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Elizabeth Dunn

Michael Norton

Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending Paperback – May 20, 2014

by Elizabeth Dunn (Author)

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Two professors combine their fascinating and cutting-edge research in behavioral science to explain how money can buy happiness—if you follow five core principles of smart spending.

Most people recognize that they need professional advice on how to earn, save, and invest their money. When it comes to spendingthat money, most people just follow their intuitions. But scientific research shows that those intuitions are often wrong.

Happy Money offers a tour of research on the science of spending, explaining how you can get more happiness for your money. Authors Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton have outlined five principles—from choosing experiences over stuff to spending money on others—to guide not only individuals looking for financial security, but also companies seeking to create happier employees and provide “happier products” to their customers. Dunn and Norton show how companies from Google to Pepsi to Charmin have put these ideas into action.

Along the way, Dunn and Norton explore fascinating research that reveals that luxury cars often provide no more pleasure than economy models, that commercials can actually enhance the enjoyment of watching television, and that residents of many cities frequently miss out on inexpensive pleasures in their hometowns. By the end of this “lively and engaging book” (Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness), you’ll be asking yourself one simple question every time you reach for your wallet: Am I getting the biggest happiness bang for my buck?

Print length

224 pages
Language

English
Publication date

May 20, 2014
Dimensions

5.5 x 0.56 x 8.38 inches
ISBN-10

9781451665079
ISBN-13

978-1451665079
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you think money doesn't buy happiness, then you're just not spending it right. In this lively and engaging book, Dunn and Norton use the latest scientific research to show how you can get a bigger emotional bang for your hard-earned bucks. Happy Money isn't a purchase; it's an investment—and a shrewd one at that."—Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness

“No one understands how to get more happiness out of our money better than Liz Dunn and Mike Norton. Their research is not only on the cutting edge—it changes where the edge is. Like stand-up comedians of science, Dunn and Norton take ordinary observations that everybody experiences and craftily distill them with a clarity that makes us laugh, and then makes us think. They have done us a great service by sharing their knowledge with us in the easy-to-apply principles they present in this book.”—Dan Ariely, author of Predictably Irrational

“How to spend smarter? Read this book!—a rare combination of informed science writing, rollicking good fun, and practical pointers for a more flourishing and compassionate life.”—David G. Myers, author of The Pursuit of Happiness

"Many books have been written to tell you how to make money, save money, and invest money. Now there's a book that can tell you how to spend it. Wisely."—Chip Heath, co-author of Made to Stick and Switch

"[Dunn and Norton's] infectious enthusiasm for their subject is admirable.... They provide an interesting exploration of increasing happiness by buying time, as well as ways to address budgeting."—Kirkus Reviews

"University of British Columbia psychology professor Dunn and Harvard Business School marketing professor Norton, friends from graduate school, offer a witty, lively guide to changing the philosophy behind spending so that it brings you true joy.... Readers cannot help but be charmed by this funny, warm guide to creating the good life from scratch."—Publishers Weekly

"This small, snappily written book is focused on five points, all directed at enabling people to get more bang for their bucks... Buy [this] book, read [it], take the advice [it] offer[s] to heart, and you’ll be a happier person."—Barry Schwartz, Los Angeles Review of Books

“Each of Dunn and Norton's five principles offers a scientifically validated means of increasing happiness. Like asking a surgical expert to perform your heart transplant, following their principles might be better than just winging it. And luckily, spending money is a lot easier and much less messy than major surgery.”—Guy Kawasaki

"Packed with tips...people will come away from this book believing it was money well spent."—The Economist

“Dunn and Norton strive to show how to spend money in less typical but more pleasing ways. They offer five principles you can use to buy happiness…. I love the five principles of happy money because they aren’t about getting more money but getting more out of the money you have.”—Michelle Singletary, The Washington Post

“[Happy Money] is filled with surprising, counterintuitive findings that also produce a spark of recognition…. Dunn and Norton have outlined a series of valuable and instructive findings, demonstrating that people tend to overlook the effects of attention and adaptation, and that they would do better if they were to make expenditure decisions with those effects in mind.”—The New Republic

"[S]hort and breezy but research-heavy."—New York Times

About the Author

Elizabeth Dunn is an associate professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. At age twenty-six, she was featured as one of the “rising stars” across all of academia by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Michael Norton is the Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He has studied human behavior as it relates to love and inequality, time and money, and happiness and grief. He is the author of The Ritual Effect and the coauthor—with Elizabeth Dunn—of Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending. In 2012, he was selected by Wired magazine as one of “50 People Who Will Change the World.” His TEDx talk, How to Buy Happiness, has been viewed nearly 4.5 million times. He is a frequent contributor to such publications as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Scientific American, and has made numerous television, radio, and podcast appearances.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1451665075
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (May 20, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 224 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781451665079
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1451665079
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.56 x 8.38 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #79,772 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #101 in Marketing & Consumer Behavior
- #255 in Emotional Mental Health
- #1,227 in Happiness Self-Help

Customer Reviews:
502 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

502 global ratings

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Tyler Mercier

Happy Money The book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 25, 2017

Verified Purchase

Happy Money
The book, Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton, summarizes current research on how you spend money changes how happy and satisfied you are in life and affects your health and well being.

