Travel, charity and the fine art of buying happiness

“Just because money doesn’t buy happiness doesn’t mean money cannot buy happiness. People just might be using it wrong.”

Those are the words of Elizabeth Dunn, a social psychologist and assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, who has some advice for those of you who are disappointed with the happiness return rates on your hard earned money.

Turns out the problem isn’t so much money, as what you spend it on. Buy things and you’ll likely find yourself no happier than you were without the things. We pointed out in the past that spending your money on experiences is a better recipe for happiness. However, in an article on the Boston Globe website, Dunn and others tell author Drake Bennett that even spending money on experiences does not necessarily guarantee greater happiness. The real secret to buying happiness, they claim, is to spend your money on other people.

Part of the problem with buying experiences is that psychologists have found that even just thinking about money tends to make us more solitary and selfish, two traits that are pretty much guaranteed to make us less happy. So while the experiences we get through spending money on travel, for example, might make us happy, the act of figuring out how to spend our money on the trip may well cancel out some of that happiness.

Perhaps that explains why the least appealing part of traveling is figuring out the financial aspects. We’ve all seen those penny-pinching travelers who never go on the jungle zip line or take the boat ride to the best scuba spot because it’s a rip off. It might well be on the face of it, but provided you’re going with other people, it just might be the best part of your trip. Not, as it turns out because spending the extra money made you happy, but because spending the money opened up another social experience.

And at least part of the happiness we get through spending money comes from the money’s ability to put us in contact with others. As Bennett writes:

Experiences are inherently more social [than buying things] – when we vacation or eat out or go to the movies it’s usually with other people, and we’re liable also to relive the experience when we see those people again. And past experiences can work as a sort of social adhesive even with people who didn’t participate with us, providing stories and conversational fodder in a way that a new watch or speedboat rarely can.

The social aspects of happiness are also backed up by studies that show spending money on other people (whether charitable donations or just a buying a beer for your friend) makes us happier than spending it on ourselves. The reason is that when we spend money on others it’s generally in a way that creates a connection to them — think of the people you’ve met on group trips, the strangers you’ve shared dinner with or the stranded travelers you’ve given a ride.

In the end, the money you spend is irrelevant, it’s the connections to other people that increases your happiness.

But what’s perhaps most intriguing in the article is the suggestion that our long-held beliefs about money might need to be turned on their head if it’s happiness we’re after. As Bennett writes, “seen this way, blowing money on a bar crawl with friends isn’t necessarily a waste of your hard-earned paycheck — it’s something of an investment.”

So where does that leave vagabonds? Well, obviously you’re ahead of the happiness curve if you’re spending money on travel since it lends experiences, but that’s not the end of the story. If you’re too stingy to buy your new traveling friends a beer, because you need to money to get to your next destination, you might be losing out on greater feelings of happiness. Consider, if you don’t already, budgeting some money to spend on others when you’re abroad. Whether it’s buying a round at the bar or making small donations to charitable groups you meet in your travels, that money spent just might make your trip a whole lot more memorable and you, well, happier.

[Photo credit https://h.koppdelaney, Flickr]