Some advice for what to do with a sudden cash windfall: Travel, education, or just plain fun. But not more things—they won’t make you happy.
Science shows that if you want to buy happiness, your best bet is to buy experiences not things. Physical objects may last longer than a one-off experience, but that fails to account for what’s known as the Easterlin paradox: We adapt quickly to our current levels of material wealth. We might be happier for a bit if we win the lottery, but in the long run, we’ll go back to however happy or miserable we were before.
