I recently stumbled on this from the Harvard Business Review and just had to share. Bottom line — money doesn’t bring us happines, but time can. Time to spend doing the things that make us feel really alive like sharing a meal with friends, going hiking/skiing/swimming/biking, attending a concert, etc.
Below is an excerpt:
“In fact, research consistently shows that the happiest people use their money to buy time. My colleagues and I have conducted correlational, longitudinal, and experimental research with nearly 100,000 working adults from all over the world. We consistently find that people who are willing to give up money to gain more free time — by, say, working fewer hours or paying to outsource disliked tasks — experience more fulfilling social relationships, more satisfying careers, and more joy, and overall, live happier lives.
If there’s one resolution that you keep this year, it should be to focus on making choices based on time, not money. It’s not easy; our entire world and even our brains are rigged to make us value money first. But it can be done, and in this article, I’ll share some smart strategies you can start employing today.”
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“Outsource your chores. In the sharing economy, companies like Angie’s List, Rent the Runway Unlimited, and TaskRabbit make it possible and affordable for consumers to “buy” time by hiring out tasks they dislike. Today you can hire people to walk your dog, assemble your furniture, pick out your clothes, chauffeur your kids to their sports practices, declutter your home, and even wait in line for tickets for you. Yet using such services is a big leap for many, who see them as extravagant or unaffordable. It’s the money-first mindset that makes them believe that. In fact, spending money on time-saving services — like shopping, cleaning, and laundry — can reduce stress and increase happiness, even for people with low incomes. “