Most of us have heard that "money can't buy happiness", but is this always the case? Whether we can buy and bring more happiness into our life seems to be dependent upon what we are buying, according to new research. Apparently, what we need to be buying is time.
In our modern world with our higher standards of living, one might expect well-being to be at its highest, but that isn't the case. Richer nations tend to have more people that are stressed. Simply having money doesn't usually make someone happier, but could even do the opposite. There is a lot of time stress with everything to do in a day, especially for those who allocate more time to their jobs.
Time stress affects everyone regardless of income and is linked to lower well-being, reduced happiness, increased anxiety and insomnia. It's also a factor for obesity due to lacking the time to eat healthy our exercise regularly. The "time famine" has serious effects if we don't pay attention to where we are or aren't spending time.
Research has previously shown that having money to buy into pleasant experiences is beneficial to a state of well-being, and now this new research shows you can buy yourself out of unpleasant experiences, such as chores. Instead of you cleaning the house, cooking a meal, or doing other housework such as mowing the lawn, hire someone to do it for you and cut yourself a slice of time. Rising incomes and wealth offer the opportunity for more free time and happiness, by outsourcing our tasks to others.
Surveys were completed by 6,271 people in United States, Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands. Participants answered questions about spending money to buy themselves free time and how much each month, and all said having less time pressure gave them a better mood, more happiness or satisfaction with their life.
Another part of the research was study of 60 people in Vancouver, BC, Canada who were asked to spend $40 to save themselves time one week, and $40 on a material purchase the next week. People had more happiness when buying time into their lives, than buying something else. Buying something averaged 3.7/5 in a happiness scale, while buying time scored an average of 4/5, a small but statistically significant difference.
Increased well-being from spending money to get more time seems to be personality dependent. Other research shows that some people get happier buying certain things. Some people don't value spending money to save time. One survey that sampled over 800 millionaires reported almost 50% of them didn't spend money outsourcing time-consuming tasks or tasks they didn't like. Maybe they get richer for a reason, and don't value happiness as much?
The new research does show that whatever level of income, there is a link between *buying time and overall life satisfaction or happiness levels. But even though many people have extra money to do it, few are actually spending their extra cash on time-saving happiness-induction.
I addition to the old adage of "money can't buy happiness" being wrong, "time is money" is also wrong. Previous studies have shown that people are less likely to volunteer when they accept that time is money. If time really was equivalent to getting money, then we wouldn't want to spend money to get more free time. And maybe we would be getting paid to exist? Just a silly thought. But maybe that's why some of the rich (like those 800 millionaires) don't spend money on time saving, because they view time as money and don't want to lose money even if it buys them happiness. Interesting, don't you think?
What about you, have you spent money on time to free up your life and give you more well-being?
Can you think of something you do (and maybe you don't like it) that you can pay someone else to do and make your life a bit easier, and happier?
References:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/07/24/money-really-can-buy-happiness-say-scientists/
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/money-buy-happiness-cleaner-cook-gardener-time-stress-a7857731.html
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/consumer/yes-you-can-buy-happiness-if-you-spend-it-save-n786246
https://www.sciencealert.com/study-shows-money-really-can-buy-you-happiness-if-you-buy-free-time
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/07/18/1706541114.full
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