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Can Money Buy Happiness?

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Portrait of an excited young blonde woman in sweater showing money banknotes isolated over blue background

By Dean Drobot @ Shutterstock.com

A new study from Harvard Business School says it’s possible money can buy happiness. More specifically using money to buy free time can make people happier. The researchers surveyed people in the U.S., Canada, Denmark and The Netherlands to find out “whether—and how much—money they spent each month to increase their free time by paying someone else to complete unenjoyable daily tasks.” Then those surveyed responded to another questionnaire about “time stress.”

Karen Kaplan summarized the results at the LA Times, writing:

Survey-takers were asked whether they paid other people to do “unenjoyable daily tasks” in order to “increase their free time.”

In 28% of cases, the answer was yes. These folks spent an average of $147.95 per month to buy themselves extra time.

What they lost in currency, they made up for in happiness. Whillans and her colleagues found that the people who traded money for time were more satisfied with life than their counterparts who didn’t. They also were less likely to say they felt “time stress,” a condition that was linked with lower levels of life satisfaction.

Just in case their original question was too narrow, the researchers conducted a second survey that asked more than 1,800 Americans whether they spent money to buy themselves “more free time.”

This time, half of the survey-takers answered yes. These folks spent between $80 and $99 per month, on average, so that others would handle chores like cooking, shopping and “household maintenance.”

As before, the people who bought themselves time were more satisfied with life than those who didn’t. And as before, the people who didn’t employ this strategy were generally less satisfied with life because their lack of free time was stressing them out.

These findings held up even after the researchers took into account the amount of money survey-takers spent on groceries — a variable used as a proxy for discretionary income.

“People across the income spectrum benefited from buying time,” the researchers wrote.

As you prepare for retirement, you know that money isn’t happiness. It’s the time you’ll spend with your loved ones and on fulfilling the dreams you’ve had all those working years that will bring you the happiness you’ve been waiting for. My job is to help people achieve those dreams. If you need help managing your investment portfolio to achieve your retirement goals, please email me at ejsmith@youngresearch.com .

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com