28 Jul You can buy happiness if you spend your money this way…
via Inc.com by Wanda Thibodeaux
You’re a smart cookie. You know you can’t make yourself happy by burying yourself in material stuff. But as Karen Kaplan of the Los Angeles Times reports, research led by Ashley Williams of Harvard Business School shows you shouldn’t disconnect your wallet from your contentment just yet. Pay someone to do everyday tasks you think suck–for example, cleaning up your house–and you might just see your joy-o-meter skyrocket off the charts.
Three studies, one uplifting result
Williams and his team surveyed approximately 4,500 people from four countries (the Netherlands, Canada, Denmark and the United States) to find out if they increased free time by paying others do to daily jobs they didn’t enjoy, such as shopping, cooking and household maintenance. About 1 out of 4 respondents (28 percent) said yes. To check the question scope, researchers then conducted a follow-up survey of approximately 1,800 Americans, asking if they spent money to buy more free time. This time, half the respondents said they did. For both surveys, the researchers found that people who bought themselves time were happier than individuals who opted to do their daily work themselves.
To see if they could verify their results further, Williams and his colleagues conducted one final study with 60 working adults. The researchers gave each participant $40 and told them to spend it on something material. They repeated this the following weekend, but this time, the researchers had the participants put the cash toward something that would give them more free minutes. The participants were happier when they spent the money on time-saving purchases…
…keep reading the full & original article HERE