Money can help boost happiness

If you have a few extra bucks, consider shopping for happiness.

Gretchen Rubin has written several books on happiness, including “The Happiness Project” and the soon-to-arrive “Outer Order, Inner Calm.”

She helped think through the question of whether you can use discretionary money to buy happiness. Short answer: probably not. But you can definitely spend money to increase it. A lifetimehappiness shopping list might go like this.

• Buy better relationships. “If you’re spending your money to broaden relationships or deepen relationships, that’s a good way to spend your money,” Rubin said. Use discretionary money to attend a college reunion or a friend’s destination wedding.

• Buy experiences — and some things. “What I find is often the line between experiences and things is not that clear,” Rubin said. A bicycle can provide an experience, and a new camera can preserve one. So buy experiences, especially with other people, but also think about buying goods that allow you to have experiences or enhance them.

• Buy solutions. Also known as “throw money at the problem” or “buy back time.” “One thing that makes people happier is to feel they have control over their time and they’re not doing boring chores,” Rubin said. That could mean paying someone else to do yardwork or using a full-service laundry.

• Buy money peace. “One of the greatest luxuries money can buy is the freedom not to think about money,” Rubin said. “And financial security is something that really contributes to people’s happiness.” Paying off debt is a good idea, and building an emergency fund is an especially good one.

• Buy a do-gooder high. Be charitable. “Contributing to others is a great way to support the causes you believe in and put your values into the world,” Rubin said.