An article by Anisha Sekar in USNews.com cites a Princeton University study that concluded that when your annual income reaches at least $75,000, you are likely to have enough surplus over necessary expenses to do things that bring satisfaction.
The article suggests five ways to use your money to create happiness:
Give It Away
The first suggestion, strangely enough, is to give your money away. Using your surplus to help others is a feel-good option. The Chicago School of Business looked at what people did when they had a financial windfall. Those who shared their largesse with others reported they were more happy. If you want to indulge your own happiness, at least share an experience with someone else. Faceless donations are less satisfying than a shared positive experience. An experiment featuring college students and Starbucks gift cards came to the same conclusion. Students were divided into three groups. One was instructed to spend the gift card on themselves. A second group was to give their gift cards away and the third was to share the card with another person. The latter group reported the most satisfaction from the experiment.
Resolve Biggest Stresses First
Buy some peace of mind. Decide what is causing you to lose sleep at night and spend some money to resolve the problem. Worried about being burglarized or having your vehicle stolen? Buy products to safeguard your property and/or beef up your insurance to cover your losses if the worst-case scenario actually happens. Spend the added money to buy travel insurance if you are at all concerned that you might not be able to make the trip. The expenditure (everything you spend on insurance is a gamble) is worth the ease when you know you are covered.
Plan For Relaxation
If you are spending some of your well-earned excess on travel, decide in advance what sort of experience you want to promote. Would some relaxed time in a nearby bed-and-breakfast actually be as rewarding as a stressful as an expensive trip to Paris? What do you really want out of the vacation? Are you looking for the intense experiences or simply a longer time away from home at a more leisurely pace? Hire a cab instead of trying to fathom a foreign public transportation system. Tip a bellhop instead of schlepping a huge amount of baggage yourself. Budget ahead of your trip to avoid the penny-pinching after the fact. And if you and your traveling companions begin to show signs of stress, reconsider. Dropping items from the itinerary is easier than letting stress negate the whole experience.
Dining Decisions
If dining out is part of your plan for spending some of your excess cash, consider the alternatives. Do you want four $50 meals or one big $200 blowout that could more memorable? There are studies that say the $200 option might actually lend more to your overall happiness. But in this case, variety is, in fact, the spice of life. Doing the same exotic thing repeatedly, no matter how great it was the first time, can become a bore. You can afford it now. Look for different ways to spend a night out. Let each time become a new experience. Prolong the satisfaction by spending the month leading up to the event learning about the expected experience, studying menus and otherwise savoring the expectation.
Get Help
Buy some time. Move closer to work to minimize the commute. Hire someone to help with housework , yard work or any of the mundane and routine jobs most people spend the majority of their time on. Using some of your money to give you more leisure is a sure-fire was to increase your sense of well-being.
There, see? If you spend wisely, you can buy happiness.