Happiness and Many Small Pleasures

This is the fourth in a series on happiness, based on the research covered in Sonja Lyubomirsky's book, The Myths of Happiness.  Click here to read the previous posts on Happiness and Thrift, Debt, and Experiences.

Would you rather have one big international vacation, or four domestic three-day-weekend getaways?  I asked this to my wife and my housemate yesterday, and neither of them hesitated: they wanted the big international vacation.  I do, too.  Quality over quantity, right?  But this urge to have larger, fancier, but less frequent pleasures isn't optimizing our happiness: it's doing the exact opposite.

Thirty Things Lighter

My "Buy No Thing" month is going pretty well so far, with a couple exceptions: an anniversary gift for my wife and a bladder for my Appalachian Trail section hike.  Still, I didn't really adhere to the rules since, hey, I bought some stuff.  To make up for my poor purchasing behavior, and also just to give myself another challenge, I decided today to take action on an idea that I've been pondering for a while.  By July 5th, thirty days from now, I will be thirty things lighter than I am today: one thing per day.

Happiness...and Experiences

My best friend packs parachutes for a living.  The job has an obvious perk: it allows him to jump out of airplanes.  He loves talking about it and it's rare that any of our conversations are completely skydiving-free.  Skydiving makes him happy.  Just look at those two on the right: how could it not make you happy?

When I think about what makes me happy, I recall the things I like to do and have done, not the physical objects I have.  But a cursory look at our consumer landscape shows that retailers are meeting our desire for possessions more than trying to sell us experiences.  I see more stores filled with stuff than places simply selling experiences.  Where is the disconnect?

Happiness...and Debt

I was surprised to see Sonja Lyubomirsky reference the same old testament verse that I've long associated with Dave Ramsey: the borrower becomes slave to the lender (Proverbs 22:7).  But Lyubormirsky's conclusion is based on two decades of psychological research that just happens to align with biblical wisdom, showing that we feel the sting of the negative more than the lift of the positive.  From Lyumbomirsky's book, The Myths of Happiness:

Happiness...and Thrift

From zieak at Flickr Creative Commons.

I am reading more lately.  A book I stumbled upon at our local library, The Myths of Happiness, by Sonja Lyubomirsky, is providing some life changing insights as they relate to my happiness.  It seems a lot of the things I believe about happiness (e.g. - married people are happier than singles, or parents are happier than non-parents) are not true.  They are myths.  So I'm trying to take the lessons of this book it a bit further than I typically do...which involves me thinking, "That's interesting," to myself, then telling my wife and friends an anecdote or two, and then pretty much forgetting everything I read.  Instead, I'm going to apply some of the happiness advice from Lyubomirsky's book to my day to day life over the next few months, and write about it here as I align my financial goals with my emotional goals.  

Books I'm Reading

From dr_tr at Flickr Creative Commons

We are back to reality, as our time in Hawaii had to end sometime.  The small break has shown work to be more enjoyable, spending times with the dogs feels new all over again, and oddly, I seemed to just miss my house: my favorite chair, the backyard, my own pillow.  Life, as always, is good.

I've been reading more books lately than I usually do, and I thought I'd share the ones I liked (and that have at least some angle on personal finance and wealth).  I'll keep the reviews short, and please comment back with any books you'd like to recommend.  I'm always looking for new ones to check out of the library.

The Endowment Effect and Why I Have So Many Vehicles

From roolrool at Flickr Creative Commons

It's confession time: we somehow own five motorized vehicles.  As of March, we are in possession of a 2006 Toyota Matrix, a 1997 Jeep Cherokee, a 2006 as well as a 2007 Yamaha Vino 125cc scooter, and, most recently, a 2008 Kawasaki Bayou ATV.  What the hell is going on here?

I have to admit that I am embarrassed by this collection of vehicles.  Even though they are all paid for, I have some explaining to do.

Why We...Budget

From Alan Cleaver at Flickr's Creative Commons

Do your eyes glaze over when an online personal finance personality suggests a making a monthly budget?  Do you envision a life of sacrifice and suffering, mending torn clothing with a needle and thread, and eating the meager harvests of your local dumpster?  Or, worse, do you think you'll turn into a miserly grump who would rather count his nickels than spend them on his loved ones?  If you do, it's likely there are some emotions at work.  Namely, fear:  fear of the unknown if you don't know how to budget.  There may be fear that you simply don't have enough money, and making a budget may drag that depressing truth into the light of day.  Or fear of failure, especially if you've tried to budget before and have failed to stick to it...maybe failed repeatedly.

Conscientious Consumerism?

Walmart in Beijing
from galaygobi at Flickr's Creative Commons

I read an interesting thread over on Mr. Money Mustache's forums the other day, debating the merits of supporting small businesses versus saving money. The debate is framed as such: some people purchase in a utilitarian way by shopping for the things they want at the places that offer the best price or value, and some people purchase in conscientious way by supporting local, small, or moral businesses. All of us probably do some mix of both, but the dichotomy is useful for understanding different approaches to what we do with our dollars. Are we more concerned with finding the best value for our dollar, or some different kind of value?  And which approach is better for us personally, and as a society?