Happy Money : The new science of smarter spending
An airport read asking the question : ‘How can we best spend money to maximise wellbeing’?
Buy experiences over stuff
“Material things (from beautiful homes to fancy pens) turn out to provide less happiness than experiential purchases (like trips, concerts, and special meals)”
My take away is to spend money on things that improve your relationship with others
Make it a treat. If you want to make a big purchase, have some meaning behind it. e.g. I bought a Japanese Stratocaster after finishing my F1/F2 as a reward. If I had bought that on one random Thursday, it would hold less meaning.
Delay consumption - you’ll appreciate it more when you do eventually get it.
Spend on others instead of solely yourself (goes back to relationships)
Spend money to buy time. e.g. If you don’t want to mow the lawn, pay someone to mow the lawn
Buying a big beautiful house is great. But if you have to compromise on location, commute time, social life afforded by living in a place - simply to have a bigger house, it is not worth it. (Thinking about this personally, as I would rather live in a small dingy flat in London in a walkable neighbourhood, rather than a fancy house somewhere more remote)
What experiences should you spend on?
- Experiences that improve your relationships / foster deeper connections
- Experiences that strengthen the type of self you aspire to become
- Experiences that result in a memorable story or lesson
Book holidays well in advance so you get double satisfaction : satisfaction in looking forward to the holiday, and then the holiday itself.
My ideas
- Spending money on your health (mental/physical) is one of the best ways to spend
- Don’t budget or focus on small purchases. Just ensure on the long term - you are generally net +ve
- Buy fewer higher quality things
- Buying books on a kindle, reading it and taking notes is an experience. Buying a physical book, hoarding and keeping it in your home is not.
- Minimalism > Hoarding
- Going on holidays with friends/family is much better than solo trips, because that memory is shared, and the relationships are deepened. Even going on a solo-traveller group trip is better to me than solo travelling (saying this after having done many solo trips myself)
- Spending more in your youth (20’s, 30’s, 40’s) is much better than scrimping to save for your retirement (see Die with Zero). You might get hit by a bus tomorrow.
- Spending money on capturing experiences (good photos and videos) is worth it.