Money Can Buy You Happiness

There’s always been that common saying that…

“Money can’t buy you happiness”.

Generally it is true, but in my opinion money can totally buy you happiness, but that happiness looks a tiny bit different than what you might think.

In many ways, I could say that money buys you happiness via your possessions:

• That nice £10,000 watch that you have on your wrist
• The iPhone that brings you hours of entertaining cat videos
• That £2000 Louis Vuitton Handbag that carries your Gucci Purse, Givenchy lipstick… and nothing else.
  
  

This is where the argument really comes in. Let’s take the possessions listed above and dissect it:

• Does a nice Rolex Watch actually tell/keep time any better than a Citizen Watch?
• Does an iPhone present entertaining cat videos better than its cheaper counterpart (let’s say Huawei)?
• Does that £2000 handbag that you keep a purse and lipstick in actually any better than a small backpack?
  
  

I know many people that would argue and say the quality is better. I’m not arguing with that, you are definitely entitled to your opinion. I’m no better, I would hands down buy an iPhone over Android because I love Apple. I wouldn’t buy a mad expensive watch but only because I would break it as I’m rather clumsy.

The truth of the matter is, these items wouldn’t necessarily make you feel much happier the higher the monetary scale. If you take the primary functions of the item, the more money you pay for them doesn’t guarantee more happiness. This is where the argument of money doesn’t buy you happiness really does make sense.

The only time it does make sense that money can buy you happiness is with buying more time.

## When can money buy me more happiness?

Example 1 - Spending money on a service:

When I was getting married, I was living in a duplex flat that if I did laundry, it would be hanging on a clothes horse to dry, and the cats would have jumped up on the laundry. We had family over at that point, and it would have been very unsightly to have laundry hanging out. I did the sensible thing, all my laundry was stuffed in a bag in a closet.

After I got married, I had a big bag of laundry to do, and over the span of the volume: 2 clothes horse wouldn’t be enough to hang all our stuff. It also takes quite a while to dry. I was also still hanging with family after wedding, a bit like a honeymoon. I did the sensible - and frankly one of the best - thing and took my laundry to a laundromat for a service wash. It was a huge bag (maybe over 8-10kg of clothes, plus 2 superking duvet covers/fitted sheets/pillowcases etc). I left it with them not knowing what to expect, and came back in about 4-5 hours later. My clothes were all clean, dry, folded.

When I got home, all I had to do was put my clothes away. How much did that cost me overall? £25. That £25 saved me over 3-4 hours of toiling away. At roughly £6-8 an hour, I got on with spending more time with family. That’s memories, and time I got to spend with my new wife without having to worry about laundry. That’s true happiness.

It doesn’t really have to stop there. Here’s another prime example:

Example 2 - Spending money on the right tools:

As a house warming present, my mother in law bought me both a slow cooker and a handheld 3 in one multistick (basically it whisks/hand blends/mini chops things). I sometimes don’t have time to really cook things so I throw some nice meat, tonne of frozen prechopped veg, sauce… that’s dinner for the next 2-3 nights.

This doesn’t just apply to the slow cooker, it can apply to some things already pre-done for you. I’m not an advocate for this, but bag of cooked rice that you microwave are really a life saver during busy times. As a Chinese guy, this would sicken my parents: so my money buys happiness part is a rice cooker.

I don’t have a fancy rice cooker, just a decent one. It cooks rice nicely, and it takes very little effort: saving me more time.

Other examples:

• Frozen veg - Honestly frozen broccoli rather than hand trimming your own.
• Bag salads rather than having to hand cut your own salad
• Buying puff pastry/meringue instead of making your own… honestly those 2 are just a pain to do from scratch.
  
  

Don’t get me wrong, if you get therapy or enjoyment out of using a nice knife to cut vegetables, or pastry chefing is your thing, then hell yea do it from scratch rather than buying it. For me it’s a time saving that I can justify buying pre-done something rather than spending time doing it on my own.

Sooooooo what you’re saying is spend money to save time?

Spending money both to save or claim back time is one of the best investments in the world. I can’t tell you how many times I wish I could have just snapped my fingers and had healthy meals prepped for me. We all wish we had a personal chef sometimes, but honestly the more realistic approach is to just make tweaks to how meals are prepped and how things are cooked. Sometimes we don’t have to time to make healthy meals that quickly, and this is where a bag of salad, some smoked salmon, and a bit of nice rustic bread - all bought from the supermarket - can come and save the day.

Having someone do your laundry, wash your car, clean your house… they may seem like luxuries, but the point is wouldn’t you rather spend money on things like this to make your life less chaotic. After all, that Rolex isn’t gonna help you cook or clean is it?

By all means, do cherish your luxury possessions, and enjoy them. Just understand that the money that went to buying those items isn’t what’s going to buy happiness. True happiness comes from claiming back time, and paying so you lift less fingers.

Have a think about what makes your life chaotic, and see where you can spend a little bit of money to get you a bit more free time. It could be as simple as I saved 1 hour by buying groceries online, or I saved 5 minutes by cycling to work instead of walking.