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Does money buy happiness? And for how long?

GREENSBORO, NC -- Can money buy happiness?!?!? The short answer is yes, yes it can.

Certified Financial Planner Matt Logan says it’s not what you think though. He looked at a study Buying Time Promotes Happiness.

Researchers gave the people in the study $40 to buy something material like clothing, décor or books. Then the people got another $40 to spend on a time freeing purchase; examples would be meal delivery, housecleaning.

After both purchases, the people were asked to rate their level of happiness on a 5-point scale. The material objects averaged 3.7 and the time savers a 4.0. It is a small but notable difference.

“They found most people were happiest with the time saving purchases. Think about it, it saves your time. You’re buying time to enjoy and relax.”

And it's not just time savers, it's experiences too. The Journal of Psychology published the findings from several studies over a decade of time. They show happiness stayed longer for an experiential purchase than for a material purchase.

“And people are always saying Millennials always want to spend their money on experiences, so it will be interesting to see if they do this study in another 15 years to see if the numbers will be even higher on the experiential stuff.”

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