Comments on: Revisiting The Happiness Scale

By: Trent

Trent — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 17:09:08 +0000

Well, my daughter is less than two months old, so my interactions with her are primarily holding her. My son is almost two years old, on the other hand, so my interactions with him are much different and more fulfilling for both of us.

I set “2″ on the scale as being my average day. Why? The scale is about happiness, not sadness. It enables me to do more careful comparisons between things that make me happy.

By: Jim Lippard

Jim Lippard — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 16:18:35 +0000

“Your best days are only a 2 and the time spent with your daughter is not as enjoyable as that spent with your son? That seems so sad and disappointing to me.”

His daughter is still a baby. His son is developing into an interacting, intelligent person. I’m sure his self-ratings of interactions with his daughter will go up as she grows and develops the ability to do interact and engage in speech.

And then those ratings will go down as they enter their teen years…

By: Jim Lippard

Jim Lippard — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 16:16:06 +0000

There are a lot of incorrect inferences being drawn from recent happiness studies, some of which arise from comparing a fixed scale (self-ratings of happiness) to an open-ended scale (how much income does a person make). Will Wilkinson has written an excellent (and very interesting) survey of happiness research and its limitations.

By: Maggie Shaw

Maggie Shaw — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 01:11:21 +0000

I find that my happiest times are at the gym at night. My makeup comes off and I work out my frustrations of the day. Your post did worry me a little bit. Your best days are only a 2 and the time spent with your daughter is not as enjoyable as that spent with your son? That seems so sad and disappointing to me.

By: 60 in 3 - Fitness and Health

60 in 3 - Fitness and Health — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 19:08:48 +0000

My best vacation ever was a recent canoe trip. Total cost was around $300 for 5 days. Previous vacations for a single weekend were up in the $1000’s of dollars but weren’t as much fun. It definitely taught me that money does not equal happiness.

Gal

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:50:45 +0000

I’ve recently become a big fan of happiness economics and how it relates to one’s personal life. I’ve come to similar conclusions. Most “things” don’t provide happiness, “experiences” do. If you spend some time thinking about it you can figure out ways to be happier and spend less all at once! Great combo.

By: Colin

Colin — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:45:56 +0000

I think there are indirect costs no matter what, such as the costs it took to develop the relationship between you and your eventual wife, which also led to childbirth on the basis that you were financially able. The dinners, the drinks, the gifts, whatever else it took throughout the years to make that relationship bud.

Regardless, it’s a great concept to think about, as we all could use a little more happiness in our lives I’m sure. Interesting stuff.

By: Debbie M

Debbie M — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 14:32:13 +0000

I thought there was a whole chapter on this in Your Money or Your Life. Oh well, maybe I’m remembering wrong.

Mitchel, sometimes it’s hard to calculate the time spent. One thing about travel is that I keep enjoying it even after it’s officially over. At the least, I like looking through my photo album. At best, it colors many aspects of my life afterwards.

By: vandana arora

vandana arora — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 05:14:16 +0000

hi, I am new to this site and found your articles extremelty mindblowing.
You always try to focus on small things which we generally ignore in our lives,may be due to work load,stress etc….and these things value a lot much more than money.Spending time and enjoying with our kids makes them feel secure, happy and here saving money by spending time with them,for me its the last thing.

I am from India, me and my hubby,we both are working and we hardly get some time to play with her, my daughter Medha,though somehow we try to manage to give her time,but that is at the end of the day, when we both are tired.I know its a bit difficult for us,but yes that is what she requires.

By: Mitchell Up In Canada

Mitchell Up In Canada — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 05:09:57 +0000

When looking at the value of a discretionary activity in your life you might also consider the time involved. This will give you a way to balance the cost, enjoyment and time commitment involved.

I try to avoid too many activities whose cost per hour of enjoyment is dramatically higher than my real wage (when all time and monetary overhead is factored in.) I call this the LE ratio of the activity. If my real wage is $10 per hour of labour and trips to the Caribbean have a real cost $100 per hour of enjoyment this indicates to me that

A. The enjoyment level needs to be quite high to justify the 10 to 1 hours of labour to hours of enjoyment (LE) ratio.

B. I can’t afford to spend a lot of time engaging in this expensive activity (so the anticipation and good memories need to last a long time.)

