The One & Only Thing You Can Buy That Will Actually Make You Happier, According To Science
Money truly doesn't buy happiness. Except for when it does.
Lopolo | Shutterstock "Money doesn't buy happiness" is a cliche that is downright ridiculous in our turbulent, incredibly difficult economic times. Who among us wouldn't be able to heave several sighs of relief if we just got hit in the head with a sock full of million-dollar bills?!
Nevertheless, science has pretty much proven that that cliche is actually true, except for when it isn't. Because it turns out there is one thing we can buy that actually has been proven to improve not just our lives, but our mood and sense of contentment too.
Time is the one thing you can buy that will actually make you happier, according to a study.
The study was performed in 2017 by a team of researchers at universities in Canada, the Netherlands, and the U.S., including Harvard, to see if there really is something money can buy that will actually make us happier.
What they found was an emphatic "yes," but not in the way we'd usually think. We've all heard, for example, that spending money on experiences tends to make people happier than spending money on material things, but this study looked at something far more ineffable than even that: time.
Researchers found that those who paid money to have someone else do a task or tasks that they didn't want to do, like cleaning the house or handling their yard work, were much happier than those who didn't, and much happier than those who spent their money on things.
Researchers found those who 'bought time' were happier across the board, regardless of income.
Of course, this sounds kind of silly and like the lede is being buried. Surely these people were actually happier because they're RICH enough to pay for someone to do their work for them, right? But that's not what the researchers found.
They found that "buying back time" promoted happiness regardless of income level, regardless of how much money was spent, and regardless of how much time was bought. A lot of money spent buying a lot of time or a little bit of money spent buying a little time didn't matter. It made people happier, regardless.
Mike Marchetti | capturenow | Canva Pro
To further test this, they gave research subjects $40 and told them to buy whatever objects they wanted with it. Days later, they got another $40 to spend on freeing up some of their time. The latter definitively made the subjects happier and less stressed than buying stuff.
They did find that 'buying time' has its limits, however. Too much of a good thing ruined the happiness.
It did turn out that there was one caveat: It is possible to spend so much money outsourcing so many things that you start to feel incompetent and inadequate. This is a reference that will date me, but it's like that scene in "Beaches" where ultra-rich, miserable Barbara Hershey is so stultified by being pampered that all she can think to do with her day is to "buy a wrench" because it's a thing she's never done before.
Turns out that's a real phenomenon related to what psychologists call "hedonic adaptation." Basically, everything shiny and new becomes mundane eventually. This is the key reason scientists say money doesn't buy happiness. The novelty simply wears off after you get used to it.
But of course, almost none of us has, or will ever have, enough money to go full wrench-buying Barbara Hershey, so the very real impact of spending $10 or $50 or $200, whatever the case may be, to reclaim some time is unlikely to wane for most of us.
And you quite literally can't say that about spending money on stuff. As expert Jeff Haden pointed out in Inc, multiple studies have consistently shown that buying things to feel happier and practices like "retail therapy" actually DECREASE satisfaction rather than raise it.
It's human relationships, whether with others or ourselves, that actually do the trick, and that, in the end, is what "buying time" is all about. Freeing ourselves from something we don't want to do and reallocating it to something we love, whether it's time with our kids or just being able to sit down for 30 minutes by ourselves and take a breather. Either way, it's worth every penny.
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.
