879 Money as a Tool For Happiness

This is Five Minute Friday. Now today's episode is with the one and only Gretchen Rubin. And for those that don't know who she is, she's really taken off in the last half decade with her books and her blog. She's a New York Times best-selling author of several books, including the Happiness Project and her newest, Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives. She is also a host of a very popular podcast called Happier with Gretchen Rubin. And she's on there with her sister talking about similar topics that she covers in her books and her blog.

So I think happiness is something that It's sort of like, it's like money. It's good to think about money when you're worried about money, and it's good to think about money when you're not worried about money, because that's also a good time to be thinking about money. It's like, this is, it's, or health. You want to think about health when you're not in good health, but when you're in good health, you also want to think about your health because you've still got to be doing stuff that's going to protect that health. You don't want to take it for granted. And I feel like happiness is the same way. When we don't, we need to think about it, but then when we do have it, I think we need to think about it then as well. And so, I think that the risk for most of us is not that we overthink it, but that we just sort of in the turmoil of everyday life, we don't think about it and we don't do the things that we could do to make ourselves as happy and healthy and as productive as we can be given our circumstances. Yeah.

And in your research, how does money play with happiness?

Well, it's interesting. This is definitely one of the most complex and emotionally charged areas with happiness. And I would say that Money can't buy happiness, but money can buy many things that contribute powerfully to happiness.

Sure, yeah.

So, you know, it's easier to be in good health if you've got money to pay for a gym or to pay for doctor's visits or, you know, to buy healthier food. And, you know, and sometimes people, there's a lot of people who say like, whoa, money, Money, like you shouldn't buy things, you should buy experiences because experiences are what make you happy. But, you know, the line between experiences and things, possessions, is often kind of difficult to draw. So like a dog, is a dog a possession or an experience? Is a camera a possession or an experience? Is a book a possession or an experience? Is a set of knives that means it's so much more fun to cook a possession or an experience, you know? And so sometimes I think we get, We sort of want to say money doesn't matter, but the fact is if it's spent wisely, if it's spent in ways that are going to take you closer to the things that actually do bring happiness, like relationships, if you have enough money to go to your friend's wedding and you have a ton of fun and you see all your old friends, well, that's going to add a lot to your happiness. But it's expensive to go to a wedding, you know, like you gotta buy a present, you gotta buy a ticket, you gotta stay at a hotel, all that business. But if you're buying cocaine, that's probably not gonna make you happier. So it's really a matter of using it wisely. Like habits, it's a good servant and a bad master. So if you're using money in the right way, and of course, the greatest luxury that money can buy is not to worry about money. And so if you're worried about money, that's a big happiness challenge. If you're worried about paying your rent, if you're worried about paying for food, if you're worried about whether you're gonna lose your job, that's really rough. And so money can buy that kind.

Of-- Peace of mind.

Yeah. Yeah. Sense of security. And so knowing that you're going to be, you're saving for your retirement regularly so that you're not, you know, gripped with fear every time you think about getting older. You know, so I think it's a matter of being wise and thoughtful about how you spend your money. But if you're just like running out and like, you know, buying something that you don't even need and don't care about, well, that's not going to be, I did. And of course, you know, spending money on other people, giving away to charity, like giving back to the institutions that have made a difference for you, helping other people enormously satisfying. And so there's it's just it's it's it's a tool.

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