Research Shows Spending Money on Experiences Makes You Happier Than Buying New Things Hazel Garcia - InvestmentZen.com
February 3, 2017

Research has shown that after a basic level of material wealth, having more money doesn’t necessarily make us happier. Since most of us are in the pursuit of happiness, the question becomes, how can we spend our limited resources in a way that will make us most happy?

In many industrialized nations, individuals seek happiness through the pursuit of material consumption. However, Thomas Gilovich, a psychology professor at Cornell University who has studied the impact of money on happiness for over 20 years, has shown that we’re much happier when we spend our time and money pursuing experiences, rather than buying things. Of course, at InvestmentZen we also believe that saving money and using it to build financial freedom is another way to spend money on happiness, but that’s a topic for another article!

Dr. Gilovich’s research found that when people make major material and experiential purchases, they usually experience about the same level of happiness right after the initial purchase. But fairly quickly, the new things they bought no longer bring them any happiness, while they continue to enjoy the experiences they had spent money on, long after they were over.

Doesn’t that seem counter-intuitive? After all, the individuals in that study still owned the objects they bought, while the experiences they had enjoyed were nothing but a distant memory. To help you better understand this fascinating area of study, we put together an infographic showing why spending money on experiences makes us happier than spending money on things.


InvestmentZen shares inspirational stories & actionable insights from people who have found a way to make money work for them. Ceck it out at InvestmentZen.com

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!