How money really plays into our overall happiness and wellbeing

Gretchen Rubin, author of ‘The Happiness Project,” joins TheStreet to explain the role money plays in a person’s overall wellbeing.

Transcript

00:00You spent 10 years studying what makes us happy in life, so when you take a look at your research,

00:06what role does money play into our overall happiness and well-being?

00:12Well, you know, there's the old saying that money can't buy happiness, and money can't buy

00:16happiness, but money can buy many things that contribute very greatly to happiness. So it

00:21depends on how we spend our money. So if we spend it on things like our health, or our relationships

00:27with other people, or, you know, enlarging our lives in some way, contributing to causes that

00:33put our values into the world, that's going to make us happier. If we spend it on things that

00:39do not support our happiness, then that money is not going to be something that will contribute to

00:45a happier life. So I wonder, where do you think things will go from here? You know, during the

00:52pandemic, we all changed our mindset to, like, you only live once, and everybody started spending

00:57all their money on services, less on hard goods. Do you think that is something that will continue,

01:03or will revert back to the way we were pre-pandemic? Well, you know, that's such a fascinating question,

01:09and you're absolutely right. Like, especially today, people say things like, I want to spend

01:12money on experiences, not on stuff. Well, one thing is, I think, sometimes the line between

01:18an experience and a thing can be hard to draw. So, for instance, is, like, a dog a possession

01:25or an experience? Or is a dining room table a possession or an experience, if now you're going

01:30to have your friends over for dinner? Is a camera a possession or an experience? What sort of both?

01:36So I think that sometimes it can be harder to tease out the difference between those two things

01:42than is possible, than you might think. And I think every pendulum swings. And so, you know,

01:48people are sort of in this period now of, like, really wanting to declutter and really

01:53lighten their load. And human nature being what it is, I imagine that that pendulum will swing.

01:58But I do think that it's really good that people are aware of the fact that just buying, like,

02:02your 10th pair of black boots is not going to do that much for you. And that really the challenge

02:08for us is to think, like, how can I mindfully invest my money, as well as my time and my energy,

02:15in ways that are likely to make me happier, healthier, more productive, or more creative?

02:18So it's really having that purposefulness and thinking about it, not just being on, like,

02:22automatic or, like, the impulsive purchase, which, of course, with money, it's so easy to be

02:28impulsive. And then we regret, right? Because you think, oh, gosh, if I, looking back on it,

02:34I wish I had made a different choice. So part of it is just trying not to do things impulsively

02:40so that we can do them more mindfully. Yeah, I was just thinking, as you were answering, like,

02:44I wonder if that whole idea of money buying us happiness through services works until you get

02:49the credit card bill. Right. Yeah. Well, there's always that. I mean, one of the most precious

02:54things that money can buy us is the freedom from worrying about money. And so a feeling of security

03:01and a feeling of like, yeah, I can I can pay for that. And it's not a big deal. Oh, like, I have

03:06to take my cat to the vet, but it's not going to like it's not going to be a catastrophe if she

03:11needs to like some medication. Like these are things that make us happier. Also, one of the

03:17things that the research shows is that a sense of control makes us happier. We really want to

03:23be able to have a sense of control of our lives, of the way we work. And money can often help us

03:28have a sense of control, whereas if you don't have money, you feel so much more buffeted about

03:35and a lack of control. And that itself undermines happiness.