Each week across the ACM network Ali and Gaby Rosenberg offer quick tips for big wins in understanding your money. The sisters are co-founders of the Blossom micro-investing app.
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As you watch the cost of electricity and rent and even bananas go up and up, it's easy to start daydreaming about how much better your life would be with lots of money.
Doors would open. Things would run smoothly.
Maybe, with more money, you would be one of those chilled-out hippie millionaires with apparently nothing at all to worry about.
It makes sense that feelings of well-being rise as your income rises, particularly if it takes away the pressures of poverty.
But would a million-dollar salary actually soothe away all of the everyday stresses of life?
In 2010, a study by psychologist Daniel Kahneman suggested that more money does not necessarily make a person happier.
He showed that when income rises beyond a certain point (in today's money, about $140,000 a year), the impact on an individual's happiness flattens out, so any boosts of cash don't deliver the same high.
So, can you spend money to buy happiness?
New research released this year from Harvard University's Professor Arthur C. Brooks says yes.
But he says that it has to be spent on three things:
1. Experiences
Invest your money in activities that you know will make you feel good, like a holiday to a place you love, a night out with good friends or a live concert with your favourite artist.
2. Time
This means if you can, outsourcing jobs you really don't enjoy, like mowing, or cleaning, or vacuuming your car.
Then, instead of just watching television or hanging out scrolling on social media, spend the time you saved with people you care about.
3. Being generous
Figuring out who, or what, you really care about, and helping them financially or donating to their cause, brings a natural high.
It has been associated with boosting those feel-good chemicals like serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin.
What is the common theme here?
People.
"The key factor connecting all those approaches is other people," Professor Brooks writes in The Atlantic.
"If you buy an experience, whether it be a vacation or just a dinner out, you can raise your happiness if you share it with someone you love."
Sending you happiness in love, and money.
- Sisters Ali & Gaby Rosenberg are the co-founders of Blossom App.
- ACM co-owner Alex Waislitz has a stake in a company that provides services to Blossom. ACM is the publisher of this newspaper.
- Nothing in this article should be construed as being personal financial advice. It is general in nature only and has not taken into account your particular circumstances, objectives, financial situation or needs. You should consider whether the information, strategies and investments are appropriate and suitable for you or seek personal advice from a licensed financial planner before making an investment decision. Past performance does not indicate future performance. BlossomApp Pty Ltd (ABN 74 644 216 151) is a C.A.R. (No. 001284228) of Gleneagle Asset Management Ltd (AFSL 226199).
