On the day when we receive our payment we are ready to spend as much as we can on expensive and trendy stuff we thought we really needed. The more expensive the stuff is, the greater is the pleasure.
But there is one thing that people often forget when spending money and that’s to invest in their life experiences rather than in material items because in future they will appreciate experiences and memories more.
Money can buy you happiness and that’s for sure! It’s up to you whether you want to indulge yourself in an extravagant expense or you want to invest in travel, experiences and memories!
Anyway, it turns out that the happiest people in this world have distanced themselves from buying things and unnecessary spending. They stopped splurging on new stuff and started planning their investment in memories and life experience for a greater satisfaction because:
Memories And Life Experiences Last Longer Than Trendy Clothes And Accessories
A study published in the Journal of Positive Psychology surveyed participants before and after buying stuff. Before buying material items, according to the Huffington Post, the surveyees said that they knew that investments in experiences are more valuable but buying material items made more financial sense for them. After the shopping, the surveyees devalued the products they bought and regretted they didn’t spend their money on life experiences.
Another survey made by San Francisco State University showed that people ARE conscious of the priceless value of memories but they simply cannot avoid the attractive modern trends for which they regret later.
Altogether, the both studies showed that happiness is closely related to life experiences and memories as they last longer than any other material item.
Pay Attention To The Things That Make You Happy
According to a research from Cornell University, people buy expensive items because they are deluded in their idea that physical objects will last longer and will make them happy for a longer time. However, it turned out this assumption was completely wrong.
Dr. Thomas Gilovich, a professor at Cornell University, studied the relation between money and happiness for two decades and eventually he found out that, as he would say:
“We buy things to make us happy, and we succeed. But only for a while. New things are exciting to us at first, but then we adapt to them.”
Fact is that modern items lose their value with time and therefore they become worthless unlike memories and life experiences which remain deeply in our brains for a lifetime and an integral part of our personality.
Gillovich would also conclude that:
“Our experiences are a bigger part of ourselves than our material goods. You can really like your material stuff. You can even think that part of your identity is connected to those things, but nonetheless they remain separate from you. In contrast, your experiences really are part of you. We are the sum total of our experiences.”
According to the Next Web reports, the 79 million Millennials are the newest target audience for many brands in USA and the leading purchasing power in the world. They are the largest influencing population in the world which outnumbered the Baby Boomers responsible for many industries and jobs.
Known as the children of the 80s and 90s, Millennials became conscious of their influence on the society and their great impact on the general acceptance of ideas, wealth and education. They have realized the advantages of spending their money on non- material items, on creative activities, travel and education. They have understood clearly that memories are priceless and that people should buy memories rather than material items. Buying the newest I Phone 6 before others will bring you short-term memories unlike your trip to the country you have never been before. Therefore, industries have to re-evaluate, re- consider and adapt to the needs of this new generation, Gen-Y, in order to survive on the market.
Being constantly under the pressure of commercials convincing us to spend money on things we don’t really need, should make us stop and think before we decide where we really want to spend our money and remember what really brings long-term happiness.