while many of us go through life with the pursuit of money on our minds were
often told that money can't buy happiness but what truth is they're in
the same
is there a correlation between money and happiness and if so how can we use it to
our advantage
humans are very sensitive to change when we get a raise or Commission we really
enjoy it but we adapted incredible speeds to our new wealth
some studies have shown that in North America additional income be on 75
thousand dollars a year ceases to impact day-to-day happiness in fact people who
win the lottery often report becoming extremely unhappy they often end up
spending all the money going into debt and experienced ruined social
relationships so surely money can't really buy happiness
well recent studies suggest that the problem may actually be in the way that
we spend money instead of buying things for yourself
try giving some of it to other people and see how you feel
studies show that people who spend their money on others feel happier and while
people who spend on themselves don't necessarily become less happy
their happiness is unchanged this same principle has been tested on teams and
organizations as well
one experiment showed that instead of an organization writing a large check to a
charity dividing the amount of amongst employees and allowing them to
contribute to a charity of their choosing increased their job
satisfaction
similarly individuals that spent monetary incentives on each other as
opposed to themselves
increase not only job satisfaction but improved team performance and sales
this has been seen in both sales and sports teams
almost everywhere we look in the world we see that giving money or gifts to
others is positively correlated with happiness
interestingly the specific way the money is spent on others is an important from
trivial gifts to major charity efforts spending something on others is the
important aspect and increasing your happiness
the emotional rewards of pro-social spending are even detectable at the
neural level if you are going to spend the money on yourself
try to go after experiences as opposed to material things
traveling or going to an event is more impactful for the vast majority of
people in the long run
and while you're saving up for these big experiences don't forget about the daily
joys in life
many small frequent pleasures help to get you through the days and encourage
change which stimulates the brain instead of buying a
three-thousand-dollar rug that provides a one-time experience for the next 10
years
five-dollar latte with friends will be different each time offering unique
access to happiness opportunities though money is unlikely to be the main source
of happiness in our lives
it certainly has the potential to make some things easier and complicated
others but at the end of the day it can buy happiness
if spent in the right way got a burning question you want answered
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