Michael Norton on how smart spending can make you happier

There's an old adage that money can't buy happiness, but there is recent research that says you can...sort of.

Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton conducted social research around the world for their book "Happy Money" and determined that how you spend your money effects your happiness more than how much money you have.

From their piece in The New York Times:

One reason is that our ideas about the relationship between money and happiness are misguided. In research we conducted with a national sample of Americans, people thought that their life satisfaction would double if they made $55,000 instead of $25,000: more than twice as much money, twice as much happiness. But our data showed that people who earned $55,000 were just 9 percent more satisfied than those making $25,000. Nine percent beats zero percent, but it's still kind of a letdown when you were expecting a 100 percent return.

Interestingly, and usefully, it turns out that what we do with our money plays a far more important role than how much money we make. Imagine three people each win $1 million in the lottery. Suppose one person attempts to buy every single thing he has ever wanted; one puts it all in the bank and uses the money only sparingly, for special occasions; and one gives it all to charity. At the end of the year, they all would report an additional $1 million of income. Many of us would follow the first person's strategy, but the latter two winners are likely to get the bigger happiness bang for their buck.

Norton joins The Daily Circuit to talk about their research and how you can find the most happiness with the money you have.