Similar to the TED talk I spoke about last post, in a Wall Street Journal article by Andrew Blackman, Blackman and Professor Ryan Howell, a psychology associate professor at San Francisco State University, explain that money can buy happiness if you use your money the right way. Howell has studied experiments conducted over the past ten years, and he has come to find that money spent on life experiences are far more significant than money spent on material possessions. Howell has concluded that “people think material purchases offer better value for the money because experiences are fleeting, and material goods last longer” However, experiences “actually provide both more happiness and more lasting value” because they have better qualities.
For example, they are not taken for granted as often. Also, experiences are usually shared with other people, creating a better bond between the people involved and giving those people a stronger feeling of identity and belonging. Howell believes experiences are not compared to other people’s experiences as much as people compare material purchases: whose new car is better than whose. Lastly, Blackman shows that we “get more pleasure out of anticipating experiences than anticipating the acquisition of material things. People waiting for an event were generally excited whereas waiting for material things ‘seemed to have an impatient quality’”.
Money can buy happiness when you are using your money to buy something that creates memories, stronger relationships, or lessons that you will always carry with you. Buying enjoyable activities such as vacations or eating dinner out make the money you spent more significant. Blackman and Howell, and I, challenge you to break your spending habits; ask yourself how happy you will be with this purchase months after you buy it. Spend your money on things that you will give you a lasting feeling of gratitude, not a fleeting moment of excitement.
I like how you take a topic than many people are doing posts on but look at it through the opposite point of view. The last paragraph gives strong counter examples of when money can buy happiness and counters the typical perspective that money can only buy happiness when spent on material items. The concept that money can be spent on creating memories and on activities was a great supporting detail to your post.
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