[Book Sip] Spend Money on Experiences, Not Things, to Be Happy

Some sentences encapsulate the entire content of the book itself, while others instantly reach the reader's heart, creating a connection with the book. We introduce such meaningful sentences excerpted from the book. - Editor's note

Are you afraid that you will live your whole life with a depressed and sensitive personality? Or do you expect to become more calm and wise as you age? Are you unable to make important decisions properly because you are swayed by emotions, and do you always worry or rejoice excessively about everything? Do you argue too often with your spouse? If you have been praising your child who lacks confidence, but the child seems to become more intimidated?

What is your current concern? Eighteen world-renowned psychologists from Europe introduce 100 psychological advices that are helpful in everyday life and throughout life.

Researchers have revealed through various experiments that as people age, the influence of individual personality on their emotional experiences becomes minimal. In particular, negative emotions experienced in old age were hardly related to personality traits.

According to psychological research, even if an individual's personality remains unchanged after reaching adulthood, the influence of personality on feeling emotions decreases with age. This means that a person who often felt anxious, nervous, and depressed when young has a good chance of feeling positive emotions more frequently and living a happy and fulfilling life as they grow older.

- From ‘001 Does Personality Last a Lifetime?’

Why do people feel happier when spending money on experiences rather than on expensive goods?

Experiences are part of oneself, so they give important meaning to identity. However, this does not apply simply when owning things. When recalling beautiful memories, those experiences remain a part of oneself, becoming a unique past for each individual. Also, even if others did not directly participate in those experiences, it is possible to share them together through the process of conveying those memories. On the other hand, material possessions do not connect us with others. It is difficult to have an exciting conversation just based on such topics.

- From ‘004 Where to Spend Money? 1: Buying Things vs Traveling’

Staudinger and Baltes viewed that a person's intelligence, social skills, and openness to new things help in gaining wisdom but are not related to age. The problems encountered at each age group are ultimately close to the issue of ‘concentrating or concretizing value systems’ at that time. In other words, the experts on the problems faced by each age group are the groups themselves. This finding supports the developmental psychology hypothesis that the process of knowledge and insight related to wisdom is not ‘accumulative’ but a changeable process. Knowledge accumulated in various areas of life repeatedly changes form. Therefore, sometimes forgetting rather than accumulating can be wisdom.

- From ‘025 Are Older People Wiser?’

Small and Smart Psychology Book | Written by Yana Nikitin & Mari Heneke | Woongjin Knowledge House | 352 pages | 15,500 KRW