How To Spend Money

I may not be the most qualified person to dispense advice on the right way to spend one's money. But here's something to ponder upon.

Money can buy happiness, and here's some research showing how we can spend money in order to maximise our happiness.

1. Help others instead of yourself.
People feel significantly happier when they reflect on a particular time they spent money helping others. Receiving a gift from a romantic partner strengthens the likelihood that the relationship will continue over the long term and lead to marriage.
Giving to charity evokes similarly positive feelings.
"Given how deeply and profoundly social we are, almost anything we do to improve our connections with others will improve our happiness as well - and that includes spending money," they say.

2. Buy experiences, instead of things.
One reason why experiences make us happier than things is that experiences are more likely to be shared with other people, and other people are our greatest source of happiness.

3. Buy many small pleasures, instead of a few big ones.
People are happier when they get frequent small pleasures like having coffee with friends at Starbucks or a getaway with loved ones over the weekend, rather than pouring money into large purchases such as a sports car or a dream vacation.
That is not to say that there is anything wrong about having big purchases.
"But as long as money is limited by its failure to grow on trees, we may be better off devoting our finite financial resources to purchasing frequent doses of lovely things, rather than infrequent doses of lovelier things."