Sonja Lyubomirsky published an article titled “How To Buy Happiness: What Good Is Money If It Cant Buy Happiness?” on September 2, 2013. In the article there was a survey in 279 colleges where college freshmen were asked what was the most important goal in their life 77 percent of them answered “being very well off financially”. Sonja spoke to an Ivy League plastic surgeon. The plastic surgeon had everything he could ask for with his wealth. With time he said that he didn’t feel motivated anymore, it was hard for him to get up from his bed. He also said he had everything he wanted but didn’t feel happy. Research shows that if someone has the basic needs to survive the amount of money one has doesn’t matter, what matters is the way the money is being spent. Wealthy people have much more opportunities because they are able to afford anything they want, but don’t seem to be happy. Wealthy people were asked how happy they were yesterday and they were didn’t report to feeling happy. Sonja found that people usually get used to positive changes. Cornell University and University of Colorado at Boulder shows that experiences makes people happy not material things. Material things don’t change over time and they get old. People will want to replace them with time to get something better. Experiences will never get old. People can always think make to the memories and feel happy about the time they enjoyed. While material things doesn’t give someone long lasting happiness experiences and memories do. People could increase their happiness by using their money for need satisfying pursuits. Need satisfying pursuits such as making someone grow as a person for example setting a goal and then achieving their goal. This will make them feel good and confident about themselves which will make them happy. Another way to boot up happiness is by treating others with your money. Studies have shown that when sharing with others has a great impact in you well-being and happiness. It is seen that in the United States people that are already wealthy seem to work long hours instead of cutting hours since they are already wealthy and going out to enjoy free time. The major aspect of happy money is in the way people spend it not how much the person has of it.

This article is very similar to the article “How to buy happiness” by Elizabeth Dunn and Micheal Norton. Both articles said that people get more happiness from experiences than from material items. I agree because just like Sonja said material items get old and people will always want to buy something new, but memories last forever. Another point that both articles had in common was that giving to other increases ones happiness. Which is true because after you give you will feel like you did something that will make the other person feel happy, making yourself feel good and happy of what you have done. I found interesting that Sonja mentioned that wealthy people work long hours. It is true because they are money hunger and will not be satisfied with the amount they have.Thinking that the more money they have the more happy they will be which is false.