- Buying a bigger house doesn't buy you happiness, but buying a shorter commute (one you can walk to or bike to) does.
- Buying experiences like great vacations is far better than buying the latest Apple/Android/Lenovo product. You get used to your faster computer quickly, but you'll always remember the great experiences you had on your vacation.
- Whenever possible trade money for time, so that you can have more time for yourself. This is hard because if you're paid more, you value your free time even more, so it's difficult to buy enough free time. House-cleaning services and yard work services are examples of such valuable money/time trade-offs.
- Spending money on other people is better than spending money on yourself.
- The book claims that interacting with children is the highlight of many people's days. This contradicts many other studies I've read where interacting with their children usually leaves parents unhappy. In fact, most studies I've read indicate that having children is a surefire way to destroy your happiness.
- The book claims that paying for something first and then enjoying it later gives you the feeling that what you're enjoying is "free", which is nice. I personally find myself skeptical of this experience.
- Apparently, even bad vacations are better expenditures than buying a bigger house. But there are no studies on how small a house you can have before having a bigger house makes you happier just because you're not hitting something every time you turn around.
Recommended.
4 comments:
It is for general audience. Also, people from different culture value different things.
"The book claims that paying for something first and then enjoying it later gives you the feeling that what you're enjoying is "free", which is nice. I personally find myself skeptical of this experience."
Sorry, that doesn't work for me. If I have to take a loan or do something where I KNOW that I have to pay more in the long term, I become very unhappy. This is true with engineering as well. For example managers just want some X Y Z features and don't care about technical debt, but when I'm finally the person tasked to pay back debt with time (miserable time cleaning/fixing stuff that is least appreciated) , I become very unhappy.
However, most people don't feel the way I do. Most people have a lot of tolerance for debt. I guess something must be wrong with me.
Kevin C.: you got this backwards. It's not enjoying something now and paying for it later (i.e., a loan) is paying for something upfront and then enjoying it later. Examples of these are "all inclusive resorts", "all you can eat buffets", or paying for "unlimited rides" in an amusement park.
In my experience, I've found that in some cases, this improves the experience.. but in others it actually causes stress (as I try to get the "most" value out of what I paid).
Arturo: ah I gotcha. Well, I don't enjoy paying a huge amount of money upfront and enjoying it, because I never know if I will be able to fully utilize what I paid for. Some examples: 1) I'm a little guy and I don't eat much, so all you can eat buffet makes little financial sense to me 2) I never know if my project will last over a year, so paying 1 year reserved AWS instance may not be worthwhile and I may very well waste money (yes, experienced this in real life at work) 3) My work/family schedule is not consistent, so paying 1 year upfront fee of gym membership makes no sense to me 4) I never know how long I'll stay at a tech company, so buying a home will cause me stress because I will feel trapped by the fewer employment choices I'll have 5) etc etc etc...
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