“Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.”
– Jim Rohn
Does more money make you more happy?
One popular study indicates that higher income only increases happiness up until about $75,000 per year per person. But more recent studies indicate that a person’s sense of well-being increases with greater wealth far beyond that cap — even ascending past a $200,000 salary.
But there’s a caveat.
Miserable people who have a lot of money won’t be made happier by increasing their income. So even though, generally speaking, money can buy happiness… it only does so when we use it well.
How do we do that?
According to a great article on Inc. titled, How Happier People Spend Their Money, Backed by Considerable Science, these are the three ways that happy people spend their money…
1. Buy time — “Spending a little money to buy a little time can make you happier — as long as you use that time to do something that will actually make you happier. Working out. Connecting with family or friends. Pursuing an interest.”
2. Buy experiences — “In a 2005 study published in Review of General Psychology, researchers found that the higher the annual income, the less likely respondents were to say that material purchases made them happier. And the more likely they were to say experience purchases made them happier. At $35,000 per year, the difference was substantial — and at approximately $125,000 per year, the difference was huge.”
3. Buy time and experiences with friends — “In short, the key isn’t to have more friends. Nor is it to try to have a tons of friends. The key is to have three or four really, really good friends–and then, of course, plenty of people who aren’t close friends but are fun to be around, or result in a mutually beneficial relationship, or share common interests.”
Money is great.
But it’s only a tool that allows us to get and do meaningful, memorable stuff. The better we use it — regardless of how much of it we have — the happier we’ll be.