Buying Stuff and Happiness.

As per Stephanie Rosenbloom "Increased spending on leisure, travel, and hobbies tends to make people more satisfied with their lives, but buying Stuff does not."

Its true that a lot of people are finding happiness by reversing from a consumer lifestyle. Now those people has more money to spend on what they loves because their needs are small. They may not buy Stuff or keep up a big apartment. They might swapped their cars (and of course car EMIs) for public transportation. We don’t have to spend a lot to be happy. In fact, simple living often leads to a richer life.



Experiences, not Stuff
Spending money on experiences brings us ever lasting happiness than spending money on Stuff. For example, a vacation can make our life better, over the time, than a new furniture set. We can always find more happiness by moving away from conspicuous consumption towards a life of conscious consumption and saving. Financial experts are looking at how to squeeze the most happiness from our money.

Leisure activities like jogging, sports and hobbies have more happiness value than material goods. It’s okay to think small. Spending on several small treats - like an evening walk along the beach, a good book or dinner at your favorite restaurant — will bring you more happiness than one big-ticket item like an expensive jewellery.

What really makes people happy is connection. When we’re engaged in a leisure activity, we’re more likely to be socializing with others, forming and strengthening our relationships. It’s these strong relationships, not the Stuff we accumulate, that bring us lasting joy throughout our lives.

Experiences also pay off better than Stuff because we tend to color our memories happy. Let’s say you buy a new set of furniture for your guest room. The day you bring it home, it’s perfect. The exact shade, texture, and firmness you wanted. You’re in your bliss, sitting on it for the first time.

Fast forward ten years. Now the sofa is full of stains and the cushions have gotten uneven texture. Remembering how perfect it was doesn’t make you happier now, it makes you sad that you’re sitting on a bumpy relic of your couch’s former greatness.

Let’s say instead you’d put that money into an experience. A vacation where you were bitten by ants, almost missed your train, and lost your shoes at a church. Ten years later, your mosquito bites are gone, the shoes are long forgotten, and the photographs of the beautiful waterfall you visited still hang on your bedroom wall. The vacation actually gets better with time, as you hold on to the happy memories and forget the hassles.

We grow bored with Stuff and then want more! newer! bigger! better! Stuff. But it’s not the Stuff we want more of, really. We’re looking to replace the happiness kick we got from the Stuff when it was new. This is why so many of us can be staring at a shelf full of expensive clothes and think we have nothing to wear, or restlessly scroll through thousands of songs in our iPods finding nothing we want to hear. Finally, experiences pay off on the happiness meter because of their novelty.