Human are very sensitive to change. When we get a raise or commision, we really enjoy it, but we adapt incredible speed to our new wealth. Some stuydies have shown that in north american, additional income beyond 75k per year cease to impact day to day happiness. In fact people who won a lottery often reported becoming unhappy. They often spend all their money, going into debt and experience ruined social relationship. So surely money can’t really buy happiness.
Recent study suggest that the problem might be in the way we spent our money. Instead of buying things for yourself, try giving it to some other people and see how it feels. Study shows that people who spend their money on others feel happier. And while people who spend it on themselves, don’t necessarily become less happy, their happiness is unchanged. The same principle has been tested on teams and organizations as well. One experiment show that in stead of an organization writing a large cheque to a charity. Deviding the amount among the employees, allowing them to contribute to a charity of their own choosing increase their job satisfaction. Similary individuals who spend monetary incentive on each others as opposed to themselves increase not only job satisfaction but team performance and sale. This has been seen in both sales and sport teams.
Almost everywhere we look in the world, we see that giving money or gifts to others is correlated with happiness. Interstingly the specific way money spent on others isn’t important. From trivial gifts to major charity efforts , spending something on others is the important aspect in increasing your happiness. The emotional reward of pro social spending is even detectable at the neuron level. If