Can you 'buy' happiness? - 3

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Buy Now, Consume Later

Earlier, I said that buy experiences - that's 'what' you buy to be happy. However, what's also important is 'how' you bought what you wanted. With the advent of buying stuff and experiences on credit, the buy now pay later scheme, creates a serious dent in a person's happiness. My own experience holds true in this case - when I paid all the money upfront, I was guilt-free and much happier being debt-free. There was a time when my credit bill was higher than I had thought - I had this constant stress about paying it off as soon as possible.

Delaying payments bring stress; however, delaying consumption bring as much happiness. How? By enjoying the pleasure of anticipation. This is something I tried recently, that is before I could blog about it. It was as simple as first delaying buying my favorite bar of chocolate for two days and then keeping it in my refrigerator for a week before consuming it. Oh my God! It tasted far more better than buying and consuming the chocolate immediately.

So, go ahead. Try this too.

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Can you 'buy' happiness? - 2

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BUY TIME

A study by psychologist Daniel Kahneman shows that housework is the least enjoyable activities. So, what money can do in this case is to enable you to outsource these tasks to someone. Now, how you spend your free time will help you be happier than spending that cash in a mall. You need to think how a particular purchase will affect your daily life turns decisions about money into decisions about time. The bonus here will be that people start focusing on time rather than money and therefore, enabling them to spend time on happier activities.

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Can you 'buy' happiness? - 1

Hello there!

I was reading BBC Knowledge and came upon this article - 'How to buy happiness.' And my first thought was people cannot 'buy' happiness! Yes, there is this short-term 'happiness' when I buy something I like. I like a particular piece of clothing - I quickly buy it. I am happy for that moment. I like this gadget - I buy it. I am again happy for the moment. But then what? Then move on to buy another set of clothes, gadgets, shoes, etc. etc. etc. The list can be endless. 

As the saying goes, 'money can't buy happiness.' Studies reveal that relationship between money and happiness is weak. How much money a person makes, may not make you happy as much as what and how you decide to use the that money. A person may make only Rs. 120,000 per year (about Rs. 10,000 per month) and be very happy because of the way this made use of - than a person making Rs. 1,200,000 (about Rs. 100,000 per month).

In this five-part series, let's see whether you can buy happiness or no.

BUY EXPERIENCES
There have been studies in recent past suggesting that people spending money on new experiences rather than on things are much more happier in the longer run. Why is it so? If I think about it, things bought are easily comparable. A touch screen phone of company X is comparable with a touch screen phone of company Y. Anything that you can 'buy' in a mall is comparable. An experience that money buys is incomparable. The experience is always etched in the memory.

My examples. When I earned a lesser salary, I couldn't afford to buy much stuff. However, I could save enough to buy things needed. For example, my mother feels very hot during summers - we didn't have an air conditioner (AC). I could save up enough to buy an AC. The experience that followed & still does is far more happier for me than I could have imagined. Now with a higher income, I started searching for happiness in buying stuff from malls. A Hidesign wallet. A Fabindia kurta. An Anokhi skirt. However, I am still not happy as I should be after buying these from a mall. What still makes me happy or brings a smile on my face is - a white water rafting trip in Rishikesh (obviously I paid); a trip to Jaipur when I was in class 3 - incidentally my first trip by air (paid trip but very happy as first trip from school and I went by air - I got a window seat - how happy it was for me as a child of 9 years to see below from a plane!); the happiness to see the fresh snowfall after driving all the way (spending on petrol and hotel just for the experience of snowfall). These memories are still etched in the memory. Not some Hidesign wallet or a Fabindia kurta I bought 6 or 7 years back.

Go ahead. Buy experiences. Pay for these experiences, which you won't find in malls. I'm going to start again for sure. Buying experiences for sure. Will you?


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