. One of my favourite religious quotes....

it is easier for the kingdom of heaven to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter a camel

Materialism is a funny old thing and different peoples concepts of materialism tend to be very subjective. I"m not above buying material knick knacks, although i wouldnt bother with a benz or an R8. I have always found four wheeled exotica to be both malodorous and pointless on the public highway. I am starting to feel the same way about the 2 wheeled variety aswell. If i was hyper rich i would probably buy a briar pipe, the best slippers money could buy, a lifetimes supply of coacoa and maybe a t140v for nostalgia"s sake.

 

[anne halonium]

naturally jesus would be biased, as he was always broke.

the whole point of bux is so ya dont have to enter camels.
ive been to the middle east, camels cost more than most women..........
the irony is apparent.
just saying.

 

[spinCycle]

Ever really look at and think about money when you're tripping? It's one of those ultimate absurdities, too funny for words really.

To me not really funnier than f.e. a hammer, what we developed as tools.

tseuq

Well sure, but money operates at several levels of abstraction beyond a hammer. It really only exists because wee agree it does. A hammer doesn't really require societal belief to function.

 

[hug46]

naturally jesus would be biased, as he was always broke.

So you are saying that Jesus Christ, the son of God, a guy who raised people from the dead, cured the sick, turned water into wine and fed 5000 people with a couple of loaves of bread and a few fishes had a chip on his shoulder about rich people because he was poor? Surely with those kinds of life skills he could have opened up a chain of fish restaurants and winebars. Or gone into private medical practice and made enough cash for both a benz and an R8.

 

[Ufostrahlen]

Becometh rich and donate your money to the poor

 

[Jees]

...Maybe this guy was unhappy before buying the new impressive stuff and therefore self medicating by buying new gadgets...

Yes that was the case, the thing that stroke me (back then) was why the medication did not work for him. Then realizing that my own projections of becoming rich (and thus equal to happy) is flawed too. It led to a short circuit in a given logic, nothing was logic anymore, everything had a mine under it.

 

[tseuq]

Well sure, but money operates at several levels of abstraction beyond a hammer. It really only exists because wee agree it does. A hammer doesn't really require societal belief to function.

Yes and abstract and complex conditions may trigger the development of abstract tools.

Maybe this tool gets updated and unnecessary but at the moment we have to deal with it. At least some of us.

tseuq