Renee Grinnell summarizes a new study:
According to a new San Francisco State University study…money can lead to greater happiness for the person possessing it and those around them, if it is used to buy experiences, not possessions.
According to SFU’s February 7 press release, the study by Ryan Howell, an assistant professor of psychology at SFU, “demonstrates that experiential purchases, such as a meal out or theater tickets, result in increased well-being because they satisfy higher order needs, specifically the need for social connectedness and vitality — a feeling of being alive.”
If you see the point of money as freedom, it works. As soon as it becomes anything else, it doesn’t. And possessions are not freedom. In many ways, they can be its opposite.
The Dish 