Money can't buy you time

People invariably believe that money can make them happy — and rich people usually do report being happier than the poor.

But if that is the case, shouldn't wealthy people, rather than the poor, spend a lot more time doing enjoyable things?

However, Nobel Prize-winning behavioural economist Daniel Kahneman has found that being wealthy is often a powerful predictor that people spend “less'' time doing pleasurable things and more doing compulsory things that make them feel stressed.

What they found

People who make less than $20,000 (Dh73,458) a year, for example, told Kahneman and his colleagues that they spend more than a third of their time in passive leisure — watching TV, for example.

Those making more than $100,000 (Dh367,290) every year spent less than one fifth of their time in this way — putting their legs up and relaxing.

Rich people spent much more time commuting and engaging in activities that were required as opposed to optional ones.

The richest people spent nearly twice as much time as the poorest in leisure activities that were active, structured and often stressful — shopping, childcare and exercise.

Kahneman and his colleagues argued that many people mistakenly allocate enormous amounts of their time and psychological focus on getting rich because of a mental illusion.

The illusion

When they think about what it would mean to be wealthy, they think about how enjoyable it would be to watch a flat-screen TV set, play lots of sports, go on expensive vacations or be pampered a lot — our stereotypical beliefs of how the rich spend their time.

“In reality,'' Kahneman and his colleagues wrote in a paper they published in the journal Science, “they should think of spending a lot more time working and commuting and a lot less time engaged in passive leisure.''