In the article “How to buy happiness” by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton, the idea that money is not that important as people make it out to be is introduced. In paragraph 3, they mention studies that prove that material things fail to produce long lasting happiness. This is proven in the next paragraph with the study involving the American dream and buying a home. One would think that owning their own property , raises their levels of happiness extremely , but this is a common misconception and wrong. These peoples happiness are not that different from those who rent. Elizabeth and Michael stress the idea of experiences. They believe it is more important to experience certain events rather than buying certain materials. In the seventh paragraph Elizabeth and Michael explain that experiences are more important than having a lot of money because it brings us closer to others. It makes you feel good to be able to share or spend time with someone , you don’t experience this so much when you go shopping for yourself, and only buy things for yourself. And finally in the last paragraph , an experiment was mentioned, involving 3 options, one was giving away their gift card, another was spending the gift card on themselves, and the third was buying someone else something and spending time with that person. And the results were that the third option made more people happier. Proving that money is not important as people make it out to be, rather the experiences that are made with what you got are more important and cause you to be happier.
I personally believe that money doesn’t buy happiness. I agree with what Elizabeth and Michael stated in the article. When large sums of money are offered or given to us, most of us believe we should take it and run. Spend it on ourselves, we believe we’ll be happy. It’s our first thought be selfish. But I believe it’s better to have memories to later share, to remember. Experiences are everything. If I have something that can help someone else why wouldn’t I? This is to say if I have an extra 5 dollars and my friend needs it, or somebody on the train performs a song with their son and asks for a donation I’m going to give up that 5 dollars, this is because it makes me feel good about myself .Money can’t buy happiness, but sometimes what you do with what you do got gives more of a happiness feeling. You don’t need to have a big house, fancy cars, a whole bunch of money in your wallet to feel happy. Be satisfied with your economic status try not to put so much stress on it and you’ll see how you change. You’ll focus on what really makes you happy, making memories, getting experiences, your interactions with others, this is where true happiness lies.