Using the Happiness per Dollar Concept to Re-Design Your Life

If you’re earning (and spending) a decent income, but still aren’t even remotely happy with your life, it might be time for a little life overhaul. I’ve been using the happiness per dollar concept recently to adjust how I spend my money and my time.

The amount of happiness each dollar buys us is wildly inconsistent. Sometimes a small purchase results in a huge happiness boost, and larger ones none at all. Sometimes we delay a large purchase because it seems wasteful or extravagant, even though it would actually bring us a huge amount of happiness.

I’ve been experimenting a little, and in my opinion the key to re-vamping your life lies in honestly answering the following questions.

What Makes You Happy and Why?

This sounds like a simple question, but a lack of clarity around it is at the heart of a lot of wasteful spending. It’s worth really giving some thought to what actually makes you happy, both in the moment and long-term.

It’s also important to know why certain things make you happy, because the emotion or result you’re paying for might be available cheaper elsewhere.

A couple of tricks that might help:

• Keep a happiness log. You can do this via a journal, notes on your phone, or even an app. Keep a record of how you feel throughout your day (and week) and why. Don’t just rely on your brain, because it has no idea what makes you happy. Track your real-time emotions.
• The ‘ideal day’ exercise. Design your idea day, truthfully. Don’t go straight to “I’m sitting on a yacht…”. Think about actual days you’ve had that have left you feeling happy, calm and fulfilled. Then do your ideal week, and maybe your ideal month.

What Does It Cost?

Look at what the things that make you happy cost. Here is where you’ll really work out your happiness per dollar. You may find that the things that bring you true joy are low-cost or even no-cost. Things like walking in nature and swimming in a lake. You may find they’re very expensive. Think things like playing golf, skiing and international travel.

It’s time to re-design your life with that in mind. Draw up a schedule for the next month. Add in lots of any no-cost or low-cost happiness boosters on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, and budget properly for the ones that cost a lot.

Budgeting for your higher-cost happiness boosters is an important step. We all need some fun money, but fun can get out of control quickly. Budgeting for fun makes it much more guilt-free. If it’s in your budget, it’s fine to spend on it.

What Practical Steps Can You Take to Increase Your Happiness Per Dollar?

When I tried this exercise I found there were four main steps I needed to focus on to re-design my life with a much higher happiness per dollar ratio.

Eliminating What Doesn’t Make You Happy

This is a simple one. If you’re spending money on something because you think you should, or it makes other people happy (not including your actual dependents) then you can probably drop that.

Spending on Different Things

I found that I needed to make a few shifts to spend on different things. I recognized the benefit, for example, of outsourcing the chores I hate and using that time on no-cost and low-cost things I love.

Using What You Already Spend On

For me, reading, music, and practicing yoga make me happy, but I have very little time to spend on them. Therefore subscriptions to services that provide unlimited ebooks, music streaming, and yoga classes were technically a waste of money, but only because I wasn’t using them. My life re-design scheduled in time for all these (very low-cost) activities.

Reducing Costs on Expensive Happiness-Boosters

If you love to travel there’s no need to give it up. But your happiness per dollar will be even higher with a little travel hacking. Love those expensive music festivals or yoga retreats? Volunteering at them can bring costs down (and sometimes happiness up). If there’s anything that makes you happy but costs a lot, see if you can keep it in your life, but at a slightly lower cost.

Re-designing your life sounds like a big task. But being both happier and richer is worth the work.

About the Author

Karen Banes is a freelance writer specializing in entrepreneurship, parenting and lifestyle. She writes articles, website content, ebooks and the occasional award winning short story. Her work has appeared in a range of publications both online and off, including The Washington Post, Life Info Magazine, Transitions Abroad, Brave New Traveler, Natural Parenting Group, and Copia Magazine. Learn More About Karen