Would you like to buy your loved ones happiness for a special occasion this year? Start by striking off all the material goods on the list.Experiences are more likely to make us happy than material goods say professors Michael Norton and Elizabeth Dunn in Happy Money.
Checking your watch at the cash register as you pay RM700 for your purchases, you realise you are running late to meet your family for dinner. When you buy something you like, your brain releases dopamine as part of the dopaminergic reward system. This increases your energy and motivation toward obtaining the item that causes this response.
For attending the charity event, you are doubly rewarded by the altruistic and social centres of the brain. You could conceivably lose money at the blackjack tables at the event, but still, leave happy because the money lost is going to a charity. Buy time: Ask yourself, “How will this purchase change the way I use my time?” advises Professor Norton.