From Elizabeth Dunn’s “Happier Spending”
Buying Time will make you Happier.
Research shows that Time Affluence is a bigger predictor of Happiness than Material Affluence.
“Many of us wish we had more free time to do more of what we love—for Liz, it’s working out; for Mike, playing guitar. In theory, it’s possible to use money to buy more of this kind of time. But research suggests that people with more money do not spend their time in more enjoyable ways on a day-to-day basis. Wealthier individuals tend to spend more of their time on activities associated with relatively high levels of tension and stress, such as shopping, working, and commuting.” (p. 54)
“Researchers refer to the amount of time that people spend in an unpleasant mood—when their feelings of tension, depression, or irritation outweigh their feelings of happiness—as the U-index. People are rarely in an unpleasant mood while exercising, praying, reading, or having sex (unless maybe they are trying all these activities at the same time). But unpleasant moods are common while working, commuting, shopping, or doing housework. Over the past forty years, the specific activities people engage in have changed considerably, yet the overall U-index has barely budged. An important and underutilized route to increasing happiness lies in using money to improve our personal U-index.” (p. 54)
“Although money can be used to buy “free time,” in part by outsourcing the demands of daily life such as cooking, cleaning, and even grocery shopping, wealthier individuals report elevated levels of time pressure. In countries ranging from Germany to Korea, people who make more money say they feel more rushed. This holds true even after taking into account the number of hours that they work each week, both inside and outside the home.” (p. 56)
“Buying time isn’t always easy, and the strategies below are designed to overcome barriers to applying this principle. Taking this principle seriously means rethinking many everyday expenditures and transforms decisions about money into decisions about time—a kind of mental backflip that can make people more inclined toward happy choices.” (p. 55)
How to Use Money and Time More Wisely:
- “research suggests that daily hassles exert a remarkable downward force on our happiness.” (p. 58).
“Given the importance of time affluence, the many time-saving products available today appear to hold substantial promise for increasing happiness. The Roombas largely eliminate what would otherwise be one of the worst parts of Kathleen Morrison’s day, freeing her to spend more time with her children. Although vacuuming seems like a fairly trivial hassle, research suggests that daily hassles exert a remarkable downward force on our happiness.” (p. 58)
Get rid of daily hassles by outsourcing them. Vacuuming can be done by a Roomba. Groceries can be outsourced by ordering them online and having them delivered. By outsourcing, it gives you more time for real happiness activities. - “most people would benefit from using their money to change the amount of time they spend on three key activities: commuting, watching television, and hanging out with friends and family.” (p. 63)
- Don’t buy a house with a long commute. “Taking a job that requires an hour-long commute each way has a negative effect on happiness similar in magnitude to not having a job at all. Although accepting a longer commute can provide access to both nicer houses and better jobs, people with longer commutes are no more satisfied with their homes, and they are less satisfied with their jobs. And individuals with long commutes are much less satisfied with their spare time. Commuting, it seems, undermines time affluence.” (p. 63)
- “Unfortunately, however, owning a fabulous car does little to mitigate the pain of commuting. As the BMW drivers showed us, people typically don’t experience better moods while driving more expensive cars. Rather than taking a higher-paying job farther from home and using the extra money to buy a nice car, most people would be better off sticking with a job closer to home, even if it pays less. To offset the happiness costs of going from no commute to a twenty-two-minute commute, the average person would need to see their income rise by over a third—and that’s just to break even. Rather than bugging the boss for a raise, you could get a similar happiness boost, research shows, by moving closer to work.” (p. 64)
- Studies show it’s better to take the train to work than drive.
- “over 80 percent of Americans—with and without children—reported wishing they had more time to spend with their families. A substantial minority said they would be willing to accept a pay cut to have more time with family. But many respondents indicated that they couldn’t afford to do so, often citing the high costs of housing as the barrier. Yet, as we saw earlier, people who spend more money on housing reap few benefits in terms of happiness. Working long hours to earn more money to provide your children with fancier homes and shinier toys may represent a bad happiness trade-off—especially when doing so comes at the cost of actually spending time playing with them.” (p. 68)
- People often say “Time is money.” People who are paid by hour, (instead of by salary), usually think, “my time is precious and expensive.” The higher the pay by hour, the more likely they feel their time is scarce and important. These people are more likely to exchange more time for more money. They are less likely to engage in activities that would be more emotionally rewarding.
Example: Michael, the author of this book, gave up consulting projects (money) so he could do things that make him happier, like writing this book. By focusing more on time and less on money, people can be happier. - Donating your time, ironically makes you feel like you have more time.
“When people engage in volunteer work, even for as little as fifteen minutes, they feel that they have more free time in their lives.” (p. 60) - “Whether driving for an hour to get gas that is five cents cheaper, waiting in endless lines to get a free sample of the latest PowerBar, or taking an entire afternoon to abscond with a cheap umbrella, we too often sacrifice our free time just to save a little money.” (p. 54)
- Average American spends an equivalent of 2 MONTHS a year watching TV. “individuals who watched more than thirty minutes of television per day were less satisfied with their lives than people who watched TV for under half an hour. Watching the occasional TV show may be genuinely enjoyable, but devoting two months of the year to the tube is too much.”(p. 65)
Instead of watching hours of TV, people would be better off spending their time socializing, exercising, reading, taking classes, or other happiness pursuits. - “Faced with a decision between multiple products that differ in their features and price tags, ask yourself whether the differences in features will alter how you spend your time. If the answer is no, go cheap.” (p. 73)
- “By consistently asking yourself how a purchase will affect your time, your dominant mind-set should shift, pushing you toward happier choices.” (p. 76)
Examples of How to Give Up Money for More Time.
Other Good Quotes About Time Buying Time.
“People who feel they have plenty of free time are more likely to exercise, do volunteer work, and participate in other activities that are linked to increased happiness. ” (p. 56)
Around the world, wealthier individuals are more likely to say they felt stressed on the previous day. Greater material affluence may fail to yield more happiness in part because of the diminished time affluence it often brings.” (p. 56)
“The movement’s underlying premise is that we work more and have less free time than in the past. There’s just one problem with this assumption: the best research doesn’t support it. If anything, the opposite is true. People do say they feel busier.16 And when people calculate how many hours they spend working, they arrive at higher estimates than their counterparts in earlier decades.” (p. 57)
“Rather than seeing time as a vehicle to get more money, we suggest viewing happier time as an end in itself. Mike rejects frequent offers for paid consulting gigs, such that he could (in Liz’s words) “sometimes still be mistaken for a homeless guy,” part of an effort to keep time free for pursuits that satisfy his nerdy nature—like writing this book. By focusing less on money and more on time, it’s easier to use both resources in happier ways.” (p. 78)
“Whether driving for an hour to get gas that is five cents cheaper, waiting in endless lines to get a free sample of the latest PowerBar, or taking an entire afternoon to abscond with a cheap umbrella, we too often sacrifice our free time just to save a little money.” (p. 54)
“Faced with a decision between multiple products that differ in their features and price tags, ask yourself whether the differences in features will alter how you spend your time. If the answer is no, go cheap.” (p. 73)