Money buys happiness -- if you spend on someone else

[dkf]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Money can buy happiness, but only if you spend it on someone else, researchers reported on Thursday.

Spending as little as $5 a day on someone else could significantly boost happiness, the team at the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business School found.

Their experiments on more than 630 Americans showed they were measurably happier when they spent money on others -- even if they thought spending the money on themselves would make them happier.

"We wanted to test our theory that how people spend their money is at least as important as how much money they earn," said Elizabeth Dunn, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia.

They asked their 600 volunteers first to rate their general happiness, report their annual income and detail their monthly spending including bills, gifts for themselves, gifts for others and donations to charity.

"Regardless of how much income each person made, those who spent money on others reported greater happiness, while those who spent more on themselves did not," Dunn said in a statement.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2042446720080320?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews&rpc=22&sp=true

[bananas]

1. Me! Me! Me!

Spend your money on me!

[Lorien]

2. I've certainly found this to be true. But I'm sure that the Freepers who see this

will just about have their heads explode. They'll probably start calling Reuters a promoter of socialism.

[fasttense]

3. I do some volunteer work in the local high schools.

And it is the most rewarding work I've ever done. I don't know why it makes me feel so happy to give my time to others, less fortunate than me, but damn it is quite a high.

Seems giving money can give you the same kind of happiness too.

I've talked with my sister about this and she feels the same way about some tutoring she does for underprivileged children. I still can't figure out why it feels so good but I'm hooked on it.

Ok, not to beat a dead horse but I did some volunteer work for a local small church I was a member of and I did NOT get the same kind of satisfaction. It felt more like work. Go figure.

Edited to add a second thought.

[SpiralHawk]

4. "This is just more fact-based lib-rul stuff." - Rush "Draft Dodger" Limbaugh

"Don't be fooled by facts, folks, grab all you can and horde it while sliming the needy, homeless and hungry. That is the republicon homelander way. Smirk"

- Rush "I get $25 million a year in corporate payola to spout republicon propaganda" Limbaugh