This is a wonderful book that explains how you can increase your happiness by spending on experiences with the people you value rather than spending on prestige belongings that many people think will make them happy.

According to the book, research shows that spending money on leisure activities like trips, movies, sporting events, gym memberships and the like leads to more happiness than buying expensive consumer and prestige items. Experiences tend to be appreciated more as time goes by whereas things tend to be less appreciated as time goes on as better things than they bought emerge. Experiences tend to make us feel more connected to other people which improves life satisfaction. When couples do exciting and novel things together, their relationships improve. Anything we do to make the time with our friends or partners special is money well spent. Experiences make memorable stories for retelling for years to come and give us a sense of who we are or who we want to be. Experiences can’t be compared to things purchased. Experiences that remind of us of the past and give us nostalgia, like going to a museum, watching an old movie, or hearing a favorite song, can bolster our vitality and reduce stress.

Research indicates people earning over $75,000 a year do not have an increase in happiness. High income individuals spend more time doing high stress activities like working, commuting, and shopping than those who make less. High income individuals view their time as highly valuable which makes them feel like they have less time. In contrast, buying time, called time affluence, increases happiness. You can gain time affluence by moving closer to work to reduce your commute, working in a job that requires less hours, or hiring people to do your yard work or cleaning.

Research shows that having expensive things does not bring happiness, health, or well-being. The University of Michigan found that those with cheaper cars had the same satisfaction driving them as people with expensive cars. Surprisingly, homeowners are not happier than renters, and are on average are 12 lbs heavier than renters. Those who simplify their lives by reducing their wardrobe, moving into a smaller abode, changing their consumption patterns, and reducing their stuff are happier. The enemy of appreciation is abundance; if we make everything we do special it will increase appreciation and happiness.

I highly recommend this book for people wanting more happiness, time, and life satisfaction. Five Stars.

27 people found this helpful

Helpful

C C

Lovely book filled with wonderful research and examples

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 12, 2013

Verified Purchase

I picked up this book when Dan Ariely (amazing behavioral economist and author of "Predictably Irradtional) endorsed it. Glad I did.

"Happy Money" features insights on how to get the most from a product not based an item's price tag, but by its psychological value. For instance, ditch the BMW and go for a trip to Bora Bora. Because novelty creates more pleasure than repetition, make things a treat like dinner outings. While many of these pointers seem like common sense, they're also deceptively profound--if everyone adopted these tactics, we'd be living in a much more sustainable, value-driven society. The point on investing in others is particularly crucial: the authors point out that one of the most gratifying uses of money is improving the well-being of others. Some authors expound upon this subject beautifully (Lynn Twist's "The Soul of Money" is one such book), but it's wonderful seeing Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton mentioning these points in a more matter-of-fact way.

I highly recommend this book to people of ALL income levels. Those who work hard to stretch a dollar will be given great advice on how to "feel" rich even if the bank balance indicates otherwise. Those with resources can learn how to have a wealthy spirit, as it's clear that this does not always coincide with being financially well-off.

Though written by two accomplished academics, it contains no jargon but plenty of humorous self-deprecation. It's an easy read.

My only complaint was thinking I had 40 percent left of the book, only for it to be the "reference" portion. Of course, I should've expected nothing less given the extensive use of scientific studies to back assertions.

One of my favorite books of the year, for sure.

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

Read you will thank me later.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 26, 2016

Verified Purchase

I really loved this book. I heard about it from Tim Ferris podcast-fourhourworkweek. He said that he is trying spend more time with his parents as their time on earth is limited as they get older and he changed his attitude about spending money and time from the book.
I ordered it and read it. My takeaway is that I never consciously related happiness with spending money besides the obvious material things. The five principles of happy money are :1. buy experience vs. materials (buyer remorse occurs with materials rarely with experience) 2. buy time (don't spend 4 hours in a layover to save a hundred bucks) spend money so you could have more time to do things you enjoyed. 3. Make it a treat(if you have latte every day is no longer a treat but if you have it only Tuesday, that changes)4. pay now , consume later( it means buy things that you experience positive expectations I.e. Vacation, also called the French term Se Rejouir getting pleasure now from something that will happen in the future or also called the drooling factor. And 5. invest in others, pay it forward, studies after studies show giving makes you happier then always spending on yourself.