As you say, there are many inexpensive activities in life that are just as enjoyable (and often more enjoyable) than more expensive activities. The more of your discretionary time you fill with enjoyable activities that have a low LE ratio the easier you’ll find it to be happy AND financially fit.

Likewise, if a discretionary activity takes up a lot of time (however enjoyable) you need to be realistic about whether you can squeeze it into your life.

In no particular order I enjoy reading, learning new things, gardening, home canning, cooking, travelling, investing, origami, playing cards, cycling, studying the bible, fishing, hiking, paddling, cross country skiing, flying kites, walking, photography, golfing, watching movies, and playing with my kids. Unfortunately I only have 34 hours a week (after eating, sleeping, commuting and working) to do chores and discretionary activities. As a result I can’t fit it all in and have to choose.

So what do I do? I look for activities with a low time commitment to enjoyment (TE) ratio. I also look for activities with ‘multiple streams of enjoyment’ (to poach another financial concept.) A nice example is walking to the library to read an interesting magazine with my kids. That’s four things I enjoy rolled up into one that is virtually free! What more can you ask for?

I enjoy your posts. Thanks.
Mitchell Up In Canada

By: Frugal Bachelor

Frugal Bachelor — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 01:18:20 +0000

Frugal Bachelor is not sure that anything involving children or a spouse is “cost-free”. In the United States studies report that it costs more than $250,000 to raise a child to age 17. Having a spouse can save money if you stay married for a very long time, but if the marriage ends in a divorce it will be extremely costly.

By: Jen

Jen — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 23:24:43 +0000

I’m a little worried that your average day is a 2.

Shouldn’t your average day be a 5, statistically speaking.

Sort of like the average IQ is 100 by definition.

That means most of your days are pretty bad. You should look into getting more happiness out of your life.

By: frugalgirl

frugalgirl — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 23:17:23 +0000

This reminds me of the ideas in the books “Flow” and “Finding Flow” (my favorite of the two) by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi — in which he describes the surprising findings that we’re often happiest and most engaged while doing “work” of some sort or productive hobbies — rather than doing mindless things we think would make us happy. Good stuff.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 23:04:34 +0000

This is SUCH a great thought provoking article. I’m definitely going to keep it in mind when spending money in the future. Thank you!

By: SJean

SJean — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 22:42:53 +0000

Interesting post. A lot of my most happy times in my life do stem from travel and new adventures (not cheap!), though those experiences would be empty without the people who I experience them with.

Of course, there are plenty of other free happy moments

By: KellyB

KellyB — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:13:09 +0000

What a fantastic article! I am new to the site, just found you yesterday, and I am enjoying looking through old articles. Thanks for the info and insight, keep up the great work.

By: louise

louise — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:49:07 +0000

I get a lot of joy out of my work, if most of my days were only 2 on a scale of 1-10 I would have to change things pretty quick thats why I have moved on when I get bored of a job. Work for me is about a 7-8. Life is too short to spend it being miserable and it doesn’t take money to be happy. great post!

By: rstlne

rstlne — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:46:47 +0000

It goes both ways. My happiest times have been very inexpensive at times and not so inexpensive at other times. All I can say is spending an order of magnitude more money does not always bring an order of magnitude more happiness.

By: Jayne

Jayne — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:10:06 +0000

I think this is a great post and so I hope my comment isn’t taken in the wrong way at all. But parts of this post made me laugh, because it reminds me so much of my Dad. He’s always trying to use his analytical skills for things that can’t always be analyzed. Recent example, “Well, if we do x,y, and z- we can have a 5 percent better time.”

By: Susy

Susy — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:57:11 +0000

I get much joy from my morning latte, which then makes the rest of my day better. I also get much satisfaction in saving money and being frugal.

Most of my great moments also revolve around free or very low cost activities.

Great exercise, great way to kick off your month of not spending money on things you don’t need! Keep this in mind all month and it should be easy!