Throw out your BS self-help books, everyone: scientists have confirmed you actually can buy happiness.
There is a catch, though. There’s only one, specific way of spending money that results in that sweet endorphin rush that you’d usually only get through love, companionship, or gifs of cute puppers.
Like this one.
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has concluded that spending money on time-saving measures is the only way to turn money into happiness. And the effect is the same across all ages, genders, nationalities and wages. Put it simply, if you spend money on things like hiring someone on Airtasker to do the household chores, or using a food delivery service to avoid the supermarket, you’ll be way more likely to get that precious feeling of warmth and joy you so desperately crave.
Even more fascinating is that very few people actually think of spending money this way. Only a staggering 2% of respondents to the study would regularly invest cash into time-saving measures. While we often associate housekeepers and nannies with the super-super-rich, even the millionaires among us don’t normally spend money to either automate or delegate unpleasant tasks to someone else.
It makes sense, in a weird way. The need for more hours in a day and more days in a week is a pretty universal one. We just never think to make the connection that we could use our hard-earned dollars to do just that. And in a world where the social media landscape full of #sidegigs and #personalbrands, “busyness” is seen less as a detriment and more as a status symbol.
This does bring up one question though: If he has a butler that does everything for him, why is Batman so goddamn miserable?
Source: The Washington Post.
Photo: Beyonce / Tidal.
*The above article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent financial advice before making any financial decisions.
