Spend your way to happiness

If money doesn't make you happy, you probably aren't spending it right.⁠
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At least that is the implication made by UCLA Anderson's Dr. Rakesh Sarin, and his definition of "adaptive goods" vs. "basic goods" in his six laws of happiness.⁠

We have all purchased a shiny new object that gave us a burst of immediate happiness. Maybe it was a new car, a new phone, a new article of clothing, or even a new house.⁠
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Yet months later, that purchase from the past doesn't generate much happiness in the present.⁠
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Why?⁠
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Because our human minds rapidly adapt to the new environment in which these material goods are taken for granted. Their presence is no longer novel, and therefore no longer a source of present-moment happiness.⁠
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How can we use this knowledge to engineer long-term happiness for ourselves?⁠

Assign less of our discretionary spending to "adaptive goods" and more to what Dr. Sarin terms "basic goods"—the non-material needs of the body, heart and mind.⁠

Doing so keeps expectations in check and, therefore, provides a constant and predictable source of happiness.

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