How to Buy Happiness

“In a new paper, If Money Doesn’t Make You Happy Then You Probably Aren’t Spending it Right, Elizabeth Dunn argues that spending money wisely is a sure-fire route to happiness. Dunn lays out eight ways to use money to make you happy: buy experiences instead of things; lots of small treats instead of a few big ones; give money to others; pay now and consume later; think about the negatives of what you want to buy; don’t use price comparison sites as they distract from other attributes a product has; follow other people when choosing what to buy, as they are a better predictor of how happy a purchase will make us than our own judgement.”