56 people found this helpful

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Todd Bunton

Very Good... Until the Epilogue

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 14, 2016

Verified Purchase

The bulk of 'Happy Money' is a well-researched and enjoyable book that outlines practical strategies for getting the most happiness out of your spending. It is something that millions of Americans could benefit from.

The epilogue, however, takes a weird and, for liberty-minded individuals, nauseating turn. It essentially argues for a Nanny State, or at least for much more government intervention into peoples' lives. There were perhaps some interesting ideas and discussion points, but I felt like their political biases (and misleading data) really took over.

I would much rather have individuals educated on the science behind happier spending and given the liberty to make their own decisions, then having them forced, or not-so-gently nudged, into "optimal" decisions by an "all-knowing" government, as the authors suggest. To their credit, they did briefly mention education over force as an option, but that certainly wasn't the theme of the section. It was a disappointing way to end an otherwise good book.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Glenn Myers

Useful tips; lot of padding

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 10, 2014

Verified Purchase

The takeaway message from this book is just about as good as the book itself. Here's the five principles of spending your money in such a way as to extract the most happiness out it:

1. Buy experiences - especially shared, unique ones, linked with your sense of who you want to be. They contribute to lasting happiness more than stuff.
2. Make it a treat. Beware 'treat slippage' (my phrase) where something you do for a luxury becomes something you do regularly (and then stop noticing and enjoying). Apparently even buying a house rather than renting it doesn't increase your happiness; it soon just falls to becoming part of the backdrop of your life.
.3. Buy time. Pay others to do what you don't like. Volunteer for stuff; it makes you feel more in control. Then, the real time killers are things like commuting and TV.
4. Pay now, consume later. Anticipation heightens the fun. Consuming later feels like it's free.
5. Invest in others

The rest of the book is the research findings, some slightly self-indulgent and largely irrelevant personal references and a clutch of not hugely funny jokes. Unarguably a lot of this book is padding. So arguably the sixth principle is: don't buy the book, read the reviews.

25 people found this helpful

Jonathan

Interesting but not overwhelming

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 21, 2013

Verified Purchase

There are some interesting points made in the book such as how psychologically humans prefer experiences to objects and so spending your money on a stay in a nice hotel rather than on the latest iPhone will bring you more longer term satisfaction. Making experiences more of a treat, from eating chocolate less often to driving your high end car less of the time, also makes people generally get more from the experiences than if they become regular.

The book falls down in that it could be at least half the size it is for the content. Each chapter looks at a different aspect of human psychology which would affect how we spend money but it really labours each point with far too many similar examples until you feel like you are being patronised. It is interesting but definitely not overwhelming as the book promotion makes out.

22 people found this helpful

John

Unhappy Money!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 19, 2022

Verified Purchase

I bought this book on the recommendation of a work colleague; I wish I hadn't. It was a waste of my money and, more importantly, time.

As other reviewers have identified, the main messages in the book can be summarised in less than a page. The extra 135 pages are simply turgid padding, with interminable references to studies that support the authors' theories. Moreover, nearly one third of the book's page count is simply lists of references used.

The main premise is that to be happy you should spend your money on experiences or on others.

Trust me, you'd be happier still if you follow this advice with money that you don't spend on this book; better still, buy another title instead.

GreenShip

Fascinating science, good humour

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 11, 2014

Verified Purchase

The consumer market viewed from a professors desk concerns our behaviour. We now have the opportunity through this book to become more aware of our spending habits. The authors have some witty comments and write in an explanatory way so that we can grasp the scientific results.
But this is not enough to make it a really good book on how the most precious of our belongings can make us happy. There are missing links between the science results and our irrational money consumption.
To illustrate this point, I will quote a famous writer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In his book "Love during the colera era", he claims that snobbery is a race towards eternal life. This is not ment as a scientific statement, but demonstrates that "The New Science of Smarter Spending" has chapters that "Happy Money" don't contain. More skilled authors would have filled the missing link with some personal true stories/testemonies, or other literary tricks.
Or, perhaps the professor should join a writing class. "Happy Money" now and then appears to be white papers with a professors comments added, assembled into a book.

One person found this helpful

treebird

An excellent read!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 10, 2020

Verified Purchase

This was a very fun and enjoyable read and I felt inspired to implement these rules in my life. I would recommend for anyone in the western world to better understand how to spend their income!

One person found this helpful

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