SwingShoes News - December 18, 2006

By JONATHAN CLEMENTS, The Wall Street Journal

Yes, money can buy happiness. But you have to spend it with care.

Take your dad to the Super Bowl. Buy a home near the office. Get married. Go out to dinner with the family. Take a memorable vacation, and be sure to buy souvenirs.

Where does this advice come from? I talked to half-a-dozen academics who specialize in "happiness research" -- and asked what changes they had made in their own lives.

• Relishing the day. Possibly the biggest obstacle to greater happiness is so-called hedonic adaptation. Sure, you are thrilled when you first get promoted or get a pay raise. But soon enough, the thrill fades and you are lusting after something else.

"When something good happens, you want to find a way to hold on to it for longer," says David Schkade, a management professor at the University of California at San Diego. For instance, you might go out to dinner to celebrate even modest career accomplishments. Similarly, you should purchase souvenirs or take photos when you're on vacation, so you remember the trip for longer.

Prof. Schkade tries to follow his own advice. As an undergraduate, he attended the University of Texas at Austin. When the Longhorns won the national championship in January at the Rose Bowl, he bought T-shirts that marked the occasion, so he wouldn't quickly forget the team's victory.

"You have to combat adaptation," Prof. Schkade says. "You want to celebrate the small things, not just the big ones. If you save all your celebrations for getting married or becoming vice president, you won't celebrate very much."

• Dodging traffic. Studies have found that commuting ranks as one of life's least enjoyable activities. The reason: While folks often adapt to changes in their lives, both good and bad, it's tough to adapt to commuting, because you can never be sure how much traffic you'll hit.

"Lack of control is what tends to induce stress in human beings," notes Andrew Oswald, an economics professor at England's Warwick University. "It made me re-evaluate whether I should be a long-distance commuter." A few years ago, Prof. Oswald moved closer to his office, slashing his commuting time from 60 to 20 minutes.

• Seeing friends. If commuting makes people so unhappy, why do they take jobs or buy homes that will mean a long commute? Folks rely on their initial reaction -- and, at first, the long commute may not seem so bad. "People don't think about how things will play out over time," says Cornell University economics professor Robert Frank.

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