{"id":1358,"date":"2018-12-18T18:54:37","date_gmt":"2018-12-19T02:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intrinsicwealthcounsel.com\/?p=1358"},"modified":"2023-01-20T13:38:10","modified_gmt":"2023-01-20T21:38:10","slug":"the-art-science-of-smarter-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intrinsicwealthcounsel.com\/intrinsic-blog\/the-art-science-of-smarter-spending\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art &#038; Science Of \u201cSmarter\u201d Spending"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/intrinsicwealthcounsel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Copy-of-Untitled.png\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1360\" src=\"https:\/\/intrinsicwealthcounsel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Copy-of-Untitled.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"200\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/intrinsicwealthcounsel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Copy-of-Untitled.png 600w, https:\/\/intrinsicwealthcounsel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Copy-of-Untitled-300x100.png 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Although a number of studies have focused on the effect of income on happiness, Elizabeth Dunn, a social psychologist at the University of British Columbia, also wanted to understand the effect of spending choices on happiness.<\/p>\n<p>For example, previous research clearly demonstrated that income has a predictably positive effect on level of happiness, but these levels remain flat over time even as income increases.\u00a0 This finding puzzled Dunn and she wanted to find out why happiness did not increase along with income.<\/p>\n<p>Could the reason be, Dunn wondered, that people poured their increasing wealth into purchasing consumer goods that did not provide lasting happiness?\u00a0 As an alternative, <strong>could spending money on other people have a more positive impact on well-being than spending money on oneself?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As an initial test of the relationship between spending choices and happiness, Dunn worked with a graduate student and an assistant professor at Harvard Business School to survey a nationally representative sample of Americans.\u00a0 The study participants were first asked to rate their happiness and to report their annual income.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, they were asked to estimate 1) how much they spent on themselves (bills, expenses, and gifts for themselves) and 2) how much they spent on others (gifts for others and donations to charities).<\/p>\n<p>Analysis of the data revealed that personal spending was not related to happiness, but <strong>higher levels of giving was significantly related to higher levels of happiness.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Next, Dunn studied a group of employees before and after receiving profit sharing bonuses.\u00a0 The research team was interested to know if choices regarding how an economic windfall was spent would also affect happiness.\u00a0One month before receiving their bonuses, the employees were asked to report annual income and general happiness.<\/p>\n<p>Then, six to eight weeks after receiving their bonuses, the participants were asked to report their level of happiness again and how they spent their bonuses: 1) on themselves (bills, expenses, and gifts for themselves) or 2) on others (gifts for others and donations to charities).<\/p>\n<p>Again, analyses demonstrated no relationship between personal spending and happiness while spending on others was shown to be a significant predictor of happiness.<\/p>\n<p>In yet another study, participants were asked to choose a scenario they thought would make them the happiest.\u00a0 Surprisingly, a significant majority replied that personal spending would make them happier than spending on others.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, with such a positive influence on emotional well-being, why aren\u2019t more people giving or giving more?\u00a0 Dunn believes the reason is that most people don\u2019t know about the connection between giving and happiness.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Reprinted by permission of Money Quotient, NP<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although a number of studies have focused on the effect of income on happiness, Elizabeth Dunn, a social psychologist at the University of British Columbia, also wanted to understand the effect of spending choices on happiness. For example, previous research clearly demonstrated that income has a predictably positive effect on level of happiness, but these [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[198,197,109],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Art &amp; Science Of \u201cSmarter\u201d Spending - Intrinsic Wealth Counsel<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/intrinsicwealthcounsel.com\/intrinsic-blog\/the-art-science-of-smarter-spending\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Art &amp; Science Of \u201cSmarter\u201d Spending - Intrinsic Wealth Counsel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Although a number of studies have focused on the effect of income on happiness, Elizabeth Dunn, a social psychologist at the University of British Columbia, also wanted to understand the effect of spending choices on happiness. 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