Can Money Buy Happiness? That was the catchy headline of this recent Wall Street Journal article. I thought it would be interesting to look at some of the findings and how they relate to travel.
Invest in Travel and Experiences, Instead of Material Goods
It's intriguing that most people tend to prioritize buying material goods over unique experiences, and overestimate how much pleasure the new car or gadget will give them, vs. a vacation or special concert or event. According to one study, participants anticipated that they would derive over 50% more pleasure from a material purchase than from an experiential purchase.
The reality was quite different after the fact. Both two weeks and four weeks after consumption, the experiential purchase was perceived as more rewarding and had provided more value, per this WSJ chart:
As the article points out, it's understandable that our rational side figures that a material good will provide better value since it's tangible, and we can use it again and again.
But what that doesn't account for is that experiences often satisfy us much more deeply, and the most significant of them, whether backpacking around Europe with friends one summer, honeymooning with your new spouse, or a bucket list trip you've always dreamed of, can even be life changing. It's hard to imagine even a fancy car purchase much less a new tech gadget meeting a deep psychological need in that way.
And because a special trip, concert or other experience is often as much about your connecting to the experience and to those you share it with, it's also less suceptible to buyer's remorse. Sure, perhaps someone you know did manage to pay less for similar seats or for a similar stay. But they still didn't have that exact concert, flight, or resort experience you had, so that memory and its impact on you remains uniquely yours.
Remain Appreciative Instead of Adapting to What You Buy
It's all too easy to adjust to a certain standard of living, whether it's a larger and fancier home, a better car, better clothes, etc. But most of these things don't continue to provide a lot of daily pleasure, unless you consciously will yourself to be appreciative of them each and every day. While we're not religious, I'm already thinking whether we may start a new family tradition of each saying something at dinner that we're thankful for about the day, rather than primarily focusing on gratitude at Thanksgiving, birthdays and other holidays.
Another point that the article makes is that depriving yourself of something for awhile can of course make you far more appreciative of it when you do indulge. That's certainly the case for us with luxury travel. Even though my full-time work is in travel, I only travel for a few weeks out of the year, and as much as I'm also working when I travel, I think I do more fully appreciate these trips and stays at Aman Resorts, Four Seasons Hotels, and other Virtuoso properties than, say, someone who is constantly on the road, or a celebrity that stays most nights at one luxury hotel or another.
The WSJ also points out that increasing the novelty or surprise of a possession can help you enjoy it more, and I think the same goes for experiences. I'm sure there are folks that derive enormous pleasure from going back to the same place year after year, as a kind of family tradition, but personally I enjoy seeing a completely different destination and resort, and love being in a wholly new place. That said, even places I've visited on my own before become new when I'm seeing them with my husband and/or son, since for them it's new and I get to experience it with fresh eyes.
That said, since part of my job is to review and evaluate luxury hotels and first class and business class airline cabins for potential client travel I continue to have a critical eye when evaluating hotels and airlines. My husband and son get to more fully appreciate our travel, since it's usually pure vacation for them 🙂
Invest in Others More
A number of studies have shown that we derive more enjoyment from spending on others than from spending on ourselves, and this has been shown to be true across different countries and cultures. What I especially focused on is that the perceived impact of your contribution is what contributes most to your happiness.
That would certainly help explain why pretty much no one relishes paying taxes, even though we know that some portion of it will help those less fortunate than us, yet we can feel incredibly happy about money we give to our favorite charity or to a friend or neighbor in need. In the latter case, not only is our contribution voluntary, it's also about a person or cause we feel strongly connected to and where we're more likely to keep in touch to see the impact of our contribution, no matter how modest.
Spend Time Well
I couldn't agree more with the idea of spending time well. Perhaps it's also because I'm a city person, but I have never seen the point of buying a big house in the suburbs, then having a 1-2 hour commute to work. That just means so much less time to see your spouse and kids and for other things you enjoy doing. Now, I realize not everyone can work for themselves and have a home office, but one of the best decisions my husband and I made was spending more on a place that allows my husband to walk to work. That extra time he gets to spend with us and being able to all have dinner together most evenings is priceless.
Of course, people will have different ideas of what it means to spend time well, including when it comes to travel. One person might want to cram as much sightseeing as possible into a trip, while the other just wants to get caught up on sleep or relax on a beautiful beach. But as long as you and your family agree on what spending time well means for you (or can arrange a trip that accommodates each of you doing some different things on a given day) it can be a rewarding trip for everyone.
Remain Debt-Free and Build a Safety Net
It goes without saying, but the kind of spending choices we're talking about should only be made if you've taken care of the basics first, and are either free of debt or have a low interest mortgage and steady income to pay that mortgage. It doesn't make sense to be weighing significant luxury purchases, whether material or experiential, if you have any kind of credit card debt or other high interest loans, or if you have no savings, in case one of you loses a job.
What do you think–can money buy more happiness when investing in experiences and others?
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