Home > Work > All the Money in the World: What the Happiest People Know about Getting and Spending
1 " there any way to raise our children to appreciate the value of a dollar without imposing an austerity that we, as parents, spent years working hard to escape? "
― Laura Vanderkam , All the Money in the World: What the Happiest People Know about Getting and Spending
2 " happiness research finds that small, frequent gestures have a greater impact on our overall well-being than bigger, infrequent events. "
3 " Everything has an opportunity cost. Money is completely fungible, and so every penny spent on one thing could be spent on something else. The question all of us need to ask ourselves is whether that something else might actually make us or our loved ones happier. "
4 " What makes you happy when it comes to money? Write these categories down and keep them in your wallet, or wherever you pay bills. "
5 " As long as money is limited by its failure to grow on trees, we may be better off devoting our finite financial resources to purchasing frequent doses of lovely things rather than infrequent doses of lovelier things,” they write. “Indeed, across many different domains, happiness is more strongly associated with the frequency than the intensity of people’s positive affective experiences. "
6 " having specific things to look forward to massively increases your enjoyment of them. “It extends the experience,” says Cassie Mogilner, a professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, who specializes in happiness research. “The whole time you’re looking forward to it and anticipating it, you’re getting some of the benefits of the experience itself.” This is one of the reasons why people love vacation travel. You generally have to figure it out at least a few days ahead of time. Indeed, research published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life in 2010 found that vacation anticipation boosted happiness levels for eight weeks—an argument for planning more shorter trips rather than a few longer ones. Plan a four-day weekend every other month and the happiness boost could last all year. I know this anticipation factor is why I always have great birthday weeks. Not only do I think ahead of time about what I’d like to do—meeting up with friends, taking the kids somewhere fun, getting a massage—I plan these activities in advance and then enjoy seeing them on my calendar, knowing that tickets are purchased and babysitters are booked. "
7 " we become full people when we do things to change the world. The “problem that has no name,” as Friedan called it, was that housework has never been particularly fulfilling to most people beyond the folks who decide to start their own cleaning businesses. You can dress it up all you want with fancy gadgets, but vacuuming a rug is still just vacuuming a rug … unless you imbue it with some larger purpose. "