Study: Happiness Is Experiences, Not Material Gifts

We have the best gift. An experience that will be remembered for a life time.

Don’t buy Her/Him a present that will be forgotten this time next year. Give them an experience they will appreciate and is thought of fondly as time goes by.

If you’re trying to buy happiness, you would be better off putting your money toward a sailing get-away than jewelery or a material object, a new study suggests.

The results show that people’s satisfaction with their life-experience purchases — anything from seeing a movie to going on a lavish vacation — tends to start out high and go up over time. On the other hand, although they might be initially happy with that shiny new iPhone or the latest in Fashion, their satisfaction with these items wanes with time.

The findings, based on eight separate studies, they agree with previous research showing that experience-related buys lead to more happiness for the gift receiver.And if the receiver is happy then the giver will be happy too. Especially if your joining them on the sail ;-}