A few months ago, I read about a study indicating that people are happier when they spend money to buy themselves free time (by outsourcing chores) than when they spend the same amount of money on material goods. (The study was widely covered; you can read more about it here, here, and here.) The authors reported that the reduction in time-stress resulting from paying others to perform daily tasks and routine chores led to greater life satisfaction across a wide range of income levels. In other words, even people who are not wealthy benefit emotionally from spending their discretionary money on services rather than goods. Given this information, why am I, like so many people, still cleaning my own house and weeding my own flower beds?
